Fashion Police Squad is the most stylish boomer shooter to hit the PC in decades!
Fashion Police Squad from developer Mopeful Games looks stylish on the surface, but like a good suit the devil is in the stitching, and the stitching here is top notch. This is one of the most unique FPS titles to drop in ages and a refreshing change of pace in terms of action and story.
You play as a member of the Fashion Police Squad and it’s your job to bring style back to the streets with your tailor-inspired weaponry. Shotguns blast color, machine guns shoot stitches, grenades blast socks off, and so on. Instead of killing anyone you are instead tasked with fixing their drab and dated styles before the whole town falls to bad fashion. But it’s not as easy as it seems as each enemy will require a specific weapon or technique to save from their fashion crimes. This means you’ll be running, gunning, and switching between weapons on the fly.
This combat system makes for a franticly fun experience that always keeps you on your toes and the weapons are a blast to see and use. Movement is smooth and the controls are tight and responsive. Whether you are running, gunning, or jumping, the game nails it in every regard. For most games that would be enough, but Fashion Police Squad cranks things up a notch by implementing a Spider-Man inspired swinging system that is better than some official Spider-Man games of old. Flying across stages is a breeze and the momentum that you build gives you some serious hangtime. What initially comes of as a gimmick quickly turns into some , no, scratch that, the most fun movement mechanic in a FPS in decades.
While the game isn’t a fully loaded experience like its AAA counterparts, Fashion Police Squad has a few small things to keep things interesting. There are a number of old school secret areas for those who love to explore (as a Wolf 3D and DOOM fan that right in my wheelhouse) and a number of powerups to help boost you as you play. You can collect these and they are the main way to keep you alive as ammo isn’t a concern here. There is also a clothing system (duh) that lets you outfit your character in-between stages with what you collect. Each piece of clothing offers some sort of buff on top of the slick new look.
Add in a bunch of fun boss battles that test the skills that you’ve learned along the way and you have one of the most refreshing retro boomer shooters in ages. That said Fashion Police Squad isn’t without it’s own issues. Level design can oftentimes feel lacking with a lot of reused elements that can make stages feel smaller than they might be. The balancing in the game can be quite all over the place as well as some stages are a breeze while others ramping things up to an extreme amount seemingly at random. And there are a few bugs that impact gameplay, especially during the swinging segments that can leave you lost and/or dying with no fault of you own.
Still, don’t let some nagging issues that can be addressed with a patch or two stop you from taking the leap into one of the most unique first-person shooters to release in ages. This is a special sort of game where to can not only see but feel the passion behind it. Just when I start to push away from the video game world with so many titles built in boardrooms and focus groups, the indie space shows that unique games are alive and well. Support this amazing team and swing into some high-end fashion fun with Fashion Police Squad, now available on Steam at the very trendy price of $19.99.
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