The animal simulator sub-genre continues to generate a buzz, along with surprisingly high sales figures, with numerous sandbox games centred around specific creatures available. These titles aren’t as random as they may initially seem, as there needs to be a sturdy foundation to build upon. Developer Dee Dee Creations has settled on the formula of a cute yet mischievous squirrel – who can also carry realistic firearms, ergo engage in shootouts. It’s a fun and enticing set-up – indeed, early footage went viral on social media – but like so many other similar games, it’s one that also faces the risk of its quirky premise wearing thin.
A secret facility provides the backdrop for the tutorial, with our plucky squirrel tasked with escaping while being pursued by gun-toting, shade wearing, agents. This frenzied escape leads us to an oddly barren suburban area, with a few houses and other locations scattered around. This is the game’s gradually expanding sandbox, with the goal being to collect enough golden acorns to unlock a squirrel-sized vehicle that’ll give access to the next location, with ensuing sandboxes also cleverly working new vehicles sections into their objectives and designs. The story pretty much ends here though, with just a few boss fights to progress things.
A small amount of time is spent showing how NPCs can be interacted with. Some will stop and take photos with their camera phones – which can be stolen, prompting random squirrel facts to appear on screen – while others stare adorningly. Pointing a firearm will prompt NPCs to drop stashes of nuts, which are used to unlock items and are occasionally needed to progress. It’s also possible to climb onto NPCs…before snapping their necks. What a mischievous critter!
Firearms feel meaty, with the shotgun in particular blessed with comical kickback. Weapons have limited ammo however, and as only one item can be carried at once, you’ll often need to leave pistols et al behind to focus on a mission or to climb poles. It pays to keep a mental note of where items were dropped, as they may be needed later. This is harder than it sounds as it isn’t long until locations become filled with wreckage left in your wake. Enemy AI doesn’t fare too well either, sometimes slow to react and other times not even moving from their spawn points.
The game’s structure can, more or less, be traced back to Super Mario 64. Upon entering a property, you’re shown a small checklist of items to find – golden acorns, camera filters, new outfits, and more. Alternatively, climbing the nearest flagpole will also provide a more detailed breakdown of items to grab, with golden acorn missions having cryptic names relating to the means of unlocking them. There’s a good mix of shooting, puzzle solving, vehicle sections, platforming, and lateral thinking that sometimes relies on the physics engine to behave.
Being a physics-based sandbox, everyone’s experience will vary slightly. My time was mostly marred by mild frustration, with missions often never as straightforward as they should be. One quest involves helping a citizen with their BBQ, essentially tasking you with incinerating burger patties by any means possible. After lobbing a grenade at a gas cylinder, said patties were sent airborne and into neighbouring yards…prompting a painstaking amount of searching. Another mission sees the squirrel on a football field, facing off against a full team while trying to reach the end zone with the ball. It’s a fun premise for a snappy mission, but that enjoyment was brought down a notch by the player’s helmets glitching through their bodies, giving the experience (as a whole) a rough feel.
There’s a Wild West shootout here too, which while functionally serviceable – tables can even be knocked over for cover – a glitch occurred where beer bottles constantly regenerated, to the point where the framerate hit single digits. It’s not much of a surprise that it’s recommended to make multiple save points should something unexpected occur to make a mission unfinishable.
There is some fun to be had here – and it certainly goes to great lengths to provide a suitably silly experience, with some outfits raising a grin – but ultimately, this is another sandbox adventure that forces you to bear in mind that the physics engine can and may have a meltdown, potentially halting progress until you reload a past save. Chances are you’ll also notice other irritations, such as broken windows (building entry points) restoring themselves, or mission items vanishing or relocating. The game world is inconsistently designed too. I can understand why the developer didn’t want to commit to a bustling city, but the suburban area presented is patchy, with numerous empty lots and featureless streets. A later area focuses more on verticality, offering a tighter experience, but feels far less open.
In the game’s defence, I never faced any crashes or game breaking bugs. It’s much sturdier than Goat Simulator in that regard. It can even be moderately clever with its humour and mission objectives, but it also feels a little half-hearted and flimsy despite the occasionally dazzling Unreal Engine 5 powered visuals. Upon entering a new area, I found myself charting how much potential there is for stuff to go wrong – having learned a lesson with the burger patty incident – rather than charting the potential for mischief.
Younger gamers with a high level of tolerance for games based around wobbly ragdoll physics will probably get a few chuckles out of this during the 4-5 hours the campaign lasts (indeed, it doesn’t overstay its welcome) but with a paper-thin storyline and basic combat, anyone choosing to ignore this nutty adventure won’t be missing much.
Dee Dee Creations’ Squirrel with a Gun is out now on PS5, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and PC. Published by Maximum Entertainment.