Fast food is the bane of my existence. Too quick, too easy, and it has not been kind to my waist, however, not as easy as it seems behind the counter where all the action is. I was thankfully never cut out for a job in hospitality as I was growing up, I had no ‘people skills’, and playing ‘Fast Food Simulator’ by No Ceiling Games has solidified that opinion still today.

The plot in most simulators is simple and it is the same here. You are tasked to run your fast-food restaurant from the ground up. You can take on this new business adventure as a solo entrepreneur or with up to 6 other ‘investors’, or as I would fondly call them, teammate lackeys. I enjoyed playing more in Multiplayer than Singleplayer on this one, as the banter back and forth felt like you were in a real team on a stressful shift. I wish there was more of an overarching narrative with challenges, perhaps like a kids’ party, broken equipment to fix, or burger-thon or something.

Being a simulator, the gameplay is the driving factor—the ability to act in the theme realistically. In this case, running a fast-food restaurant, ordering ingredients from a vendor on your trusty staff computer, hiring staff, running a drive-thru, and making sure the overall quality of food going out is high enough to keep customers happy and willing to come back—there is much to juggle at once. You have time to prep your establishment for the day, this might be cooking patties, setting up bain-maries of lettuce, onions, tomatoes, pickles, or deep frying french fries while you walk around your kitchen. 

Clicking on your big neon sign will start your 9 am shift till 9 pm. Customers will arrive, you will take their receipt to put on a tray and their order will pop up on all the monitors for you to track. You must then in the kitchen build their specific burger, drink or side or a combination of them. You must then run your tray out the front of the house to the customer who will leave a tip if happy. You need to follow these receipts closely or you will do the opposite and upset your customers and your reputation. It has a very realistic flow to it all.

As your restaurant grows in popularity and profit you earn XP to level up. Levelling up is important as it expands your business opportunities unlocking things like soda machines, ice cream production, coffee barista stations, the drive-through window,  more ingredients for burgers etc. These things add difficulty as you juggle more tasks especially now with orders from vehicles flooding in. This could be a fear in solo but you can hire NPC staff thankfully to assist. 

Overall, the appearance graphically of the Fast Food Simulator is basic. The menus are basic from the title screen to ordering forms on the staff computer. The NPCs are particularly horrifying to greet at your cash register as they waddle up. The food itself is particularly interesting and very well designed, I suppose it is the star of the show after all. The cars that approach aren’t too bad either, but the general environment around the restaurant isn’t anything to write home about.

The sound effects are also of the very generic kind. These are satisfactory but they aren’t interesting and very stock. There are sizzlings of fries and patties, the slurping of sauce bottle squirts and mild rumblings of engines as they pull up to drive through the window.

The NPCs have some pretty scary reactions to their food with out-of-character cheers and whoops, any normal person would look at these crazies across their tables and call a psych ward. The whole restaurant needs ambient music, a radio would be a cool inclusion.

I absolutely love they have some new content coming to the game planned which you can see in the supply list as it says coming soon. I would however like to see some more outfits for yourself and the staff though as right now they are bland or totally unflattering and in need of more customisation.

Fast Food Simulator is a sufficient simulator that is incredibly fun and stressful with friends despite its average look and styling. The gameplay is the meat between the buns.

Written by: Stacey