LifeisXbox’s ‘Happy’s Humble Burger Farm’ review | If you’ve ever worked for a fast food chain, you’ve probably seen horrors that your customers couldn’t understand.
The Scythe development team, the creators of Happy’s Humble Burger Farm (HHBF), must share my opinion. HHBF is a wonderfully twisted tribute not just to the games of the late 90s, but to everyone who knows what the service industry can be a nightmare.
Taking HHBF at face value, it would be easy to classify it as a simple time/money management game. And that’s fair, given that the first hour or two offer feeling aimless. The goal is to go to work every day, serve customers, take care of the restaurant, and earn some money. Then sleep. But the real joy at HHBF is found when you start to veer off the beaten track, immerse yourself in their incredibly strange and delightfully terrifying world.
“Break your psyche and force you to question what is real or imaginary.”
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion from the writer.
What we liked!
- An increasingly complex story | Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is basically about waking up every morning in a city covered by a dome that seems more like an experiment in the Truman Show style, walking to work, making hamburgers, selling them, returning to your house, repeating. Nothing out of the ordinary and actually quite boring. In this case the enemy are spirits or ghosts who turn off our business machines, turn down the light switch, steal objects or even explode to lower our health, but since one must be focused on their work, we must act quickly in the face of adversity , or else time will run out and we won’t deliver orders, resulting in no money that can be used to buy things in the dome city.
- A level design that uses nostalgia very well | The intrigue in the exploration comes from the brilliant level design. The elementary graphic style of HHBF quickly grew on me. The Scythe development team has struck a perfect balance between old and new, creating an accessible world that anyone can become engrossed in. Whether or not they want to stay is a different story though, as HHBF does a fantastic job of constantly hanging a cloud of unease over the player’s head.
- The sound accompanies at all times | Both the sound and the graphics are at a good level and accompany the game in a very acceptable way. As in any horror game, sound is very important and in HHBF it is no exception.
- The terrifying job of fast food | Most of where you will spend your time at HHBF is the kitchen. Along with his faithful coworker (and best friend) Toe, it’s his job to open the restaurant, take orders, prepare food, clean, among many other things, during his shift. And this is when things start to fall apart. With each passing day, disturbing events, one after another, will work to break your psyche and force you to question what is real or imaginary.
- Every day that passes, the game gets more complex | As the days progress, more product options will be unlocked in the restaurant, that is to say that at first you could only make hamburgers and then the machines to make french fries, nuggets, smoothies and cookies will be enabled. All of this together can get a bit tricky, as you have to deal with the customers, cook, and survive the nightmare.
Somewhere between
- It’s a slow game at first | Although I really enjoyed HHBF, I understand that its formula may not be suitable for everyone. Strictly following the goals will advance the story, but much of what makes HHBF unique comes from its ability to reward those who stop to “smell the roses.” I implore you, take your time, watch TV, go shopping, explore the city. Allow yourself to be absorbed in everything that happens around the game, not just in a routine of work, dream, work, dream.
What we disliked
- Very poor optimization | One thing I want to highlight about HHBF, is that it is not as well optimized as I expected. Load times and frame rates leave a bit to be desired for a game of this era or generation.
How long to beat the story | 3-4 Hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 5-6 Hours
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