Filthy Animals: Heist Simulator is developed by Pewter Games Studios and LoPoly Games, and published by Green Man Gaming, and to say it’s a lot of fun would be an understatement. It feels like a game like Gang Beasts or Human Fall Flat had a baby with something like PayDay 2 and I’m all for it. You can find this title on Xbox, Playstation, and PC.

The first thing you are greeted with is the tutorial, which I would highly recommend doing, as it introduces you to the gameplay you are about to encounter, and if you don’t do the tutorial, you might find certain aspects a little harder early on. You have the option of using four different animals, and they all seem to be working for Tony, a criminal who wants all the money. The choices are a Chicken, Moose, Monkey, or my favorite to use, the Alligator.

You are given objectives on each heist that you need to try and complete to get the most XP and most cash on leaving the mission. The thing I loved the most was being able to interact with almost everything in the heists, from tearing down paintings to throwing a chair at someone or something. The title is focused on co-op, either online or local, and I ended up talking my partner into playing with me. As someone who does not game, she really enjoyed it, and we shared plenty of laughs as we played.

The tutorial is a must in this one – the ragdoll physics make the game a little harder to control, but once you have it down pat, it’s loads of fun. You’ll quickly learn to pick things up off the ground or pull a door off a cabinet to get an axe. The tutorial shows you basic things like movement, which is your left analog stick, and the right analog stick controls your hands, how you lean over, or ragdoll.

You have the option of using D-pad to use the special abilities each animal has, consisting of anything from fast spinning to laying an egg that explodes. You also have things like B to sprint, which is funny to watch by itself, or A to jump, and double A to dive. As I mentioned earlier, if you do the tutorial it shows you the basics to play this game to the full capabilities. This game would be so much fun if there was VR compatibility and you could go first-person. It would add another level of immersion and insanity to the title.

The graphical aspect of Filthy Animals: Heist Simulator was that super cartoonish look, with character models looking like something you would see on the Wii – the character models are quite pronounced, but their facial features almost seem drawn on.

The environments are also awesome, maintaining that cartoonish feel with bold colours. Certain items had a beautiful neon glow to them and other things exploded with a nice cartoon-like boom, and it all fit in well with the title. Some places felt a little overcrowded with items, but you could quickly clean those rooms out by causing mass destruction with your swinging arms.

While you’re running around and completing heists, upbeat elevator music plays in the background. If you’re taking your time on a level, it can become very repetitive, but it is broken up by Tony bringing up some absolutely useless information. It did not help in the slightest, seeming more like he liked the own sound of his voice, but it really helped to add to the craziness of the situation. On the other hand, the sound effects when interacting with different items had a nice variety and this really helped to distract from the elevator in the background.

Filthy Animals: Heist Simulator is the perfect game to kill some time and have some laughs. It’s one of those titles that you’ll start playing, and before you know it, you’ll notice it’s 3 am. It’s stupidly funny. It is a great party game, working to see who can wreak the most havoc, or even a great game to kill some time with some mates. I would highly recommend it to anyone that loves a good laugh because it takes the seriousness out of it all and replaces it with a load of fun.

Written by: Hayden Nelson