It’s time to take a break from city life. You have a friend who has a cabin, and you arrive a few days before him. There is one thing you must not do, and that’s mess with the local beaver. However, through an accident while being careless, you destroy the dam in the river. This leads to an enraged animal that now seeks revenge. The game is based on 80s horror, but you will see a hint of more recent inspirations (Cocaine Bear). Your main goal is to escape before it’s too late. Along the way, you will have to complete a few puzzles, do fetch quests, and run for your life. The most peaceful time is when you start out and can fish. But soon after enjoying your first day, you will wish you had never left the city.

Here’s what I liked:

Premise — Not every story has to blow your mind. There are a lot of indie horror movies that know they aren’t bringing much to the table, so it’s really just for stupid entertainment. You have to go in knowing that. We all know a beaver is not going to send you a cake with a warning, then proceed to try and take you out. All while have been the reason people have gone missing. It’s part of the joke. Kind of a parody horror. You won’t find anything all that creative going in. In fact, a lot of the game is made using AI and most of what you see was obtained by a lot of people who designed something (like the fishing pole, made by one person and that’s all they made). Maybe there’s a website where you can buy assets and put them in your game. I don’t really know the whole story. Even the voice acting seems to have been made with AI. The subtitles don’t even match the dialogue most of the time. Either way, this is the world we live in and if a game can be created like it did, then ideas from anyone could be easier to make a reality.

For What It Is — I wasn’t expecting there to be collectibles or a chapter select in such a short game, but it’s appreciated. It gives you some reason to roam around a little bit. Though I could not pick up collectibles in chapter select, maybe it’s a bug. I had to do another run-through of the game. There are a few different mini-game style areas of the game, which were pretty cool. But there just wasn’t a lot of game. The achievements were also a bit creative, playing on a few things you could miss because you had to do the opposite of something that’s really easy (like entering the wrong code multiple times, even though it’s shown on your screen). There are a few funny moments, mostly coming from the cringeworthy dialogue with your friend over the phone.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

That Was Fast — We live in a world where we expect a lot. While I wasn’t expecting an 8 hour campaign, I was a little disappointed that things ended when it felt like the halfway point. You can complete the game in around an hour if you rush. The cave section was the most thought out, having multiple paths to discover and things to figure out before finally escaping. Though the cave wasn’t that big, it had enough things to do to make it last. I would have loved to see more of the world in daytime, but as soon as you go to sleep after the first day, it’s all dark. If a few sections could have been dragged out then we may have had more time in the world with an enraged beaver.

I Can’t See — Like mentioned, the game becomes very day. You do get a flashlight, but I found running up the hill to get gasoline was a bit too much darkness. There are areas where it’s almost pitch black even with lights and the moon. The graphics aren’t bad so I would have enjoyed walking around the forest with more light. I think if there were more missions in the day and the dark areas were just a little brighter, it would have made a big difference.

Hide and Seek — One of the longer missions of the game has you running around a saw mill trying to avoid the beaver. This is definitely the area you will become most nervous about. When Bober sees you, he will chase you down. There are some hiding spots that you can go into, but if you are already being chased, you will die from the beaver, even inside the spot. Instead, you can just outrun him and weave between turns until he loses sight. This made these hiding spots pretty useless and made the specific section a little harder.

Wrap-up

There’s always room for fun when it comes to gaming. When something doesn’t take itself too seriously, it has to lean on the bad to be the good. While this game captures that in some areas, it also seems to be lacking in “so bad it’s good”. It starts out well, with the comedy and terrible dialogue, but then tries to steer into atmospheric horror. And while the tension is needed for horror, the silly beaver from the beginning is quickly forgotten about. The funny phone calls stop. It becomes a hide-and-seek game for the rest of the game. The pacing isn’t bad, but because the game is so short, it ends just when you think things could start getting interesting.

Score: Limited Appeal

Don’t Mess with Bober was published by Axyos Games and developed by Peace Studio on Xbox One. It was released on March 13, 2026, for $8.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.