Godlike Burger Is The People's Burger
Liquid Pug wants to eliminate the impatient or casual players in Godlike Burger. If you can bear it for a few ‘practice runs’, making the perfect burger may bear fruit. Wait – a fruit burger? Let’s stick to alien entrails.
I’ve been looking forward to this game since its announcement. Imagine my dismay when it turns out to be an Overcooked rendition of multitasking on the fly while 101 things try to distract you/prevent you from getting anywhere. What was I expecting!?!
You’re the chef sailing the good ship Godlike Burger. There’ll be planet hopping (when you complete the challenges) to appeal to bigger spenders, but more importantly, to shake off the cops, you’ll be looking to upgrade your establishment with the best money can buy. It’s not just fancy stoves but the traps you use to kill your clientele and mince them into a patty for serving.
The core gameplay is catering for (and with) Johnny Public. They’ll come in and request a burger, and you have to ensure you use the ingredients they demand. Perhaps you’ve run out, in which case you’ll need to order more stock; otherwise, follow them into the toilets and chop them up, serve the requested burger, build your prestige and earn some money along the way.
Money buys the upgrades you need to improve your workflow or keep you sane. It’ll also unlock recipes for sauces that will encourage specific behavioural traits from the customers, get an insight into their likes/dislikes, or bribe the police should you get caught doing something you shouldn’t. Oh, and don’t forget to pay your rent; otherwise, the legbreakers – sorry, collectors, will arrive at your place.
Due to this being a rogue-like, you’ll have to restart every time you die and believe me, that’s a little too often in the beginning. With minimal health and only two swipes of the cleaver, it’s not so hard to go back to the start. Fortunately, you’ll keep all the passives such as kitchen and chef upgrades – increased health, attack power, and the indispensable traps – once you get to the planets where the aliens are ‘cleaver proof’.
My initial frustration was the sheer volume of distractions like kicking appliances to reboot, burning the produce, or perhaps worse: starting a chain where every customer is chasing you until your inevitable death. I beat 15 days in a row on one run only to cleave a customer instead of kicking them, which triggered a Benny Hill set piece of running in circles until murdered in cold blood. What happened? It was back to day one and the first planet.
Complete the set challenges (i.e. kill x amount of an alien race or serve two customers while covered in blood), meet the requirements for prestige, have the money for the fare, and you’ll be off to a new planet with new aliens and challenges. Die, however, and you have to unlock the planet again. Aaarrrgghhhh!!!! My approach to Godlike Burger was to show contempt for time: grind a level, then squirrel away my earnings until I could upgrade.
Between runs, your chef will return to their hub to order new stock, upgrade stats, unlock info on aliens, develop unique sauces, pay bribes, pay your bills, and travel. Should you meet the requirements. Additionally, there’s a safe that you can put your money into, though you only keep 80% of it. That’s banks for you. It’s a lengthy procedure, but it works, and I soon enjoyed Godlike Burger – more than the first couple of hours.
The presentation is very nice, and the controls are simple enough. Once you unlock those core upgrades (more counters, stoves and not having to repair the appliances every five minutes), it doesn’t feel that hectic. Besides, you can slow down time to make it manageable, or vice versa, to speed up the customer’s decision making/enticing them to the loos for a stabbing. Watch out. While the restaurant’s appearance remains the same, other than the various trap upgrades, you can switch the music – and that was a highlight; it’s very catchy.
Godlike Burger is much of the same throughout, with a steady increment of fair challenges once you learn the mechanics. My biggest issue is losing access to all the planets, and after getting so far each time to having to redo it, it can be quite the chore regardless of the upgrades unlocked. With that in mind, I have this on loop and still enjoying it (mostly) – more so than Overcooked and its clones. It’s less hectic and solo only – you don’t need to rely on others to get your meat.