I like it when you know exactly what a game is all about from the title. Final Fantasy? Bullshit, there’s a million of the damn things. Dark Souls? What is this? Some kind of dark exploration of a fallen world and its impact on the human soul? Sounds dumb. Squirrel with a Gun? I see a squirrel. I see a gun. Magnificent.
Squirrel with a Gun
Developer: Dee Dee Creations
Price: $20
Platform: PC (reviewed), Xbox, PlayStation (consoles – Oct 15th)
MonsterVine was supplied with Steam code for review
Squirrel with a Gun is exactly what the title promises, no more and no less. It’s a game where a squirrel has acquired a gun and runs around shooting the hell out of things. There’s no overarching narrative about man’s inhumanity to man or, were we talking indie games, a sad man with a beard’s feelings about his childhood and dad.
This one is about the government trying to stop a squirrel from shooting things, exercising his God-given Second Amendment rights just like the rest of us. Let’s go with Goat Simulator-alike: it’s wonky, it’s janky, and you’re a deranged animal screwing with people and causing explosions.
The controls are loose and kind of wonky, which is to say you’ll be kinda sliding all over the place and whiffing on jumps all the time, even if you must lower yourself to using a controller (and I must) to get a grip on things. On the other hand, you’re a squirrel and those little guys are twitchy as hell. We can call it realism. The tutorials are also a little shaky and not especially informative. There’s a lot of futzing around to figure out the controls. On the other hand, there’s not a lot to the controls. Jump, grab stuff, shoot, run around like a maniac, be a squirrel.
Squirrel with a Gun is a sandbox game so there’s not really a lot in terms of scripted gameplay and story and such. How much do you dig the idea of a squirrel having a gun? How long do you think that joke is funny? Because that’s pretty much the whole thing right there, that and the Men in Black types trying to stop you. You are a squirrel, you have a gun, you run around robbing people for acorns, jumping on and off things, dealing with bonkers puzzles and wonky controls, and falling down a lot.
There are some boss fights to change up the pace, but they aren’t especially challenging, which is to say they’re mainly “make the health bar go down.” I mean, in a meta sense, that’s every boss fight, but it’s not all that dressed up. The crux of the story is, as stated, you have acquired a gun and people would rather you not have one so they’re trying to stop you. On the other hand, the gun is very useful for stealing acorns, your passion in life. If you like the idea of jackin’ people’s nuts, get the gat.
Look, I’m not going to lie to you, this isn’t some subversive indie game where deep down there’s a deeply moving story about a sad dad with a beard discovering he loves his son or whatever. There’s a squirrel, there’s a gun. What more do you want?
The Final Word
Have squirrel, have gun, will travel
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
