Squirrel with a Gun – PS5 Review

Squirrel with a Gun by Deedee Creations and published by Maximum Entertainment is pretty much what you might expect from the title. Quite literally a squirrel with a gun. In effect, it’s an Unreal Engine 5 physics sandbox with you running around making a nuisance of yourself. Think Untitled Goose Game levels of nuisance with Goat Simulator silly physics and you’d be on the right track. Then there’s the incongruity of a tiny squirrel holding a massive hand cannon, so it’s fair to conclude that Squirrel with a Gun doesn’t take itself particularly seriously.

As you might expect the main appeal for many, ourselves included, is the titular squirrel and his japes with a gun. Though not just a gun. As you run around in the sandbox, initially by finding your way into a secret lab populated by lots of Agent Smith off that Matrix types, you’ll find lots more weapons besides.

As well as basic pistols, you’ll be able to wield all sorts of firearms including grenade launchers. When you engage a hostile, if you do a little damage to begin with, say with a pistol headshot, you’ll stun them and can tap for an amusing finishing move. Each weapon has a unique animation, plus there’s a trophy for using the finisher with each weapon.

Your progress is gated by two forms of currency, primarily standard acorns that also replenish your health and secondly, golden acorns that you get for fulfilling objectives. There’s a loose plot of sorts, first your obsession with acorns lands you in hot water with the agency, leading to a face-off against Father, the first boss. Subsequently you’ll face Mother too, though no Weyland-Yutani connection here.

Each area has an abundance of collectibles, the aforementioned golden acorns, ammo reload power-ups, items of clothing and photo filters. By climbing a flagpole in an area, you can see what items are in a particular sector and its down to you to work out how to reach them. Some are simple obstacles to climb up and retrieve, though others require a little more lateral thinking or experimentation. Some clothing items are cosmetic, yet others serve a useful function such as the bomb disposal suit that makes you immune to landmine explosions.

Traversal with the squirrel itself is fairly straightforward, only really becoming an issue when you try some of the occasional platforming gauntlets. You’ll try to jump from one tree to another for example, only you’ll end up grazing the tree you’re landing on and fall down to the ground. This is particularly galling when you have to go back and do a jump sequence again.

You can also gain extra height by firing your weapon, from a slight height gain with a pistol, or in the case of the more pyrotechnic weapons, rather higher. But just as in Quake, you’ll take splash damage if you use those options.

As well as jumping, you can drive a remote-controlled car, think Gizmo from Gremlins tearing around in the Barbie car and you’ll be on the right track. Only it’s twitchy as hell and hard to drive. Given it is pivotal in securing several acorns, you’ll grow weary on occasion.

Let’s be honest, you’re not playing Squirrel with a Gun if you’re expecting a deep engaging storyline. You’re expecting daftness and it certainly delivers. Players approaching this expecting it to be a massively polished experience will have their preconceptions dashed, but to be honest, they’d be idiots for doing so.

Yes, the physics engine can be glitchy at times and agents will clip through scenery on occasion, but if you harken back to Goat Simulator that glitched like mad sometimes too. There’s an undoubtedly janky quality from Squirrel with a Gun but it’d be churlish for us to mark it down for that. It comes with the territory. For what is a daft gimmick, SwaG does well to flesh it out.

Just as with another recent game we reviewed, Parcel Corps, this doesn’t lend itself to mammoth sessions. Instead, very much being a game to dip in and out of. If you play it for a long time you’ll likely see all there is to see in less than ten hours, but the jankiness we mentioned can get a bit wearing sometimes.

Thankfully, as well as autosaves, you can manually save at one of the strategically placed birdfeeders. These also have the added bonus of throwing out a load of acorns which can be a handy bump if your health is low, though it also has the disadvantage of respawning the enemies you’ve seen already seen off. We guess that’s a counterpoint to stop you save spamming too much. That said, the only real penalty to dying is a small hit to your standard acorn count. The only barriers you’ll be likely to hit are for gold acorns anyway, so that’s no biggie.

In conclusion, Squirrel with a Gun is daft as a brush, but none the worse for it. Don’t be expecting a massive blockbuster and you’ll have a blast. Yes, it’s janky, yes, it’s shallow, but it is a lot of fun. Just don’t go playing it for hours, it’s very much a game best snacked on. Think of it more as a confection to be tried once in a while rather than gorging yourself.