Squirrels are pretty amazing creatures as any of the hundreds of YouTube videos showing them doing everything from solving backyard mazes to reach a stash of peanuts, to just bellying up to a bar of food and treats that someone put out in the woods for them near a webcam depict. They are at the top of the cuteness scale when it comes to rodents and pretty interesting to watch most of the time. So, it’s no surprise that adding them to a shooter game and letting them do some pretty deadly and out-of-character feats would be a popular paring.
That is exactly what Squirrel With a Gun does. And while it’s not the most technically advanced or best-looking shooter out there, the core concept is so crazy and fun to play that it’s easy to forgive many of its flaws as you are running and gunning through a pretty wildly designed small town.
We have seen combat-oriented rodents before with the most popular one in video games being Conker, a red squirrel with a foul mouth and plenty of attitude. But we have not seen Conker much since about 2005 when Conker: Live and Reloaded was released. So, it’s time for a brand new rodent hero to rise up and take the video game shooter crown. But unlike Conker, the hero (or maybe anti-hero) of Squirrel With a Gun is more like a normal gray squirrel. He does not talk other than to squeak in joy when obtaining golden acorns or completing objectives. He’s just a gray squirrel who has figured out how to use firearms and decided to go on a rampage against generic government agents who are protecting those acorns that our hero so desires.
In fact, at the start of the adventure, the squirrel that players control is just a normal rodent. He breaks into a top secret lab because he sees what he thinks is a golden acorn inside the facility, but which is really some kind of computer (maybe, it’s hard to say). After the squirrel obtains the computer thing by eating it, an agent rushes into the room to respond to the security alert but trips on the jagged floor and drops his pistol. The squirrel looks at the pistol and begins to realize all that he could do if he used it. Whether or not the computer he ate is giving him superpowers is an open question, but the end result is that squirrel grabs the gun and starts shooting.
The combat in Squirrel With a Gun is pretty forgiving. Enemies tend to get stunned after a few hits, which opens them up to a closing shot where the squirrel can dash in and perform a theatrical kill move that is unique depending on which weapon is being used. The enemies are not particularly good shots themselves, so as long as you keep moving you won’t get hit that much at all. Also, their bullets do very low damage, so it will take quite a few hits to put you down. Plus, you can heal by eating acorns which are pretty much everywhere in the game and also dropped by fallen enemies. The fact that the combat is forgiving is good because there are no difficulty settings, but as it stands, everyone should be able to play the title and become competent with practice. Even the boss battles are pretty balanced and fair, especially once you figure out whatever tricks are required to make each of those unique combats a bit easier.
One of the best features in Squirrel With a Gun is its semi-open world. Once you leave that initial lab, you are dropped into a neighborhood filled with both government agents and people just going about their business. You are free to explore the many houses, businesses and other places all around the town, although some areas are blocked until certain conditions are met. There is no real goal presented to you, however, weapon upgrades and even a car you can unlock are secured behind forcefields that each require gathering so many rare golden acorns and spending a certain number of normal acorns. In a cut scene, the squirrel is seen window shopping at the forcefield protecting a little sports car, so it’s clear that his goal is to unlock those sweet wheels – which is as good a goal as anything.
The world is well crafted, with hundreds of little secret areas or hidden features that you can discover. And most places have more than one way to infiltrate them too, which makes for a nice additional challenge. For example, if the main door to a house is locked, you might be able to slip into the crawlspace underneath the porch and then enter the building through the toilet. You can also shoot out a window and leap in that way, use your machinegun to “fly” up to the roof and find a hole up there or you can simply use a grenade launcher to pop that stubborn door open once and for all.
It’s also pretty easy to figure out where the golden acorns are hidden because your squirrel can climb to the top of flagpoles to get some intel. When you do that, you not only replace the agent’s flag with one of your own but are also shown exactly where all the loot is hidden in nearby buildings. You may still have to figure out how to get to it but are given a pretty good idea of where to start looking and what might be required.
The most challenging part of Squirrel With a Gun, at least for me, was the platforming. I used a controller plugged into my PC using Steam, and that made things a bit easier. But there are quite a few places where precise timing and jumps are required, so if you find that kind of thing difficult, then you could get frustrated. If your squirrel dies, you only lose a few of your collected nuts as a penalty, although you might have to restart exploring a significant part of that level or structure. I am not very good at platforming. Although I struggled in places, I never hit an impossible wall that I could not eventually overcome. Most people will probably be able to do it a lot better. In any case, the platforming should not lock anyone out of the fun despite its difficulty.
The graphics for Squirrel With a Gun are its weakest point, but even so, they are not too bad. The world reminds me a lot of the towns found in PlayStation 3 titles or maybe Grand Theft Auto Vice City and San Andreas. It’s not bad, just generic with people having a kind of blank and soulless look about them. Then again, maybe that is how squirrels see humans or something. In any case, it does not detract from the fun gameplay, but this was not made with the Unreal Engine 5 or anything like that. Squirrel With a Gun does have a lot of visual charm however, with many little extras such as being able to dress up your squirrel in things like cowboy hats or tuxedos that you unlock along the way.
Squirrel With a Gun offers a lot of entertainment. It’s really quite a joy to play because you can just enjoy the silliness of it and let your squirrel run wild. More than once, I found myself planning to play for 30 minutes or so but ended up not stopping until hours later. If you are looking for a violent yet whimsical title where you can kind of turn off your brain and just revel in the fun of it, then take a shot on Squirrel With a Gun. It’s currently available on the Steam platform and at the Epic Games Store, and it is scheduled to release for consoles in October.