Fashion Police Squad Review — Could have taken a little longer

I try to play every first person shooter that comes out. I feel like they hit the mark more often than not, and I’m glad there’s still so much interest in the genre Half a life mutated a long time ago. The Fashion Police Squad (his initials are FPS, get it?) is visually perfect. And there are plenty of intriguing ideas that are as humorous as they are creative. The game certainly has more to set it apart than most. Unfortunately, it’s also let down at times by uneven difficulty, extremely tight, linear levels, and some design choices that would be better taken from a nearby tailor.

The titular team (which actually appears to be just two people) consists of Des and his partner Haley. They are literally the fashion police, so they appear on the scene whenever people commit fashion crimes. These include tricks such as wearing too many pale colors, wearing ill-fitting clothes, or wearing socks with sandals. But there is something strange about the number of cases they are seeing. Naturally, it’s up to Des to get to the bottom of things and stop the flow of fashion crimes.

It’s a cool setup and has a fair amount of dialogue The Fashion Police Squad. The script is loaded with puns and elicits enough laughs that it’s worth a look. There are a number of really silly plot twists that made me smile, which is a bit different since throwback shooters aren’t known for having much outside of gameplay and level design.

The presentation is simply amazing. The Fashion Police Squad it’s a fairly standard ‘2.5D’ shooter, but the sprites for the weapons and characters are as detailed as they are charming. The levels and enemies are also absolutely packed with personality, making the game a knockout on the presentation front.

Don’t go out like that

In a surprising twist, almost all of them The Fashion Police SquadHis weapons have infinite ammo. They and the game’s enemies are related to the aforementioned fashion crime structure. You start out with a paintball gun that you’ll mainly use to spray paint on dull enemies. Then you get a machine gun that sews the clothes until they fit. There are also small gnomes that act as grenades, a water gun that shrinks clothes, and a BFG-type gun that you get at the end of the game that is very low on ammo.

The shooting and movement controls are exactly what you’d expect from a 90s-style FPS, as they’re honestly hard to mess up. But there are some additions. Most weapons have a secondary fire with a special attack. Des can also use his belt as a melee weapon. It also allows him to swing from certain objects, which either damage or stun depending on the enemy.

What They are are you wearing

There is a lot of variety in the enemy list and they are all extremely different. They range from men in gray suits tossing bags, to women with potato sacks and boys in baggy pants. Everything here is extremely silly, which is quite a departure from the usual dimly lit, wind-soaked shooters we’re used to.

There are 13 main missions in The Fashion Police Squad, three of which are boss battles. The game will take most people roughly five to six hours. It’s quite a bit shorter than most FPS games, but it also doesn’t wear out its welcome or allow itself to get stale. However, the levels here are much more linear than you might expect. It’s mostly a straight shot through the levels, guided by waypoints to make sure you’re always moving forward. Instead of keys, you need scissors to bypass the colored gates. But the game is never about wandering or searching to find your way forward, as the levels tend to lead you back to your objective. I’m not crazy about this style of level design, but at least the pacing is focused and fast.

Silent hardness

The first part of the game pleased me the most. I was impressed and definitely leaning towards giving it an 8.5, especially considering the first part ends with one of the best boss battles I’ve ever seen in a retro shooter. But unfortunately things start to get as awkward as a jacket that’s too big. The Fashion Police Squad it has a very nice difficulty curve up to this point, as it mostly makes sure you’re happy with the mechanics as it offers new speeds. But it doesn’t take long for the game to deliver a healthy amount of frustration.

One of the biggest problems with the game is the way damage to enemies works. Specific weapons should be used for specific enemies. It is necessary to constantly switch between weapons during combat encounters. The Fashion Police Squad it’s not that hard, but it gets cheap and tedious in equal measure. Whenever a large group of different types of enemies appear, it means that you have to use a single weapon to choose the most threatening one, while avoiding attacks from their friends.

But there are many times when it feels impossible to avoid injury. The game introduces an enemy that uses fire in the middle of the road. It can summon fire right below you, even if they’re so far away that you have no idea they’re around. Of course, this is compounded by the fact that you have to deal with individual types one at a time. If that was all, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. However, The Fashion Police Squad‘s battle arenas are often small and it becomes a chore to maneuver around them. There just isn’t enough room.

leave me alone

The first level after the second boss has you dealing with enemies in a subway station while jumping over electrified railroad tracks. You have to use the water gun to spray the floor to get across the rails while dealing with multiple enemies hitting you while the fire enemy sets that little ground that isn’t electrified on fire. These sections are horrible and are something that will keep me from playing the game again.

Unfortunately, The Fashion Police Squad brings up these types of situations from time to time. Another level has you fighting hordes of enemies on narrow rooftops. Belly crawling enemies threaten to knock you off the roof, while two other types of enemies shoot at you with nowhere to run. You have a charged super attack that gives you about 20 seconds of invulnerability, and the ability to teleport to enemies and knock them out with a melee attack. But it takes so long to load that you can only really use it once per level. There are even dates that seem designed with you using your super in mind. If you use it beforehand, you can make your life much more difficult. The BFG gun also gives you so little ammo that you can almost never use it before the final boss fight.

I just got really hard playing this game. There’s also an enemy with an area buff that hurts you if you’re within its range if you don’t take it out fast enough. In certain situations, there is nowhere to stand that will prevent you from taking damage. The gnome grenade is particularly controversial because you only use it on two enemies and it’s kind of hard. Finally, The Fashion Police Squad trots out platforming sections like Life sentencebut they require so much precision that also it got on my nerves. First person platforming is something that almost never works well since the player can’t see where they are landing.

Almost, but not quite

The final boss battle at the end of the game is clever, but it can’t compete with the second one’s level of fun and quality. It’s pretty good for most of its duration, but, again, the final section gives way to extreme fatigue as you spend minutes dodging the boss only to wait and wait for a chance to attack. Herein lies the problem The Fashion Police SquadDesign philosophy: It’s more interested in being difficult than being fun, but instead of being difficult, it’s consistently annoying.

I wish the game had quick saves instead of checkpoints, as many of said checkpoints force you to redo encounters too often. It’s a real shame because the concepts, general gameplay ideas and visuals are all so good. But they can’t change the fact that I felt like I had to get through the game’s unpleasant second half, even if the two sniping sequences and the car chase level focus on fun over tedium and remind me how awesome it can be. it was this game. have been.