There are several truths inherent in video games. It is a lot of fun to cause chaos in a game world, and the fun is amplified if it's done by a non-anthropomorphic animal. Being a nuisance in a small hamlet is much more enjoyable if you're a goose, as seen in Untitled Goose Game. Likewise, ridiculous chaos isn't so horrifying if you're a goat as seen in Goat Simulator. The mischief in Squirrel with a Gun leans more toward the latter than the former, and even though the game lacks polish in some areas, it is focused on letting the player have some fun.

You play the role of a squirrel that happens upon a secret military base. As you look around, you see a small gadget that you perceive to be a big golden acorn. You eat the object and trigger an alarm, causing an agent to run in, trip over a piece of metal covering a switch, and accidentally toss their gun toward you. Like any normal squirrel, you take the pistol, blast the agent, and escape into a suburban neighborhood to grab more acorns while taking care of any agents trying to stop you.

The game really leans into the absurdity of a squirrel with a gun. You are a normal-sized squirrel that does normal squirrel things, like climb up poles and trees. You can't speak, and you have no abnormal superpowers. You pick up normal-sized guns, which means that you're the same size as a handgun. The world around you is of a normal size, with normal-sized humans and normal-sized houses. Just the sight of a squirrel holding a normal handgun is strange, and it gets weirder when you run across more weapons such as revolvers, Uzis, shotguns, sniper rifles, and even rocket launchers.

Having a squirrel fire each gun is equally as preposterous, and that's amplified when you realize that the guns still have blowback and recoil. You're going to get pushed back when you fire that pistol, and the same goes for an Uzi, which has continuous pushback. The ridiculous look and overall concept are the game's initial hook, and that's emphasized when you pull off finishing moves. Seeing a tiny squirrel swat a person's hand with a revolver before shooting them in the face is quite looney, as is seeing that same squirrel slide around with a shotgun before unloading it on a foe. Even going unarmed and climbing on a human to snap their neck looks goofy because of the game's ragdoll physics.

If you're expecting the firefights to be challenging, then you'll come away a little disappointed. Almost all of the agents you run into are poor shots, and the only way you can get hit is if you stand still or have them fire with something explosive, like a grenade launcher. Boss fights are a little trickier because you'll be assaulted by many enemies at once, and the bosses use weapons that pack much more of a punch. The constant presence of the cannon fodder agents and the fact that almost all of them drop acorns mean that no boss fight should be terribly difficult once you know their patterns.

Despite the amount of gunplay, the game's level of violence is low, since there's no gore. You can snap all the necks of as many agents as you want, and you can shoot them all in the face, but there are no limbs being blown apart and no blood is seen. You can fall from great heights, and you won't splat on the ground with a large bloodstain. While you can harm innocent bystanders, they'll get back up and go about their routine as if nothing happened. The level of violence is borderline cartoonish, which makes the game family friendly in a weird way — if you can ignore some of the game's optional objectives.

For a game with the punchline that you're a rodent with a firearm, it's surprising that the game isn't strictly a shooter. There's a good deal of platforming, so players will have to leap from place to place to reach areas that store golden acorns and areas where you can unlock firearms. Aside from using the squirrel's natural leaping and climbing abilities, Squirrel with a Gun has you using the gun as a jumping tool. Depending on what you're holding, you can augment the jump by a little or a lot as you fire straight at the ground to get a boost. In these moments, the game seems to gets imaginative with its premise, and what could've been a one-note joke suddenly has some gameplay merit.

The title offers a ton of other objectives that vary wildly beyond eliminating agents and obtaining easy-to-see but out-of-the way golden acorns. One task might have you trying to deliver a birthday cake to someone. Another task has you waking up a groom who's late for his wedding. Some lean toward being mischievous, like tripping a jogger. Then you have the odder ones, like snapping someone's neck so they can get back to exercising or entertaining those in a bachelor party by doing moves on a stripper pole. All of these things net golden acorns, and while there's no logical reason why all of this is happening, it makes the gameplay more varied.

