Chicken Police: Into the HIVE!

Sadly, a bit of a cautious recommendation. As somebody who really enjoyed the first game, Into the HIVE! starts off strong. A mix of the same old characters you've come to enjoy and love, in a new conspiracy ripe with twists, turns and interesting new animals to meet. If you've played Zipp's Café, it sets up the scene for this game, and The Wild Gentlemen continue it well. The addition of a splash of colour in this noir world is a welcome surprise. The voice acting is excellent, and the lines while cliché are very appropiate for the setting. Into the HIVE! introduces quite a few new characters, a lot of which have interesting personalities and stories. You can tell a lot of care was put into creating the game. Unfortunately, and this seems to not be an unpopular opinion, the game falls off hard after the end of the third chapter. Many of the story beats that have been set up suddenly make place for a rocky ride towards an ending that I felt was very out of place and left us with more questions than answers. I felt unsatisfied as suddenly most of what we were working towards is swept under the carpet and left unaddressed. It feels rushed, and the lack of polish especially towards the end of the game contributes to that. I ran into quite some spelling mistakes, differences between the voice lines and the written text, and some voice lines missing entirely. If you enjoyed the first game, Paint it RED!, and want more Chicken Police in your life, I would not hesitate to pick it up. The first part of the game was very enjoyable, enough so to forgive the lackluster final stretch.

Call this a SOFT recommendation. In a lot of ways, Into the HIVE tops the standard from Paint it Red. The scope is larger, the stakes are higher, and the dialogue feels sharper. The inventory system has some really clever tricks to it and the occasional minigame is just as fun as ever. The cast of characters are dynamic and loads of fun, and for the first few chapters the intrigue it's setting up is incredible. BTW can I just repeat how much I love these characters? Cassidy Lupus is a particular highlight, along with Zenaida. The story is much more ambitious than the first, weaving an enormous web (get it?) of allegiances and conspiracies that change the story from a relatively tight tale of cops taking down a mobster to one of warring factions and global espionage, putting some serious dramatic beats along the way. Unfortunately, it's that ambition that seems to have hurt the game. Quite a few plot threads are left hanging, not the least of which being the case that Sonny is hired to investigate in the first place. Yes, we "solve" it in the sense that we get all the info, but there's no actual conclusion to it. Things are left on a bit of a cliffhanger and we just move on. A fairly major death happens near the end and we speed through a whole bunch of narrative without any of it getting nearly enough breathing room. It gives the strong impression that time or money ran out and they had to wrap up as much as they could with what they had left so the final stretch might leave you with some whiplash. It's a real shame because the end result isn't that anything in the game is bad, it's that there's not enough of it. A few too many pieces feel like they had to be cut and it hampers the enjoyment. If TWG ever makes a "director's cut" of the game down the line I'll buy it without even a moment's hesitation, but they say the thing you remember most about a story is its ending and this one could definitely leave some people feeling cold. That's why it's a soft recommendation. What's available is excellent, and well worth experiencing, but the way it ends might sully the whole thing for some.

A slightly disappointing sequel to the Chicken police. The narrative of the second half of the game feels kind of rushed and unfinished. There are typos, missing voice lines and mismatches in text. Although I can imagine that finishing this game was a nightmare, The developers should at least have fixed typos by now. I wish there was a neutral option in Steam reviews as the game is not bad, it’s just not living up to high standard the "Paint it Red" set.

I absokutely HATE giving this a thumbs down because I loved the first game and this one seemed like it was going to be so good, but maybe I’ll get to change it at some point. In one of their updates they said they fixed a bug in the graveyard glass puzzle, however it’s still occurring for me, and because of it I can’t progress in the game at all. I can rotate the piece, but I can’t move it anywhere to complete the puzzle. I’ve tried reloading the game, restarting my Steam deck, and made sure my game is fully up to date, but I’m only a few hours in and can’t make any progress because of this. It’s incredibly frustrating considering how long I’ve been waiting for this to come out. If anyone can help, I’d love to change this to a positive review.

Chicken Police: Into the HIVE! Is a pretty good game! Although they dont always follow the text and there are typos but i still find it pretty good! The art when in color looks very realistic! 9/10

You like the first one? You most surely like this one too. Now, you may read all other reviews talking mostly bad things about the ending already. True, the ending got a FEW Blunders. For moments, the game is better than the first game, and some other partes, is worst. Still, recommended, voice acting and the whole noir vibes is 10 10 No human being will tell you otherwise