PS5 Review: Squirrel with a Gun

Has anyone told Conker a new squirrel’s in town?

As the neighborhood’s most obnoxious rodent, develop a knack (and a love?) for crime and mayhem in pursuit of golden acorns in this nutty sandbox shooter and puzzle platformer. Fight tooth, claw, and gun to escape a secret underground facility and defeat the Agents.

When I think of a gun-wielding squirrel, I can’t help but thinking of Conker’s Bad Fur Day, especially the War chapter and the Matrix parody. I never thought there would be another squirrel that would do that in a game. While Squirrel with a Gun isn’t as profane as BFD, it does have a good sense of humour.

To be fair, the game is more like Goat Simulator than anything else. Everything from the visual style to the janky controls feels like it was made specifically for fans of that particular series. The idea is simple…after escaping a top secret facility, the squirrel is in a neighbourhood that becomes a sandbox for you to explore. You need to gather golden acorns to unlock new weapons and these are hidden all around with some being guarded by agents and crazy people, while others can be found on rooftops, in the air or even in the attic.

The Squirrel can jump a little but to get really high, you’ll need a gun like an Uzi or something to propel you upwards to where you need to get to. You can find reload pickups in areas, so you can keep climbing up if you see them in the distance. It will take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of climbing through shooting you’ll know what to do going forward. Shooting agents is fun and causing a level of destruction is always enjoyable, I just wish they’d put in some mini-map or waypoint system for easier navigation.

In terms of enjoyment, I found the game to be best played in short doses. I love blowing stuff up and all that, but it does wear thin with this particular sandbox. Again, it’d be nice to have some form of map to plan where to go and also to see where you’ve already been as it can get confusing on where you’ve already been already due to your size.

The visual style looks directly from Goat Simulator, but that’s not a bad thing. It actually fits well with the overall game and the soundtrack has some pretty epic tunes throughout. The camera can be problematic at times, but is mostly fine and besides a few visual hiccups here and there, I didn’t come across anything that bad. The framerate is pretty steady too, so all good on a presentation front.

The Verdict

Squirrel with a Gun is an enjoyable sandbox and there’s plenty of chaos to be found, but it does feel limited when compared to the goat. I’d still recommend it though as chaos is always fun. So, go nuts!

Score: 7.0