A game who’s opening warning screen makes sure to immediately tell you that, despite what the title says, it is not in any way a happy game. That is until Happy Game, Amanita’s most recent release. Their bread and butter is surreal, hand drawn imagery, but as far as I know they have never gone in the direction of taking their content into the realm of horror. Likewise, Amanita Design is not a new player in the adventure game scene, with a pedigree of releasing games like the Samorost trilogy, Machinarium, and Botanicula. It's something you know from the start isn't going to be great, but it's also something you can't help watching to see just how bad its going to get.The concept of taking something that is meant to be cute and heartwarming and twisting it into something disturbing and downright messed up is not exactly new we’ve seen it dozens of times with properties like Alice in Wonderland for example. And yet despite this, there's still an odd sort of appeal to it, much like watching a schlocky B-movie. These combine makes the daily grind of shift work at the restaurant bad enough, but it makes interacting with the rest of the environments almost painful. The controls are equally clunky, basically forcing players to throw items around while hoping for the best. Stiff animations and flat textures on awkward polygonal models don't exactly push the boundaries of realism and immersion. The game looks like it's been plucked from the heyday of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 era. But when doors start opening and lights start flickering, plastic statues move on their own, and freaky human-like things appear suddenly before exploding into a noxious mist, that's when things become true nightmare fuel.Īs surreal as the game may be, its presentation makes the experience even more jarring, but for all the wrong reasons. It's eerie enough to be stuck in a cycle of forced servitude, flipping burgers and dropping fries for masses of mindless drones while under the all-seeing eye of a mysterious supervisor. The opening cutscene sets up a twisted scenario all on its own, but it's once the player takes control that things really start to feel like you're trapped in a fast-food fever dream. Right from the start, there's a lot of disturbing elements to the game. What do you get when you mix the frantic fast-food assembly line gameplay of Overcooked! with the creepy restaurant horror vibe of Five Nights at Freddy's? The answer would be something along the lines of Happy's Humble Burger Farm. Will you be able to find a way to escape this nightmarish purgatory? Or will you stay a prisoner to these fast-food frights, asking "Do you want fries with that?" for the rest of your life … however long or short that may last? Show more You'll spend your off time investigating the streets and shop of New Elysian City, peeling back the illusions and lies to uncover the conspiracy at the core of things. You see, there are some shadowy secrets happening behind the smiling faces of those cartoonish mascots, and that's not just about the recipe to a Happy Deluxe Combo Meal. But wait - did that Happy Heifer statue just move on its own? How did that mannequin get in the freezer? More importantly, why did it explode? There's obviously something sinister going on here. Shift after shift of filling the special orders of hordes of mindless customers and keeping the kitchen running smoothly seems normal at first. Welcome to the first day of your new career at HAPPY'S HUMBLE BURGER FARM, the fast-food chain that everyone's just dying to be a part of.
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