The Winged Rat Agent of Chaos
Pigeon Simulator is one of those games that immediately announces its intentions. It is silly, knowingly ridiculous and entirely unafraid to lean into an absurd premise.
The idea of playing as a government-issued pigeon working covert missions for a paranormal agency sounds like something born from a late-night conversation while playing Goat Simulator that spiralled out of control. But tinyBuild Riga does run with the concept confidently.
What results is a chaotic co-op action experience that offers real charm when everything clicks, but one that does struggle to maintain momentum when played alone.
A World Where Conspiracy Theories Are Real
The game places you in the role of an agent of P.E.K., which stands for Paranormal Examination and Kontainment. In this world the classic joke about pigeons being government spies is treated as absolute truth, to the point that makes you wonder if it is a joke at all…
New Squawk City acts as the sandbox in which supernatural anomalies run wild. Everyday objects become possessed, rubbish bins detonate, televisions burst into flames and entire streets descend into chaos without warning. Your job, as an unusually resourceful pigeon, is to hunt these anomalies down, contain them and extract them before the city collapses into feathered pandemonium.
It is a humorous setting delivered with a wink. Nothing is treated with seriousness and the world feels built entirely around slapstick reactions. It has a deliberately cartoonish tone which sets the stage for the physics-driven chaos the game relies on. The narrative is light and mostly acts as a wrapper for the missions, though the flavour text and environmental gags add a welcome dose of character.
The Heart of the Experience – The Run
At its core Pigeon Simulator is mission-based and run-based. Each mission begins with a grappling launch into the city before you glide, hop and crash your way towards the nearest anomaly. Time is your main enemy. A chaos meter rises steadily in the background and as it grows more supernatural disturbances spawn. A routine retrieval quickly becomes a scramble as exploding bags fly across pavements and possessed microwaves dart past your head. Chaos is both the problem and the appeal, because the game becomes funnier as the situation gets worse.
Your primary aim is to locate anomalies, neutralise them with your various tools and successfully extract them. Extraction zones must be reached before you complete the run and anything can happen when you are inches from success. It is a loop designed for replayability. On a good run everything feels like slapstick magic as you narrowly dodge debris or hook your claws on a passing vehicle to gain height. On a bad run everything goes wrong in seconds and you are sent back to base empty-clawed/winged.
Progression, Upgrades and That Pigeon Arsenal
Success provides money used to upgrade your pigeon. These upgrades gradually refine your movement and ability to control the chaos. More air jumps allow you to stay airborne longer, enhanced wings improve speed and precision and extra stamina reduces the number of unwanted crash landings.
Weaponry and tools also evolve. Your “poop” attack becomes more potent, gadgets unlock new ways to manipulate objects and certain tools create entertaining combinations when used with friends.
The upgrade system adds a welcome sense of growth although the run-based structure means that dying resets most of your progress for that attempt. This encourages careful play, but in practice it can lead to repetitive cycles and a sense of grinding, particularly if you are attempting a mission solo. When you lose a run late into your attempt the setback can start to feel harsh and the momentum dips.
Flying High or Hitting Every Wall
Movement is intentionally clumsy in the early hours. That is not a criticism but a deliberate design choice. You start as a slightly shabby pigeon that struggles to maintain steady air control. Collisions are frequent, walls are a constant threat and the city often looks like a maze of objects designed to trip you up. It suits the comedic tone but can be a hurdle for players expecting smooth precision from the outset.
As upgrades roll in, the pigeon becomes more manoeuvrable and more capable of stylish movement. It is satisfying to notice the gradual transition from incompetent flapping to coordinated swooping. Even when fully upgraded the physics, your pigeon can still behave unpredictably. You may find yourself clipped by scenery in ways that feel unfair or ricochet across rooftops when attempting delicate manoeuvres. These moments are more amusing than infuriating in co-op, though they can test patience during solo attempts.
A Game Built for Co-op
It becomes clear quite quickly that Pigeon Simulator was designed with multiplayer in mind. Co-op elevates the experience dramatically. When a team of pigeons decides to coordinate gadgets, distribute upgrades and plan routes the action blossoms into orchestrated chaos. One player acts as a tank absorbing hits and distracting threats, another focuses on mobility and retrieval, another leans into artillery-like tools. Every run feels different and failure is almost always funny when shared with others.
The shared wallet also encourages variety. Resources must be spent with consideration because each upgrade benefits only one pigeon. One for all and all for one in the avian world. This will lead to amusing debates about who deserves an upgrade, who flies most reliably and who caused the last catastrophic crash.
The drawback is the lack of local co-op on console. This feels like a missed opportunity because it is exactly the sort of game that thrives from couch shouting and collective panic. Online co-op works well, but the absence of split-screen diminishes its potential on Xbox, but this isn’t a unique issue to the game, it is common across the platform.
Solo Play – A Rougher Flight
Where the co-op mode is energetic and lively the solo experience is noticeably weaker. Without teammates the mission structure becomes repetitive and failures feel more punishing. The humour still lands but the absence of shared chaos takes some of the spark away. Runs begin to blend together and the game’s limited narrative does little to fill the gaps.
Solo players may appreciate the upgrade path and the satisfaction of improving their airborne control, but the repetition becomes more obvious when missions rely on similar objectives and environments. Those looking for sustained single-player progression or story-driven content will likely drift away before long.
Presentation and Performance
Visually the game adopts a colourful cartoon aesthetic that matches the absurdity of its concept. The world of New Squawk City has personality, though it lacks large environmental variety. Buildings, streets and general layout can look similar across missions, which reinforces that run-based repetition. Still, the bright palette and exaggerated animations add more than enough charm.
Sound design complements the silliness. Squawks, gadget pings and comedic impacts fill the missions with energy. You will hear a surprising number of pigeon coos but they become part of the character. The soundtrack is modest, neither intrusive nor particularly memorable.
Performance on Xbox is solid enough to handle the physics-driven mayhem. There are occasional hitches with collision detection and some animations behave oddly but nothing that disrupts the overall experience.
Unfiltered Chaos
Pigeon Simulator is a game that knows exactly what it wants to be. It delivers unfiltered chaos, feathered nonsense and a surprising amount of tactical team action when played in co-op. In multiplayer it can be hilarious and unexpectedly strategic as you and your friends attempt to bring order to a city that seems committed to imploding around your pigeon.
However the game’s charm fades in solo play. Repetition sets in quickly, the upgrade loop can feel punishing after failed runs and the humour does not fully compensate for the lack of variety. Technical quirks also hold it back from achieving the polished rhythm a run-based game needs.
Even so there is undeniable fun here if you approach it with the right expectations. If you want a polished single-player adventure then Pigeon Simulator is not the right perch. But if you are looking for a light-hearted co-op romp filled with physics-fuelled disasters and ridiculous pigeon-antics, this is well worth a dive.
Important Links
Are Pigeons Spies? Pigeon Simulator is Your New Day One Game Pass Mission – https://www.thexboxhub.com/are-pigeons-spies-pigeon-simulator-is-your-new-day-one-game-pass-mission/
Download from the Xbox Store (through Game Pass if you like) – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/pigeon-simulator/9nrhqlzx3900
