All you need to defeat some Hungry Horrors is a cooking pot and a plucky attitude. And maybe some rosemary?
We all know the story: Beautiful and youthful Princess gets captured by bad guys, and a young strapping knight fights and slays monsters to save her. Not here in Hungry Horrors, that is, available in Early Access on Steam from Clumsy Bear Studio on January 19th.
You are the Princess, complete with long-flowing brunette hair, a beautiful dress, and an attitude to match. (She’s all about waiting for her Prince to come rescue her, but it becomes clear he’s not coming anytime soon.)
(As the game is in Early Access, portions of this review may become out ot date over time. I’ll do my best to update it as development moves forward.)
Hungry Horrors is a roguelite deck-builder with a twist. (A delicious, delicious twist.) In addition to you not being a Knight, you’re not here to get the shiniest, most powerful weapons to slay monsters. You’re here to feed them a buffet of delicious-looking dishes to save your kingdom. If you love the food and mythology of the British Isles, you’ll be right at home here.
(Note: One of the best features of the game, in my opinion, was a whole section of lore for each beast you’d come across. No having to tab out to Google if you wanted to learn more about them!)
The core loop was simple but certainly scratched a delightful itch, and I loved going back with new dishes to learn different likes and loves for every creature, helping me grow and hone my decks. Dishes were classified by craving, whether sweet, savory, bitter, sour, or salty. Each creature had its own likes and loves…and dislikes and hates. Hell hath no fury like giving a Nuckelavee something they hated.
And the ability to season them? As a wise man once said, “A man can live on packaged food from here ’til Judgment Day if he’s got enough rosemary.” You can obtain seasonings throughout the game and add them to your dishes at certain points during your run to add different effects to your food.
Outside of the basic concept of “feed the monsters something they’ll like,” you always have to be thinking of the next dish. You can’t just double up on Yorkshire Pudding and hope to defeat a Fachan, hopefully you’ve got something sweet in your deck like Jersey Wonders to follow it up for maximum effect. (And then Toad in a Hole and then Shortbread.) The longer you can keep favor combos going, the better, especially in the last few areas of the Early Access build.
Throughout the runs, you’ll encounter vendors and quest-givers who are also from folklore of the UK and British Isles. I had no idea who Herne the Hunter was or what a Wulver was until I read further in the in-game lore book. And I’ll admit it, it probably took until I was three and a half hours in to put it together that the Book of Taliesin, where you’d apply your upgrades between runs, wasn’t just a name made up for the game, that it too had significance to the region.
If I had to pull out a con, it would be in general deck management. Throughout your runs, you can earn or buy cards with dishes, which is great because as you progress, the bigger dishes come in especially handy. The only issue for me, though, was being able to keep track of what I had in the moment as I had to pick those rewards; hopefully, an update will come along where you’ll be able to see how many of a certain card you have in your deck.
If you hop into Hungry Horrors on the 19th, you’ll be greeted with:
- 5 biomes
- 20 mythical creatures, each with a unique ending animation
- 42 traditional dishes
- 7 legendary NPCs
- 5 original music tracks written for the game by Henry Taylor
- A wide range of seasonings, cookware, artefacts, and potions to collect and combine
I’ve spent roughly ten hours in the game, and I’ve accomplished getting through all five biomes, but there are still some dishes, NPCs, and various items I haven’t discovered yet. I love how easy it is to pick up, play a bit, and go back to work/family/chores/etc. Bonus: it works great on my computer AND Steam Deck.
Hungry Horrors releases into Early Access on Steam on January 19th, and you can still give the demo a whirl beforehand. You can keep up with Clumsy Bear Studio on their Bluesky and Twitter pages, as well as their website.