Chicken Run: Eggstraction [REVIEW] – Fun Feathered Stealth

Man, I’ll always remember LOVING the first Chicken Run movie back when I was a kid, so it’s really nice to be able to re-visit the characters and world in video game form more than twenty-years on. Acting as a follow-up to 2023’s Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Chicken Run: Eggstraction turns the series’ daring escapes into a creative, family-friendly game about planning, sneaking, and saving every last chicken. It’s simple in design but surprisingly satisfying, with enough charm and humour to make up for some of its rough edges.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Following their escapades in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Chicken Run: Eggstraction continues the story of Molly, Rocky, and Frizzle as they take on new missions to help free their fellow hens from captivity. It’s a pretty straightforward concept (and it helps to have seen the Netflix sequel as the game assumes you already know these characters), but it acts as a fun framework for all of the stealth action, with the writing perfectly capturing the warmth and quirky personality of the movie. It’s fun and family-friendly… what more could you want?

When it comes to gameplay, Chicken Run: Eggstraction is a stealth puzzler with short, replayable missions, with each stage playing out from a top-down, isometric view as you navigate factories, farms, and labs packed with traps, security cameras, and robotic guards. The goal is usually to locate captured chickens and guide them safely back to an extraction point, though as you can probably imagine, that’s easier said than done given the aforementioned hazards you have to deal with.

The gameplay loop is straightforward but well-executed, with players having to perform the likes of flicking switches, disabling alarms, or even avoiding robotic dogs, all whilst managing their resources and tools to keep on top of each job. Before each mission, you’ll also choose a leader and a team, with each chicken bringing a unique perk to make things go a little smoother. Between missions, you can spend also buy upgrades and gadgets, giving players a few extra tricks up their sleeve to ensure each escape goes through smoothly. It’s not a deep system (Sam Fisher these chickens are not), but it they’re all fun little extras to utilise and add enough strategy to keep things engaging.

“Chicken Run: Eggstraction is an enjoyable and heartfelt stealth-adventure that captures Aardman’s trademark charm perfectly.”

What Chicken Run: Eggstraction really gets right is its pacing, with levels short, varied, and easy to retry, making it perfect for quick sessions. The stealth is forgiving enough for younger players, but still tense enough to reward careful planning, with a three-star scoring system encouraging perfectionists to refine their runs. New characters unlock as you progress too, giving you reasons to experiment with different combinations to perfect your escape plan (or for younger players to tinker with when they want to play the same levels over and over again… believe me, it happened to me).

I’ve mentioned playing with younger players, and Chicken Run: Eggstraction caters to that with it perfectly with local co-op. Working alongside a partner to distract guards, disable traps, and guide freed chickens to safety captures the co-operative chaos that defines Chicken Run at its best, and playing with my younger daughter, we had a lot of fun – even when things when completely wrong (which actually happened a lot). That being said, the stealth-based nature of the gameplay as well as the camera could also make things a little bit chaotic. There were a lot of times where it was hard to keep track of what was going on, and whilst I could deal with it, I noticed my daughter would get a bit frustrated (and by noticed, I mean that she announced that I was making everything go wrong). In fairness, it works more often than it doesn’t and there’s a lot of fun to be had in co-op, but it has its imperfections that might make life a little harder for some youngsters.

Check out some screenshots down below:

There are some other small problems with the game too, with the camera often making it tough to make things out across some of the busier environments, whilst the controls could be a little bit clunky at times too. Nothing game-breaking by any stretch of the imagination, but just small issues that I picked up on -both when playing solo and in local co-op.

Visually, Chicken Run: Eggstraction carries Aardman’s unmistakable style and it looks lovely in-game. Everything brings with it a sense of colourful familiarity, which will be especially appreciated by younger gamers who want to be part of the world. Everything is wonderfully animated, whilst the cutscenes in particular stand out… the team have done a really good job of perfectly capturing that special Aardman magic and it really helps make for a more authentic experience. Sure, you’d have seen more detailed characters and worlds in other modern titles, but Chicken Run: Eggstraction offers everything it needed to across its aesthetic.

Check out the press kit down below:

I can’t end this review without mentioning the nice little press kit that came along with the game, offering a few little goodies that my daughter had a lot of fun with. She’s happily used the postcards to write small messages for the family, whilst the popcorn went down a treat when playing. Her favourite part, though? The colourful eggs, which weren’t only fitting for the experience, but that she also had to warm up to get the code for the game. I’m not normally into press kits, but she’s played through a couple of these sorts of games with me to review now, and it was a real treat for her that there was some goodies to go along with it. Thanks to the team at Swipe Right for sending it over!

Developer: Aardman Animations
Publisher: Outright Games
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Website: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/concept/10014769