Some games surprise you with a novel premise that lends itself perfectly to interactivity, whilst others take a tried and tested idea and refine it. Squirrel With a Gun doesn’t fit with either STYLE, instead being a jokey meme at heart but one that results in a surprisingly enjoyable game. It may not reach the heights of the likes of Untitled Goose Game but it is far more than the five minute gag that I initially expected. Coming across like a fusion of Postal 2 and Goat Simulator, what results is a third person stealth platformer action game that mixes and fuses genres to create a flawed but fun experience.
The opening few minutes of the game see you trying to come to grips with the ridiculously floaty jumping controls of the titular rodent. This is not the best introduction to the game, as your critter is an awkward little sod and you’ll find yourself missing seemingly easy jumps until it clicks. Even when you become familiar with the controls they never really work as they should and not in a fun clumsy way.
Fortunately the majority of the game doesn’t require the precision of this early tutorial so perseverance is rewarded by a more enjoyable set of mechanics. Once you navigate the series of platforms and press a number of switches you unlock the first major collectable – a golden acorn. Swallowing this whole sets off an alarm and a mysterious agent clad in a flawless suit bursts into the room. It is here that you first pick up a pistol and the game begins in earnest.
There is no backstory as to why your squirrel begins the game in a secure facility or how he takes to gunplay quite so readily, but some clues are hinted at through the antagonists that are introduced in the form of boss fights after the two main hub areas are unlocked. Progress requires you to collect a certain number of golden acorns, and the more common currency version, in order to unlock abilities. The first of these is a remote controlled car that enables you to zip around the levels, but getting enough golden acorns requires you to explore the suburbs and solve a series of environmental puzzles.
Tracking your progress is made easier through using flagpoles at each location. These show how many collectables there are and which you have picked up. Alongside the golden acorns there are various costume pieces (some of which have gameplay modifiers) and reload tokens that increase your passive reload skill. Collecting these isn’t necessary to finish the game but much of the enjoyment to be had comes from solving the mini-puzzles that conceal them. These range from carefully making your way across a living room submerged in lava to quickly eliminating a set number of enemies and the wide variety does help to maintain interest across the six to eight hours it’ll take to complete.
Of course, the main draw of the game’s title is the gun and there are a few to unlock and choose from as you make your way through to the end. You begin with a simple pistol, but uzis, shotguns, grenade launchers and bazookas are available later on. Unlocking these requires you to take one from an enemy and then buy them from set spots around the levels. These are obviously important to defend yourself against the enemy agents, but gunplay is also key to traversal as shooting your guns whilst jumping gives you extra distance or height. Balancing between the hovering capability of an uzi and the extra height of a shotgun is key in solving many of the environmental puzzles.
While far from being triple AAA or even remotely polished, Squirrel With A Gun is competent graphically. Glitches are present, but these are a key part of the game’s charm. Enemies are mostly identical with only a few different enemy agent types but the visual design of the various areas is solid enough. Sound design is functional but the main takeaway is the boss fight music that goes harder than it has any right to, with a Babymetal meets early 2000s nu-metal vibe.
