Don’t Mess With Bober

Developer: Peace Studio, Don Corsaire

Publisher: Don Corsaire

Released on: Xbox Series S/X (reviewed), PlayStation 5, PC

The Animal Kingdom is a dangerous place. Even in the short time that Indie Horror Gamer’s been around, we’ve had killer spiders, giant crabs and possessed dogs. And now, a beaver.

A (not very) nice beaver.

In a move that I think most of us can relate to, your character, Matt, seeks to escape the hustle and bustle of modern life. Their destination: a quiet little cabin in the countryside, where the only stress is the mess left behind by the previous occupants. Yet, it’s this casually strewn rubbish that instigates a terrifying experience involving a stray wheelie bin and the local boss beaver, called Bober.

What follows is a short collection of scenes in which Bober grows from a cute, mischievous beaver to a terrifying people-killer, stalking the player throughout one particularly intense segment set inside a lumber yard. With Bober now resembling a slightly-furrier version of the xenomorph from Alien: Isolation, Matt desperately searches for an escape with the mutated beaver’s glowing red eyes and slobbering jaws never far behind.

Don’t Mess With Bober has all the ingredients for an entertaining slice of horror comedy: cute animal-turned-monster (due to human malfeasance, naturally), decent graphics and some varied gameplay within its short running time. That lumber yard section, however, feels like a throwback to the Eighties, when designers made their games ridiculously hard, so that gamers wouldn’t feel cheated. Bober tracks the player with contrived ease here, and the constant backtracking sucks most of the fun out of what should be a relatively simple experience. There’s a skill to getting to the required workbenches—essentially, luring Bober away, giving you vital seconds to search—but when the game drags you back to the same area just to turn the power on, it feels forced and frustrating.

Sadly, the developers have also used generative AI to create the lead character’s voice, and it shows: Matt spews weird syntax throughout the game’s early moments, with a stilted, emotionless delivery betraying the lack of any human input. I understand that English may not be the first language for the devs, but surely you’d want your atmospheric horror game to feature realistic dialogue?

Coupled with the frustrating gameplay, it’s hard to recommend Don’t Mess With Bober, despite a handful of promising moments.