CHICKEN POLICE: INTO THE HIVE! review

The Wild Gentlemen's Chicken Police has captured my heart since the first time I saw and played it back in 2020. The evocative noir atmosphere, detective clichés, intriguing story, and, perhaps most importantly, the super-deep lore of its well-designed, anthropomorphized world, left me anxiously waiting for the time when I could revisit it in a sequel. Today on November 7, four years and two days after the release of the first game, that time has finally come: the adventures of the legendary feathered duo of Sonny Featherland and Marty MacChicken continue in Chicken Police: Into the HIVE!

Plot-wise we are 3 years after the events of the first game, and as a result of the Chicken Police's actions in the finale, Ibn Wessler's criminal empire in Clawville has collapsed. But this hasn't had particularly beneficial results - in fact, things have gone from bad to worse, as Wessler's lackeys have split off into smaller gangs that are fighting among themselves across the city, with crime rates skyrocketing. This has naturally affected Clawville's police, who are still trying to recover from a real massacre that took place during a failed raid on a gang hideout that resulted in the deaths of 10 officers and the confinement of Chief Bloodboyle to a wheelchair.

In the midst of all this, tensions are also rising in the Hive, the ghetto where all of Clawville's insects have been enclosed as a result of the infamous Segregation Act. The miserable conditions there are a breeding ground for a number of factions. On one hand, the Golden Fang Clan, the gang of Ibn Wessler's former "lieutenant", has established itself in the area by taking advantage of the absence of any police force. On the other hand, the New Unity Church, a religious denomination that suddenly appeared in Clawville and gained immense power, is active in the Hive offering charity work to the desperate insects.

As for the members of the "Chicken Police"... they are trying to survive in a world where hope is dying day by day. Until one night, an insect approaches Sonny to offer him a new police case that will lead the legendary duo into the Hive (title drop!), and into world-changing events that could affect the fate of the entire continent.

It becomes clear that in Into the HIVE! the stakes are rising. Unlike the story of the first game, which was mostly about events within the Clawville underworld and the personal history of Sonny and the Chicken Police, in the sequel things get quite serious as kings, heads of state, religious leaders, other VIPs, and interstate diplomacy come into play. Of course, this doesn't mean that the more personal factor is lost or that the story of the Chicken Police itself is not delved into further.

The main plot is also a lot darker, compared to the first game, but I won't delve further into that to avoid spoilers - although you'll probably start to understand what it's all about by the finale of the first Act. I should also note that the very existence of the New Unity Church and its presense in the world, combined with the Noir character of the game, brought to my mind during the playthrough similar vibes to the legendary Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon, without obviously meaning that this organization is identical to UAKM's Crusade for Genetic Purity.

However, the truth is that I found the plot development in Into the Hive! to be at least a tiny bit inferior to that of the original. Not to say that it's bad or anything - on the contrary - I just feel that the escalation of events made more sense (and beautifully clichéd Noir vibes) there. I replayed the two games back-to-back to get the exact feel, and that feeling stuck with me quite strongly.

In the original, Sonny (and, through him, the player) became invested in the story due to the brutal murder of a young girl we meet in his office at the beginning of the game, but also through the appearance of a femme fatale who (obviously) made an impression on him and who seemed to have a connection to his ex-wife. In the sequel, his personal investment in the plot comes via a character who is murdered in the game's intro cutscene and about whom we know almost nothing either as a person or in terms of his relationship with Sonny (he also appeared, in a completely different context of course, in the short Zipp's Café spin-off, released last year, which takes place right before Into the HIVE!). Under these circumstances, when for example I saw Sonny saying "my friend is dead" in dialogues, I didn't feel the same gravitas or investment as I did in the original.

It should also be noted that, as in the original, the last act of the game is quite "hit-or-miss". Mainly due to the fact that, amidst the thunderous plot developments in the larger context, the game's ultimate ending sequence ends up being... a lock-picking mini-game and a short dialogue.

In terms of gameplay, you can expect the sequel to be pretty much the same as the original, if only with a slightly more traditional "adventuristic" character, as there's now the option for inventory-based puzzles (combining items) or using items from the inventory directly on characters or other hotspots in the world. Don't expect profound changes in this regard though - the main focus is once again on short mini-games and simply exhausting the dialogue in each location to further develop each plot thread.

There is a slight variation in the Interrogation mini-game as well. Unlike the original, where we had to pick the right questions to reach a positive interaction level and successfully conclude an interrogation, now the respective counter can go both positive and negative, so we can extract information from someone by playing either as a good cop (picking polite and/or to the point questions) or as a bad cop (insulting and talking abruptly to the other person). Needless to say, of course, achieving a completely positive score in interrogations unlocks extra Codex Entries and the corresponding achievements.

Of course, as was the case with the original, I think the main reason to get into Into the HIVE! is the atmosphere and the world more than the gameplay. And in that regard, the sequel is a puzzle piece that blends seamlessly with the first game. The noir aesthetic, the depressing atmosphere in the town of Clawville, the resonance of real-life events and circumstances, the INCREDIBLE VOICE-ACTING (without a doubt among the best works we've seen in a game EVER), the personal drama, the glimmer of hope that seems to shine through but you don't know if it will eventually fade away completely, everything we saw and loved in the original is here.

I wrote above that for the purposes of the review I played the 2 games back-to-back, and I think that's the best way to treat them, as consecutive chapters of an ongoing story. It should also be noted that we're now officially talking about the existence of a larger universe of games in the anthropomorphized World of Wilderness, as, in addition to the Chicken Police games and Zipp's Cafe, MOSES & PLATO: Last Train To Clawville has been announced, a side-story featuring two other Clawville PD detectives that took place before the events of Into the HIVE! (with Moses and Plato appearing as NPCs in the sequel, occasionally coming into conflict with the chickens).

When contemplating Into the HIVE!, I realize that engaging with it feels like being part of this world and reading the new adventures of the Chicken Police in the novels written by Meredith H. Marble. Despite whatever points one might make as to the individual elements of gameplay and story, the truth is that I read this novel in one sitting (average length about 6-7 hours, like the first game), only put it down when the credits rolled, and right after that I re-read it to see what I missed the first time around. But, dammit, I want some cluckin' more!

Go to discussion...