If you’ve been around here at my most active times (which has been a while now, hoping this will get better now that I’m getting accustomed to my new role. ) you’d probably surmise that some games that fly under the radar don’t necessarily fly under mine. And that’s a good thing. Because when a good one does come along it should be seen by as many people as possible. That isn’t to say I have very much reach. But sometimes that means I’m one of the few people who might bring it up.
One such game is Fashion Police Squad. It’s fantastic. Or as I’ve heard fashionistas say, it’s fabulous. That might have come off as corny. Because it was. But it doesn’t change the fact that F.P.S. (which is an FPS. And it might just give you a lot of FPS. Well, depending on your hardware specifications) Is an original take on a familiar formula. One that on paper may seem like a joke that will tire quickly, but it never does.
PROS: Terrific controls. Dad jokes. Audiovisual feedback. Level design. Character design.
CONS: Not much new stuff to do once you clear the campaign.
INTROS: Each enemy type gets one and they are comedy gold.
As you can see by the screenshots, Fashion Police Squad is a shooter themed after well, fashion policing. Instead of shooting at violent criminals, drug dealers, and rapists the likes of NARC would have sent you after, you’ll be going after people who can’t dress for success. Or properly. At all. The game also blends modern linear-level design with some old-school combat. All under the visual trappings of old MS-DOS shooters like Wolfenstein-3D and Blake Stone Aliens Of Gold.
The game starts you off with an initial tutorial mission. Which gives you the basic idea of the general gameplay loop. You’ll be introduced to an enemy (which involves a hilarious anime-inspired quick cutscene) and you’ll have to take them out. Over the course of the campaign, you’ll find every enemy type gets one. All of which are great and truly funny.
I’d wanted to get to this one a while ago because of just how fun this game is. The weapon selection is interesting as it gives you guns that are made from textile equipment or beauty products. One weapon is called the 2 Dye For, and it’s basically a blow dryer that shoots or drains colored dyes. It’s kind of similar to how Nintendo’s Splatoon games make weapons out of water guns, painting tools, hoses, and buckets. But as this is a single-player affair, they’ve made each weapon most effective against different enemy types.
And there are many, many, MANY enemies the game throws at you over the course of several missions. You’ll find low-level businessmen in drab, colorless suits chucking briefcases at you one moment, while dudebros on battery-powered scooters in brightly colored tanktops bum rush you. There are German tourists wearing socks with sandals. There are creepy subway flashers with heavy English accents. There are a lot of other enemies beyond these. And again, each of them will require a different weapon or firing mode to defeat.
Each of the game’s weapons will give you a couple of firing modes. Between these modes and the weapons themselves, you’ll constantly be swapping back, forth, and center. Combat ultimately feels somewhere between DOOM Eternal and Serious Sam as you’re juggling weapon types and attacking enemies. I say between those because there are probably more assailants than in the former but not the insane number of foes you’ll face in the latter.
But, the game also does a few things to keep things feeling fresh. It has a great swinging mechanic where you’ll use a belt like a lasso. Throughout the arenas, you can use your momentum to get to hard-to-reach ledges. You’ll also get to portions of the game where you’ll need to swing over large swaths of hazards or bottomless pits. Beyond that, you’ll find bonus levels that more or less break down into speedrunning events where you’re fighting timers and doing first-person platforming. And there are also a couple of times when you’ll have to be a sharpshooter.
The storyline through the campaign is pretty good for what it is, setting you up for each and every preposterous situation as it lampoons old and new conventions. There are plenty of puns and wordplay throughout the dialogue. And the sound makes a lot of this stuff work. The voice acting for the characters and villains is top-notch and combined with the one-liners and sprite animation makes for some of the funniest stuff in video games. The other sound effects range from what you’d expect to amazing. Weapon sounds provide pretty good feedback so you’ll know when you’re hitting or missing, and things just feel good when you take down some of the tougher enemies.
And don’t let the silliness and cartoon character designs fool you. Fashion Police Squad can be quite challenging in places. Especially near the end, which leads to one of my few complaints about this one. The spikes. There are a couple of stages where the challenge goes from pretty standard to brutal near the third act. If you can persevere you’ll eventually figure out what to do like cheese a certain enemy, or backtrack to an earlier part of a level for that power up.
Throughout the game, you’ll get periods where you can use a Michael Jackson glove and one-shot enemies with pimp slaps. Be sure to make the absolute most of this in the later stages. You’ll also want to be on the lookout for mocktails (Non-alcoholic cocktails) as these regenerate your health. In some spots, these can be pretty scarce.
Some of the more challenging moments you won’t mind so much due to the humor and creativity involved are boss fights. Each of these is pretty great, with different phases. And when you find yourself yelling “Oh come on!” it will partly be not out of frustration but out of the over-the-top tactics they employ to keep the fight going. This results in that tough but fair feeling you really want from such encounters.
Once you clear the game, sadly there’s not much end-game content. You can go through the earlier stages looking to find the hidden bad fashion posters. A lot of these are pretty funny. They portray your character in any number of costumes that are either awful or characters that don’t fit the spirit of your hero. Beyond that, there are a few hidden stages and bonus areas but they don’t really do much to extend the experience. I think most people will finish the campaign and call it a day. However, if you’re the type to replay games every few months or years it is something there for you to rediscover. And obviously, for those who like to 100% complete their games these are side missions you’ll feel the need to finish.
Overall, I can highly recommend Fashion Police Squad. It gives you a very entertaining campaign that feels different from most other contemporary FPS games whether they’re trying to follow the linear, story-driven experiences spearheaded by Half-Life and Call Of Duty eons ago, or they’re going for the retro-inspired designs of indie boomer shooters. It also doesn’t wear out its welcome by giving you too much busywork to artificially get an arbitrary amount of time out of it. Sometimes less is more, and this one doesn’t overdo it. Still, I wouldn’t have minded seeing what they could have done with the concept in terms of a multiplayer mode. Even something as simple as a cooperative mode where you could play through the missions together with greater enemy numbers could have made for some extra replay value.
As it stands though, Fashion Police Squad is pretty great. It’s got great humor, a unique visual look that blends the look of an old 1990s shooter from an early Apogee release and something current like a Fortnite or Overwatch thanks to the cel-shaded look of some of the environments. It’s got engaging gunplay that has a fast, punchy feeling. It’s got a Super Mario World-like overworld map. Most importantly, it’s an enjoyable experience whether you’re a big fan of FPS games or a dabbler.
Final Score: 8 out of 10
Comma Eight Comma One 