Don’t keep customers waiting in this free horror game
Happy’s Humble Burger Barn is a free fast food restaurant horror simulation video game that will turn your burger-flipping experience into a quick surreal nightmare. Developed by Scythe Dev Team, this nighttime adventure of serving up fries and patties offers an unsettling vibe that can be found in other low-poly horror games. It’s a short game but it’s still a nice immersive addition to the developer team’s saga of connected indie horror titles.
Order up!
Happy’s Humble Burger Barn features your typical midnight retail work shift, similar to the premise of The Convenience Store and Night Shift. You are a new employee at the aptly-named burger shop who must work their first time at night—without any help from your supposed coworkers. The job is simple, however, as you just need to follow the handy instructions on the top-right corner and the numerous restaurant policies on posters scattered inside the place.
Working alone as both the fry cook, cashier, and security isn’t so bad since the customers just slowly trickle in and never really overwhelm you with a timer, unlike most cooking simulators. Despite the grainy and dirty-looking graphics, the game is reminiscent of PS1/PSX-era games and adds a touch of nostalgia to it, as well. The controls are simple and you can pretty much go at your own pace to explore the surprisingly-detailed environment.
However, the easy grind of the gameplay is really quick to distract you from the horror side of the story. This quaint burger joint is no ordinary place and you’ll soon find out what really makes the place unsettling the moment you arrived. The game is unfortunately short but feels immersive and alive enough, what with the nice music, sound design, and voice-acting involved. Plus, the low-poly resolution really brings out the creep factor.
A unique retail horror
All in all, Happy’s Humble Burger Barn definitely brings a niche horror subgenre to life. The plot twist helps promote the developer’s Scythe Saga Universe of horror games and there’s even an Endless Mode available if you loved the restaurant simulator side of it. It’s only too bad that it’s a short adventure and can’t tweak the settings but this title is still a highly-recommended indie game.
