The Ice Cream Shop Review (PC)

The Boba Teashop taught me one thing: people who actively choose to visit confectionary stores during the dead of night are either weirdly ignorant, or have no concept of how to act normal in an otherwise regular environment. It also taught me that the witching hour, specifically, is no stranger to unusual customers, and that the strangest of folks often look to places like boba stores or, in this case, The Ice Cream Shop, to unleash their eccentric appetites and unorthodox personalities. What I mean to say is that the twilight shift and ominous events sort of go hand in hand. And if there’s one thing that The Ice Cream Shop scoops up and serves on a bloody waffle cone, it’s merge the two together to create the weirdest double dip ever. Unlike The Boba Teashop, however, this world just prefers to season its kookiness with cream and sprinkles.

Of course, the idea itself remains mostly the same: a shopkeeper tends to a cold and lonely store—a place where questionable folk miraculously appear during the strangest of times to pen their orders and make your job a bit of a living nightmare. The job, though, is a little different, in that it doesn’t task you with rifling through pearls and tea leaves, but with cones and scoops, and so on and so forth. But, what you see here is what you get: a simple job simulator that invites you to create custom ice creams and serve peculiar guests. The catch? Everyone is a little, shall we say, different. And by different I mean, guests who stem from paths of rebellion or superstition. There are convicts, mischievous teens, lonesome wanderers, and even a few supernatural visitors, believe it or not.

There isn’t a huge amount for you to accomplish in The Ice Cream Shop. Similar to The Boba Teashop, you more or less have the responsibility of interacting with various kiosks and appliances to create, personalize and ultimately serve cones, bowls, and an à la carte of confectionery items to your customers. The dark cloud between this rather peaceful journey isn’t so much the customers, but the psychological distractions that tie in with your fleeting emotions. See, the story transpires in tandem with your mind—a mischievous conscious that forces you to question a lot more than your surroundings as you gradually work through the orders. Shadows; unnatural events; and guests who may or may not be there, to scratch off just a few of these dark clouds.

Beneath the odd jump scare and ambient peek-a-boo moment that The Ice Cream Shop spoon feeds you to rock the apple cart, so to speak, you have a relatively straightforward and somewhat peaceful simulation game with only a handful of mechanics and rules to wrap your head around. It isn’t the most polished experience on the board, and it certainly isn’t one that brings anything particularly exciting to the usual waffle cone setting, either. Yet, there’s an enjoyable indie here that does just enough to tickle that sweet tooth and keep you coming back for another scoop.

At the end of the day, it’s ice cream — so you can take everything that’s even remotely complicated out of the equation immediately. As for the cooking process, it’s as simple as adding scoops to cones, adding the odd sprinkle or finishing touch, and serving them in a swift and efficient manner to appease a looming hunger. It isn’t a Michelin star restaurant; it’s a cold one-stop shop for ice cream, meaning, you don’t need to be a sous chef to make ends meet here. Go figure.

As if ice cream wouldn’t melt — the game is exactly what you would expect it to be, with a familiar business simulation gameplay hook, a creepy atmosphere, and the occasional jump scare to help put a spring in your step at the precise moment you begin to feel at ease with the workflow. It’s all here, complete with the shoddy visual effects, intentionally bad character design, and grueling tasks that make you feel like you would much rather be anywhere else in the world than behind the kiosk during the eleventh hour.

If you’re looking for a horror game with a lot of intricate mechanisms and depth, then frankly, you won’t find that here. All in all, The Ice Cream Shop is a short game that still leaves a fair amount to be desired. That said, for the short amount of time that it does park itself behind the counter, it makes a good effort to keep you on your toes and forever second guessing the next customer. Granted, it doesn’t boast the greatest roster of guests in the world, but for a quick thrill that harbors enough to give you the chills (literally), I’d say that it warrants the price of a two-scoop waffle cone.

Verdict

The Ice Cream Shop might lack the special ingredient and unique flavors of a classically good-looking indie job simulator, but to call it a waffle cone without any form of palatable comfort just wouldn’t be fair nor true. See, it falls into a rather niche category, yet one that also happens to have a lot of iterations that span multiple settings and job titles. Unfortunately, The Ice Cream Shop doesn’t do much more to elevate what other indie horrors have done in the past. In other words, if you have already played through the likes of The Boba Teashop or Happy’s Humble Burger Farm, then you’ve more than likely seen and experienced everything that The Ice Cream Shop has to offer.

With all of the above said, if you’re all for cheap thrills and chilling atmospheres with simple yet satisfying gameplay hooks, then you’re sure to find exactly what you’re looking for here. It won’t give you much to write home about I’ll admit, but for the price of a double mint chocolate chip ice cream, I suppose you could do a whole lot worse with the cash in your back pocket.