Oh, wait, that’s the premise to this game from the Scythe Dev Team
Is this game as delicious as it sounds?
Let’s eat!
The game opens with you flat on your back on an operating table with a couple of backstreet butchers stitching you up. You blackout and suddenly you awake to find yourself (whatever you are) behind the counter of some hipster grill in the witching hour where the munchies for the impatient locals are kicking in.
This is the tutorial. A place where you learn your craft, hone your skills and expertly cook a piece of dead meat, slap it between a couple of brioche buns and over-charge the local punks. This all seems above board, but why can I hear the sound of a life support machine in the background? Am I dead?!
This is the tutorial. A place where you learn your craft, hone your skills and expertly cook a piece of dead meat, slap it between a couple of brioche buns and over-charge the local punks. This all seems above board, but why can I hear the sound of a life support machine in the background? Am I dead?!
Day One: Congratulations, you're fried!
On the surface, it is a third person, repetitive, burger cooking simulation game but the developers have taken this idea to another level and turned casual working into a living nightmare where the lack of training will eventually kill you.
This is a restaurant survival horror game! The main objective is simple - serve customers and maintain the joint during the nightshift…from hell! The customers, who alarmingly all look the same, are hungry, give them what they want and everyone is happy. Cock-up too many times and you’ll be reaching for that pillow! If you think the public are scary, they are the least of your worries. I never knew that making a meat patty could be so terrifying, genuinely off-the-menu goosebumps.
If you let it, every day for our protagonist is the same. You wake and go toe-to-toe with your friend, Toe, a freaky guy who runs like he’s riding a moped, or you can visit the small city and offload some of that hard-earned moo-ney.
Happy Humble Burger Farm is set in the city of weird-Ville Elysian City where everything is creepy and designed with gritty and weird graphics that would fit perfectly on the now-dated PlayStation One.
However, I’m reviewing this on the X-Series and for me, this took a little getting used to. However, the deeper I dove into the underbelly, I found myself deeply immersed in the horror as I explored the gloomy world.
The place is full of distractions; Triple j’s Jazzy Java Joint is a particular favourite, with a live band every night, the same band, every night… A place to get high 24/7 on caffeine before you stumble into the Steal and Sell pawnshop (my kind of place) where you can buy all kinds of tack to temporary enrich your life.
But, as my friend Marshall used to say, “Better weird, than dead.”
The soundtrack is excellent. And what I mean is, there is a jukebox in the restaurant that is fully loaded with the OST Senile Showdown Soundtrack: Arthfightus. Fans of the dev team will recognise this and will spend at least twenty minutes hoof gazing. I did.
I did, however, experience a milk-shaky start. The controls feel like it was designed to be played with a keyboard and mouse, which, I have to admit, did start to put me off, but like most games, you will get used to this pretty quick and the overwhelming and confusing menu screen will quickly become your helpful go-to guide.
The job market is a scary place, and so is this game. It is fully stacked with jump scares and I am going to go out on a limb and say at least one of the developers has worked at a fast-food joint.
The insight into the horrors and dread of the mundane lurk inside and around most corners, but we could all relate, couldn’t we…
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