Squirrel with a Gun

Squirrel with a Gun is a 2024 indie sandbox action-adventure game developed by Dee Dee Creations and published by Maximum Entertainment. Released on August 29, 2024, for PC (and later in October 2024 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S), it is exactly what it sounds like. Built in Unreal Engine 5, it is a highly absurd, physics-based comedy game that successfully blends the mischievous sandbox chaos of Untitled Goose Game or Goat Simulator with the over-the-top, cinematic gun-fu of John Wick.

Core Concept and Story

The game refuses to take itself seriously for a single second. You play as a completely ordinary squirrel who happens to stumble into a highly secure, secret underground testing facility. After getting your tiny paws on a mysterious golden acorn, you are confronted by a team of heavily armed, Men in Black-style government agents. Naturally, you get ahold of a firearm to take them down.

From there, you escape into a quiet, suburban open-world neighborhood with a single mission: collect all the golden acorns, terrorize the local residents, and aggressively dispatch the endless waves of agents hunting you down.

Gameplay and Features

The game operates as a bizarre hybrid of a 3D puzzle-platformer and a third-person shooter:

• The Arsenal and Finishers: Despite your tiny size, you can wield a variety of realistically modeled firearms, including handguns, shotguns, SMGs, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers. The game even features cinematic, hilariously excessive “fatality” takedowns on human agents, with custom animations depending on which weapon you currently have equipped.
• Recoil-Based Platforming: This is the game’s defining traversal gimmick. Because a squirrel weighs almost nothing, the recoil from firing a gun acts as a physics-based propulsion system. Firing an SMG downwards allows you to fly over gaps like a jetpack, while shooting a shotgun at the ground acts as a massive double-jump to reach high rooftops and tree branches.
• Suburban Chaos: When you aren’t shooting agents, the game focuses heavily on exploration and puzzle-solving. You run around the neighborhood stealing phones, holding up civilian NPCs at gunpoint to rob them of their acorns, and solving bizarre situational puzzles (like hijacking a remote-controlled car or participating in a Wild West shootout).
• Cosmetics: The golden acorns you collect act as the game’s currency, which can be spent on various ridiculous outfits, eye patches, and hats to customize your heavily armed rodent.

Reception

Squirrel with a Gun achieved massive viral fame on social media long before its official release, simply based on the sheer absurdity of its early development clips.

Upon launch, it received highly positive user reviews (currently sitting at “Very Positive” on Steam). Players praised its laugh-out-loud cutscenes, surprisingly creative boss fights (including taking down a tank), and the pure comedic joy of its core premise. However, critics noted that it firmly belongs in the “jank” category of physics games. Some of the puzzles can be frustratingly vague without hints, the controls can feel a bit clunky, and the game suffers from occasional bugs and clipping issues.

Quick Note

Squirrel with a Gun is a brilliantly stupid, highly entertaining bite-sized sandbox.

In short: It is not a deep, sprawling narrative masterpiece. But if you want to spend an afternoon using the recoil of a 12-gauge shotgun to launch a rodent across a suburban neighborhood to terrorize a backyard barbecue, it perfectly delivers on the hilarious promise of its title.