HAM: The Game Review (PC)

What’s the difference between a white-collar job and a blue-collar job? There aren’t any. Or at least, not in this particular warehouse, anyway. See, as much as I’d love to tell you that cooperate housing is all sunshine and daises, six figure salaries and luxury apartments, it isn’t. Sadly, the same applies for the average factory worker, too. The truth is, when it comes to HAM: The Game, everybody is the brunt of the joke, and there are absolutely no guarantees that a good job will lead to a lavish outcome. If you can’t package goods in a swift manner, then you have no right to plea for a wage increase. Likewise, if you cannot distribute jobs in an economically productive manner, then again, you have no right to keep your position. There are no collars here — just a level playing field and a whole lot of chaos.

It doesn’t matter if you clock in as a corporate bigwig or as a determined warehouse employee, because at the end of the day, nobody could care less about your goals and aspirations or what you want to achieve. Here, the quota is everything, and if you aren’t able to keep to the strict deadlines and keep the wheel of progress churning, then you’re as good as dead in the eyes of upper management. It’s how you go about fulfilling company obligations, that’s the tough part. And that’s where HAM pulls you in — with a promise that, if you can do what you should be doing, then you will “eventually” claim all of the sweet, sweet nectar of corporate power. Spoiler alert: nobody survives long enough to sample the fruits of their labour.

HAM: The Game divides its gameplay into two roles: managers, whose job it is to organize the factory and weave an efficient production strategy into a well-oiled workhorse; and staff, who have the task of completing an endless stream of orders and carrying out the manual labour in a swift and orderly fashion. If you’re a manager, then you have the responsibility of ensuring that you retain your position in the hot seat after each shift, whereas the common factory employee has the job of ferrying orders back and forth between conveyor belts, trucks, and equipment. It’s a simple concept, but one that, due to the sporadic nature of the warehouse itself and the way in which it operates, is surprisingly difficult to understand on the fly.

While the task of fulfilling orders can feel graciously satisfying for the most part, HAM is anything but a smooth and painless experience. Given that each new shift brings about a cascading barrage of jobs, orders, strategies and obstacles (as well as a voting system that requires you to overthrow or retain a boss), the game actively forces you to submerge into chaos and accomplish your objectives whilst also simultaneously watching the factory walls crumble and the ragtag workers bolt around like headless chickens. And if you think this all sounds like a digitalized nightmare — it is, and then some.

If you’re looking for a well-oiled machine that practically runs itself, then you won’t find that here. Frustratingly, everything in HAM has a bad habit of either breaking, cutting out, or failing to cooperate as and when needed. For instance, if you’re a blue-collar worker, then you have the job of fixing broken conveyor belts, repelling impatient truck drivers, and ensuring that nothing falls apart before the quota is republished. And then there’s the managerial process—a separate headache that requires round-the-clock supervision and careful analysis. All in all, a lot to juggle, and to top it all off, a good old-fashioned union of workers who will happily squash your ambitions at the flick of a switch. That’s another matter altogether, though.

Beneath its fast-paced gameplay and ever-expanding chore-based mechanics lies a genuinely enjoyable co-op experience that gets a lot of things right. Sure, it’s hectic, and it often serves up more headaches than spells of satisfactory collaboration. Yet, behind its steep learning curve and rather chaotic conditions idles an annoying yet strangely addictive experience that leaves a huge amount for you to experiment with. And the warehouse, in general, has a lot going for it, with a quality selection of equipment and upgrades, curveballs and modes of operation. It never feels like a well-oiled machine, but I think that’s sort of the point.

Frankly, there’s a lot of room for HAM to evolve into something much, much greater. The foundation for a great game is already in place, true. Yet, it also has the capacity to latch onto more materials and options to help it further expand its core model. Mechanically, it’s a little messy, but again, that’s pretty much what it aims for. The problem is, it’s often difficult to tell whether or not it’s broken, or if it’s intentional. Either way, it’s best not expect HAM to be a walk in the park, much less a buttery smooth experience with flawless capabilities.

Verdict

HAM: The Game is a slice-of-sour grapes blue-collar pantomime that has all of the characteristics and ludicrous antics of a tedious yet strangely addictive PvE experience that can keep you engulfed in the hustle and bustle for hours. It’s still a little sloppy in places, but if anything, it adds to the overall kookiness of the existing formula. It isn’t a picnic; it’s a sandbox with one too many crumbling castles and broken buckets.

Suffice it to say that, in spite of all its shortcomings, HAM: The Game is a great PvE title with plenty of intriguing facets and quirky elements to call its own. Granted, it isn’t the perfect place for you to cash your paycheck, but it a workplace that you’ll want to clock back into time and time again, if not for the constant squabbling and endless grafting, then for the comical value that binds to the nature of the work itself. It’ll make you want to call in sick from time to time I’ll admit, but hey, it could be a lot worse. You could be working in a prestigious fulfilment center during the festive period. Take that as a small win.