Amidst all of this is an open world that initially seems normal but begins to make no sense when you analyze it. You can have something normal like a wedding taking place in a backyard — and then something abnormal, like a house filled with lava. One block might have a skatepark, while another could have a fenced-off house with a minefield in the front yard. There's a house with a stripper pole right next to a mini Wild West area. It's a world that's randomly put together without much rhyme or reason, but it somehow fits within the exhibited chaos.

The main game will only take about five to six hours to complete if you go straight for the necessary objectives and boss fights, but as is the case with many open-world games, it'll take much longer before you complete 100% of all objectives. The game sports plenty of unlockables to tackle at the beginning and a good deal of secrets to uncover if you're observant. Defeat the final boss, and the game opens up more areas to explore. With a roadmap that plans to add more free content in the future, the game will likely have you coming back long after the credits have rolled.

The only major thing to complain about are the bugs, which vary in severity. Some are minor, such as item and texture detail pop-up that seems to be inherent in a good number of Unreal Engine games. Some are general annoyances that are shared by other UE games, such as cut scenes getting blocked because the game camera is blocked by environment objects. More pressing are bugs that act as progression blockers. Light up the grill, and the resulting explosion may make you lose the burgers you were supposed to deliver. Break open the boarded-up windows, and the boards respawn in a more unbreakable state if you leave the area. These issues are resolved by reloading the last save, but bugs like that produce a lot of wasted time if you don't realize they're bugs. We didn't observe any crashes while playing the game.

Graphically, Squirrel with a Gun waffles between basic and good-looking. The menus look like they're placeholder ones since they're just plain text with no backgrounds to make them legible. The human models almost feel like old stock models due to their dead eyes. Their animations aren't outright terrible. The environments are basic, and only a few objects suffer from having low-resolution textures. The squirrel definitely gets the most attention thanks to some very good use of fur shading, but you get the feeling that the developers went overboard, with ray-traced reflections and Lumen helping to create one of the more realistic-looking squirrels. It's good enough that it looks like the squirrel model actually changes once Lumen is activated. Reflections are also quite gorgeous, and it conforms to the different textures that diffuse reflection well. You may want to turn this off because it can be taxing on your system whenever you do a close-up of the squirrel. Additionally, there are no upscaling options. It's an interesting omission, but be prepared to turn down some settings if you want a stable frame rate.

Like the graphics, the audio is just as varied but without any of the negatives. There are no voices in the game, but the shrill shriek of the squirrel is amusing to hear when something big happens, like having a rocket explode in front of you. The effects are fine, but it is the soundtrack that stands out the most because it is all over the place. The title screen may have a more traditional spy movie opening theme, but the boss fights are backed up by pure hard rock. Agent encounters are more pulse-pounding, but the track that plays when you're roaming around the neighborhood is much more relaxing. That also changes back to some more exciting stuff once you jump into a vehicle. The game bounces between genres often, but it isn't much of a complaint since the music is quite good. It also does a very good job of matching the chaotically wacky nature of the experience without sounding irritating in the process.

If you're a Steam Deck user, you'll be happy to see that Squirrel with a Gun has already been marked as Verified by Valve. The game runs at the device's native 1280x800 resolution, and while there's no formal frame rate cap, you're rarely going to see the game go above 40fps or go below that for prolonged periods where lots of stuff is happening on-screen. On the LCD version of the device, you can expect around two hours of gameplay on a full battery charge. Interestingly, the game lacks the typical graphical options settings when running on a Windows or Linux desktop, so you can't get any better or worse than what you see now — at least without any tweaks directly from the developer.

There are many words that can be used to describe Squirrel with a Gun: wacky, silly, buggy, unpolished, and fun. The premise is so out there that you can't help but be hooked. The gameplay is solid and enjoyable enough that you'll want to see the journey to the end and beyond, even if you've grown tired of the joke and despite the various issues that still plague the title. The game could do with some bug cleanup, but even in its current state, it's fun enough that players who love off-the-wall concepts would be happy giving this one a shot.

Score: 7.0/10