GAME REVIEW | Arresting With Style in "Fashion Police Squad"
Demons. Nazis. Rogue agents. All of these are the kinds of foes one would face in a first-person shooter. Yet none of them compare to the vileness and wickedness of the most diabolical of creatures known to humankind: dudes who wear socks with sandals! Fortunately, a new first-person shooter is heading down the catwalk, and manages to do a terrific turn with swagger. Welcome to the world of Fashion Police Squad!
A retro-styled FPS developed by Mopeful Games, Fashion Police Squad has you taking down villains commiting crime against sexy! From dull businessmen and potato-sacked Karens to corporate cronies taking clothing cues from David Byrne, Sergeant Des’s mission is to slap some fashionable sense into these Wal-Mart-shopping abominations. With a plethora of weapons like paintballs to sock-stealing gnomes (yes, you read that right!), your goal to bring style back to your turf will be only slightly easier. You also have a belt to temporary stun foes, as well as break grates and swing from high places.
At first, the shootouts and fights seem a little too easy, as if Mopeful Games wanted to trick its players into thinking this was a simple parody of a beloved genre. However, soon after the very first level starts, the challenge begins to rise. What was an easy-looking enemy at fist becomes a crazy race to stay alive, as swarms of businessmen, shiny Segway drivers, and tourists whose footwear choice is incredibly disgusting! Fashion Police Squad is hard, but so is keeping up with clothing trends!
Of course, comedy is the prime element of this FPS, as one will both be laughing and screaming at the villains you’ll come across. Watching as Karens pepper spray you while demanding to see a manager is pretty funny, as is the sight of a flasher whose lack of clothing results in some deadly beams of light. The game is also pack filled with tributes and homages and other FPSes alike, ranging from The Wolf of Wall Street to Duke Nukem, with each gag more surprising than the last. Perhaps the most humorous of running jokes involves a mysterious trench-coated “informant”, whose shady ways contradict with his slick fashion sense.
Using your weapons will require a lot of different strategies. Sometimes it’ll be a situation that requires simple shooting; other times, you’ll need to get your enemies wet. But it’s when the level is swarmed with multiple kinds of enemies, that’s when one will need to be quick with weapon switchery. It can get a little overwhelming at times (in fact, later levels feel almost impossible to beat), to a point where it reaches DOOM Eternal levels of challenging.
Thankfully, Fashion Police Squad features a strong control mechanic. Be it with mouse & keyboard or GamePad, aiming and switching your weapons is fairly easy. Pulling up secondary weapons such as beams and bag grenades is also simple, so long as you’re quick with the trigger finger. Perhaps the most fluid and fun mechanic involves your belt, as you can swing from light poles as fluid as Spider-Man himself!
However, the best weapon is saved when you’ve powered your Fab gauge to 100%. With a press of a button, Sergeant Des becoming a slapping king! When in this mode, all one does is aim for an enemy, and Des will run up to them, and slap some fashion sense into the enemy. It’s a fun and funny mechanic that goes all in on the crazy that Fashion Police Squad aims to highlight.
Despite its PG tone, this is a game that’s on-par with many of the FPSes of recent memory. While not hardcore violent like Turbo Overkill or the newer Wolfenstein games, the amount of challenges that Fashion Police Squad throws at you are on the same level as its M-rated counterparts. Not only does it deliver with the laughs, but it also manages to give players one tough fight after another. In fact, it’ll easily surprise hardcore shooter fans who were expecting this to be a half-assed parody.
Although the game will take most 5-6 hours to beat, there’s still plenty of fun to be found in Fashion Police Squad afterwards. Hidden items and secret photos of Sergeant Des in pop culture-influenced outfits can be found with a little snooping. There are also some extra challenges one can complete, which involve defeating enemies with a set amount of rules in place.
PROS:
- Inventive take on first-person shooters
- Very funny villains
- Surprisingly challenging
CONS:
- Some frustrating areas
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Fashion Police Squad is more than a parody or satire; it’s a fantastic twist on the most violent of video game genres. Memorably funny villains, inventive weapons, and some big challenges make Mopeful Games’s FPS nothing to sneeze at. To borrow a phrase from In Living Color, I give Fashion Police Squad two snaps and a twist!
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Mike Rose of No More Robots. Reviewed on the PC via Steam.
