Chicken Police

Chicken Police is set in an alternate world populated by anthropomorphic animals that are generally depicted as humans with animal heads. Players control Sonny Featherland, a burnt-out cop with the head of a rooster. Sonny was formerly a celebrated hero but has become an alcoholic and is estranged from his former partner, Marty MacChicken. After being approached by a distraught woman, Sonny reunites with Marty to solve one last case before his retirement. The game is a point-and-click adventure game styled after 1940s film noir.[1] Most of the game is in a stylistic monochrome, but colors are used sparingly for emphasis.[2] Players look for clues, interview suspects, and eventually perform interrogations. When interrogating a suspect, a minigame determines their success. After being informed of personality quirks, players attempt to find a line of questioning that will exploit that suspect's personality.[1] Poorly-chosen lines of interrogation can close off dialogue options and reduce how much of the story's background players learn, but this does not put the game in an unwinnable state.[2]

The premise was inspired by a YouTube video in which two chickens appear to break up a fight between rabbits.[3] To create the characters, The Wild Gentlemen started with human models in a studio and used Adobe Photoshop to change the heads to animals. Initially, the animal heads came from stock photography, but the developers found the images could be made more realistic-looking by taking their own photographs at wildlife parks and zoos. Some details were hand-drawn, and they made accessories, such as Bubo the owl's glasses, from scratch.[4] The resulting images were then broken into textures and animated in Unity.[5] Both classic adventure games and films noir were influences on the game. The relationship between the two cops is influenced by buddy cop films.[6][7] The team often worked remotely and were spread across multiple countries.[8]

Chicken Police was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One in November 2020. It was ported to iOS and Android in June 2021.[9]

Laura Cress of Adventure Gamers praised the game's voice acting, graphics, and story, though she said it has "too many unnecessary mini-games".[1] Hardcore Gamer's reviewer, Chris Shive, similarly criticized the minigames while praising the noir atmosphere.[14] Writing for Nintendo Life, Stuart Gipp called it "a polished, captivating experience" and said it was one of the best adventure games on the Switch.[15] Luke Kemp of PC Gamer called it "one of the most surreal experiences of my life" and praised the writing and acting.[2] Caitlin Argyros wrote in her review for RPGfan that the mystery has an "abrupt and not quite satisfying" conclusion, but she enjoyed the writing nonetheless.[16] Christopher Byrd wrote in The Washington Post, "In my tiny pantheon of visual novel/adventure games, Chicken Police - Paint it Red has a spot."[17]

• Official website