Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is like dying and being stuck working at a McDonald’s in the lowest depths of hell and managed by the Devil himself.

Happy’s Humble Burger Farm isn’t what you think it is, even if you already know what it might be. On the surface this horror-parody of the fast food industry plays on the ideas of what it’s like to work in a crappy fast food restaurant, but when you dive a little deeper you find a dark world that the game managed to suck me into like no other has this year and maybe ever before for a horror title. What’s most interesting is that you can choose just how much you want to experience.

You can play Happy’s Humble Burger Farm like a traditional simulator and go through the motions of the weird and out-there story. Funny enough, the fast food simulation gameplay is downright fantastic. In fact, if the team simply released a clean and serious simulation of the industry it would still be a winner and better that most anything out there on the market. It’s a joy to run around the restaurant and completing tasks during your given shift. You have a number of burgers that you can put together for customers, each coming with seven ingredients to manage. You must turn on the appliances and fry up patties, deep fry french fries and nuggets, pour drinks and so on.

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This is all a mad dash of running around to different stations and keeping on eye on what you have cooking. That would have been cool, but each shift the restaurant opens up and allows you to cook more items. It’ll add milkshakes, then cookies and pies, then hot dogs, and so on. Each have their own station and customers will want order their own way. This means you have to juggle quite a bit at once. On top of this you’ll have timed events that you must complete during a shift that pop up at random. Maybe you’ll need to take out the trash, kill some rats, unplug the toilet, and so on. And then there are the daily tasks you can do like unloading food, emptying out rat traps and more. All the while noticing small and strange details that will make you begin asking questions.

There is a lot of content and action taking place during any given shift in Happy’s Humble Burger Farm. The developers seemed to understand this as you can unlock and Endless Mode that lets you play restaurant sim without worrying about the story. But it’s this story that sucks you into the game and gets under your skin. Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is great at telling you nothing. You simply start the game and go about your business. You learn as you go and you’ll also have some voices in your ear helping you by giving hints if the game sees that you are getting stuck. You are essentially on your own to discover just what the hell is going on in this very twisted world/simulation.

There is this nightmare world just under the surface and why the game features a health bar, something strange for the style of game Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is trying to simulate. There are hints of the macabre everywhere around you. You’ll start seeing and hearing things that just aren’t right. There are all manner of creatures and monsters that will stalk you, not only during various combat and action events, but also during your time working the grill. If you make mistakes you’ll come face to face with creatures, and most notably, Happy herself. She is this deranged cow that will eat you alive for your failing. This is where the health bar really comes into play.

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You’ll also be able to store items which means you can collect and purchase energy bars that can replenish you health and stamina, drinks to boost your speed, and drugs to help you focus and see the world for what it is. But what about the combat that I mentioned? Well, some enemies do attack you, but you can simply run away and keep out of their reach until they leave the area. Others will explode and damage you if you get to close, so you’ll have to get close to trigger them and then get out of the way. Bosses require you to cook something and feed them until the die, and Happy herself requires the feeding of rotten burgers to calm her down.

Happy is probably the most difficult enemy as the developers have the settings set to high meaning you’ll be dying a lot. In fact, I don’t think I feed Happy for than once or twice because not only do you have to cook, but you have to keep your eyes on her in order to freeze her in place. This can become nearly impossible, especially when she gets close to the cooking station that you need to use. Still, if you do get a game over you’ll only be set back a short ways and simply have to replay the section you were most recently in.

But the game really opens up when you are exploring every nook and cranny trying to piece things together. You find yourself wanting answers and the game feeds you just enough to keep you hooked, especially for those like me how love checking every corner of an area. You learn that there is a way out of this nightmare thanks to your robot head friend that’s hiding behind a wall in your room. You explore to find new items and areas that give you tiny hints about everything going on, all the while keeping you on your toes with very tense areas that will jump scare you just when you let your guard down.

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You really only need to go to work in order to get money to buy items and push the story forward. That said, when you shift ends you are pretty free to explore and complete everything the game wants you to, even the segments that are hidden away and require to figure out puzzles to access. You’ll need to hack doors by combining items and create bombs in the same way. During your exploration you’ll come across notes that expand the story as well as giving you recipes for new unlocks to get you though that weird area that is locked off from you. Looking at the achievement list on Steam shows me that players are missing a lot and that follow-up playthroughs might end up surprising players.

This is all fantastic and backed by some amazing audio work. The game gives you a radio that you can take with you and turn on at will. There seems to be hours of content being fed to you by a radio DJ and interviews you find along the way, all who you learn are also trapped in some fashion in this dystopian town or work for some shady group. There are television programs and commercials that are super weird and also help expand on things. Look, there is a lot going on which makes drawing you in a joy. The world building the developers focused on is incredible and something even AAA titles get wrong. It’s a joy to be able to piece what’s goin on yourself instead of the game explaining everything like you are a child. Hell, even your dumb coworker has their own backstory that you can uncover, giving you a different and altogether sad view of what seems like just a big dumb idiot.

Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is a must own and one of the most unique experiences you’ll have this year. That said, it’s not without its issues. As stated before, Happy is a pain in the ass. The developers even lowered the difficulty after player input, but it’s still a real issue that can put some players off. There’s also a lot of backtracking that can get tedious, especially when worrying about your meters. But the most pressing issue is the pacing the game takes. The game begs for exploration but isn’t designed around it in an open manner. You need to go to work in order to earn money that can be used for all sorts of things, many of which wont push the story forward. You can upgrade the restaurant, collect toys, get drunk, and buy things that seem to do nothing. It works, but it means you could easily miss things. I’d love some sort of exploration mode after you beat the main game.

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But those things are mostly minor and serve more as wants. There is very little in Happy’s Humble Burger Farm that I disliked. In fact, what the game does right easily outweighs anything that might be holding it back from greatness. Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is a game that sticks with you. I can’t begin to tell you the amount of really messed up dreams that I’ve been having since playing it. My brain starts filling in gaps and I even woke up last night thinking my actual world had somehow merged with the game. I can’t actually be sure that it hasn’t. Could all this be some Matrix-like simulation that I’ve been tossed into. All I can remember is sipping drinks on the beach. Boy, I could really go for a Happy Deluxe right about now.

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Final Score

Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is a beautiful nightmare that you’ll remember long after you’ve finished playing it.

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