Deeeer Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game is a game about unleashing chaos on a city in the way that only a tall, proud, four-legged creature displaced from its natural habitat can. Released on Steam yesterday, the early access indie game has already captured people’s interest thanks to its clash of earnest, low-poly graphics with slapstick physics. It’s proven a recipe for instant virality on social media. It also didn’t take more than five seconds of playing the actual game for it to win me over. The Deeeer moves like a locomotive, slowly building up a head of steam until it crashes into and destroys a lamppost or, just as likely, gets hammered by oncoming traffic and sent flying in the opposite direction. But it can also dash, attack with its hind legs, and launch its neck forward, stretching into oblivion like Dhalsim from Street Fighter. That particular attack can also be used to swing from objects like Spider-Man, though I haven’t yet mastered the art of it. While in the mold of and clearly inspired by other hits like Goat Simulator, Deeeer is less about navigating the world as an animal than navigating a world as it might exist for an animal who is trying to pass itself off as a human. (And also has some paranormal powers.) Traffic is constant, and the second you’re not looking, something will hit you, sending you flying. You can then go get revenge on whatever hit you, or jump into another vehicle and get in on the road rage yourself. As in Grand Theft Auto, destroying stuff will eventually summon the cops, first as a group of sheep, next as duo of polar bears, each time getting more difficult in line with the amount of damage you’re doing. You can pick up guns which get mounted on the Deeeer’s head where antlers might go, and then shoot at stuff behind you as you’re running away like a sentient getaway car. There are mini-games to find and play, and it’s even possible to join together with comrades from across the animal kingdom and form a Metal Gear made out of animals that can cause even more destruction. And good for them, honestly. At the rate rich people are destroying the planet, I find it cathartic to see cows, tigers, rhinos, and deeeer join together to fight back like anime heroes. If that doesn’t sound appealing, you can always let the bloodlust take a back seat and simply wave hello to your fellow humans or, if the mood really strikes you, just straight up start grinding on them.
