Fashion Police Squad – EXP OPs

Experience/Opinions – Not quite a review. Not quite a preview. When you jump into a beta and experience something else.

I must admit, Fashion Police Squad was not something I expected to be playing. My idea of fashion is making sure the T-shirt I’m wearing is clean before putting on some sweatpants and carrying on with the day. I do however, have fond memories of classic FPS games from the 90s. Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of the Triad and even Redneck Rampage were games to play between long sessions of Civilisation 2 and Fashion Police Squad wears its inspiration for those ‘old school’ fps games on its very well cut sleeve. Time to suit up and jump in!

The premise of Fashion Police Squad is a simple one to get into, you’re a cop making sure everyone is dressed to success and making the city colourful again. Each firing type for each weapon only works on each specific enemy but the types are limited enough that it eases you into this mechanic like a nicely tailored shirt. It feels very strange to be playing a new FPS that looks so much like a classic game from the era and yet keep the modern improvements. The sprites are chunky and vibrant and the environments look intentionally minimalistic with splashes of flare from time to time. There’s clever use of lighting and effects to give the ghostbuster-like fire mode of your main pistol a powered feel and the design of the Singer sewing machine rapid fire gun is absolutely spot on.

The writing so far in Fashion Police Squad is fun and the cool artwork that accompanies it when characters interact is great. What you’re really going to get a kick out of is the gunplay. The beta/demo for Fashion Police Squad feels like a great 90s FPS, weapons pack a punch, everything is fast and fluid and the action is top tier stuff. This is the beta/demo of the full game and there’s likely to be changes made before the launch next year but what’s playable now is frantic and fun. I found myself regularly remembering old tactics from back in the day and using them to great effect. Dashing around the environment to avoid briefcases and smoke rings and shooting back at every moment.

It wasn’t all sunshine and silk though, there is a fair amount of platforming in the start of Fashion Police Squad and although there is a huge amount of lee-way in how accurate you have to be (especially when whipping your belt to swing between platforms) it’s still a bit of a faff. It’s also strange how this is a single player only story experience, it feels like there’s huge potential for a multiplayer aspect and I was surprised at first this was a beta until the title screen confirmed it was a demo. These are minor complaints thought and for the first 3 levels and boss fight Fashion Police Squad was simply surprisingly superb fun.

The best aspect of Fashion Police Squad at the moment and the reason to really get yourself into your best dressed attire and firing up Steam is the music and sound work. I found myself laughing often and humming the tracks from the demo long after playing. At the time of writing Fashion Police Squad feels like it could be a really good nostalgia trip that nails everything about what made older FPS titles fun while still feeling fresh and new. It’s definitely worth a quick go to see how it fits for you because chances are it’s like a glove.

Fashion Police Squad is due to release 2022.
Wishlist the game on Steam here
Beta code was provided by No More Robots check them out here