There’s nothing quite like a game by “The Wild Gentlemen”, a developer who has gained a reputation for fantastic narrative forays into detective work, which also just so happen to feature a wonderful bevy of anthro furry characters as the bedrock of the experiences. They create games in this “World of Wilderness” setting where all the cities and politics are inhabited by furries, which also heavily lean into the animalistic traits and interactions that may happen because of their species. I wish more games with animal characters did this, where we get an insight into the societal landscape that would form with predators, prey, insects, and everything in between having to learn to live with (or forcibly without) each other around. Their newest release, titled “Chicken Police: Into the HIVE!” is a sequel to the 2020 game “Chicken Police: Paint it RED!” in which we follow along with two clucking good detectives, Sonny and Marty. These two chickens are anything but, as they venture into the most dangerous of places around the city of Clawville to find the answers to their most dangerous case yet. You won’t soon forget the story and the way it’s told, and “Into the HIVE!” is one of the best narrative games I’ve played, bar none.
Enter the World of Clawville
In Into the HIVE, you play as Sonny, a hard-nosed detective with a rough past and a reputation that precedes him as a member of the famous “Chicken Police.” With his much more peppy and younger partner Marty, who is also facing some troubles at home during the game, the duo sets out to piece together what’s happening down in “The Hive”. The Hive is an area of Clawville that has been sort of “walled off” in a way, and is primarily inhabited by bugs of all types and littered with rival gangs trying to gain power after the events of the first game. It's a downtrodden area that is looked down upon by the other animals in nearby Clawville, and is only a spark away from blowing up in a way that could alter the history of the World of Wilderness forever.
The story takes place in these tenuous times, as your flock of chicken buddies hops around the city trying to douse the flames before it’s too late. You do this by talking to a bevy of characters, pressing them for info and clues by appealing to their various attitudes, tendencies, and desires. It truly feels like you’re navigating one of those big cork boards with pictures and strings tied together as you slowly piece together how various events and actions by characters come back to the same central issues and ringleaders. Each area you visit has little points of interest that you can click on to hear multiple voice lines that provide color to the narrative world, with tons of flavor text and fun background into the history of Clawville and our main character Sonny’s personal thoughts on it all. You can also use inventory items you collect occasionally in various ways, including jogging a suspect’s memory or starting a new line of questioning. It’s also very cool that the world and places you visit feel actively lived in, as new dialogue and characters will change and appear as you proceed in the story and discover more clues. The game does a good job of helping you know where to go, but doesn’t hold your feathered paw too much, so as to allow you to really feel like you’ve got to do the detective work yourself. A few times I’ve had to really dig into the journal they give you to figure out what I needed to do next, whether it was giving an item to the right person or asking the right questions, but I enjoyed the challenge in the end. Throughout the game, new little mechanics are introduced when piecing together evidence, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed these treats of puzzle solving, which is new in this game compared to the last. I’m just now at the final act, and if the first two acts of the game are any indication, I’m in for a wild ride leading up to the climax.
Who’s that Animal?
When you first look at screenshots from the Chicken Police Series, there’s one thing that sticks out more than anything else. Of course, I’m talking about the fact that every character features real-life animal or bug heads, tails, and other appendages on very snazzy human characters in a chic noir style color palette. It’s an incredibly unique and effective storytelling tactic, and the way they use these animal features to add even more emotion to an already engaging story is as amusing as it is engrossing. During dialogue sequences, the characters react to what is said dynamically and include a multitude of custom animations and reactions. Every chance to talk with a new animal, or revisit one we have a history with, felt fresh and interesting, instead of like a chore. There’s so much love poured into everything done with Into the HIVE (and Paint it RED, the first game in the saga) and you can tell it’s a passion project for the entire team. What’s even more incredible is that the sequel includes a “Technicolor” mode that adds vibrant and still fantastically unique noir colors to the usually black and white saturated palette. I played the game with it on and off at various points just to compare, and ended up with the color on because I just had to appreciate the work put into it.
What’s the buzz?
This also includes the sound team, as the entire game is voiced by some of the most perfectly chosen people I’ve heard in a long time. The hardened and worn out voice of Sonny paired next to the strained but persisting words of Marty drive the story and overall vibe, but the cast that fills the world is so vibrant and varied that you find yourself hanging on every dialogue choice, every interrogation, and every new event that happens, because you know you’re in for a level of detail to the craft of voice acting that is hard to reach, but is achieved here. I absolutely adored how the actors are encouraged to lean into their animal personas, and form their voice choices around them. For example, an owl may lean into their long “ooo” sounds, or a raccoon may be a bit skittish in their cadence. A fox could cover themselves in a sleekly veneered tone, or a bug could be a plethora of things, but mainly rough and slightly aware of their lowered status. Just like the rest of the games in the developers’ list of creations, “Chicken Police: Into the HIVE!” is a wonderfully crafted cake with the voice acting being the icing on top that makes it shine.
This isn’t to say that the sound outside of the voice acting is bad, as the velvety noir soundtrack lays over the top of the game like a warm blanket, setting the tone of every environment expertly and laying the groundwork for the art, voice acting, and gameplay to be built on. You can’t go wrong with some jazzy saxophone and mellow piano accompaniments. Throw in a dash of splashy hits during key moments and you’ve got yourself the recipe for a can’t miss detective mystery.
In Conclusion
What more can I say than if you like narrative games, even a smidge, do yourself a favor and play through the Chicken Police series, especially “Into the HIVE!” It’s a dense game with a pretty sizable playtime (more than 10 hours) and you’ll get a heaping serving of story with a side of gameplay. The characters are engaging and grow throughout the game, and you feel like you get to really know a lot about their internal feelings and political inclinations. Plus, this story is part of a bigger world that, if you enjoy, you get to revisit in various ways in the devs' other games. Chicken Police: Into the HIVE! is unlike anything else, and will keep you wrapped within its claws until the end.
Thanks to the developer for a key for unbiased review purposes. Chicken Police: Into the HIVE! is available on Steam
