Automachef

Automachef is a really fine and simple automatics system puzzler game. Even with its abundance of options and menus, which can be its good and bad thing. It is still a fine game with its price tag and offers hours of problem-solving missions.

Automachef is about managing resources and handling several objectives at the same time. For players who can take on such an exercise and who enjoy this kind of challenge, Automachef will be very welcome experience whereas for players looking for a simpler experience this will be an excessively complicated effort.

Automachef fails to really shine in any particular regard, and the control issues push an overall all right game towards mediocre territory. There’s so little depth to the puzzle solving that even now I struggle to really say anything about it that I haven’t already said. The best solution is too often to just brute force your way through the puzzles with little finesse or cleverness. Perhaps there’s an intentional meta-joke at play commenting on automation being able to push its way into jobs that humans could handle with more artistry, but all it leads to is a game that’s as rote and monotonous as the average job that could be done by a robot.

Automachef is a slow and methodical puzzle game that is at times unfriendly due to the lack of tutorial. Nevertheless, it can be quite rewarding to try things yourself and learn all the rules when creating a mind-bending food factory.

Automachef is complicated and sometimes downright difficult, but effortlessly charming and satisfying to crack once you finally get the gist of things. If you’ve ever been curious about an automation game, grab your apron and your toolbox, and witness your own mechanical cooking genius.

The type of gameplay that Automachef offers in’t going to be for everyone, but if you enjoy having to flex your brain a little, it offers a rewarding experience. It’s also a great entry point into basic programming. Perhaps playing on PC will offer a more intuitive experience, but the Switch version’s button controls aren’t enough of a barrier to stop Automachef being worthwhile to play.

Automachef does not stand out graphically, but in its difficulty and its simple gameplay is its virtue.

It looks as boring as it sounds but Automachef is a surprisingly engrossing game of logic and planning that refuses to dumb down for its audience.

Automachef is a brilliant, hard-as-nails puzzler which challenges you to think like a robot while simultaneously cultivating a distinctly human sense of creativity.

Automachef is absolutely not for everyone; it’s a puzzle game that overwhelms you from the start and only piles on more complexity as you progress through its 45 stages. There’s a degree of satisfaction to be found in spending hours putting together large, elaborate automated set-ups, troubleshooting their flaws then finally seeing them work as intended, but you need to put in a hell of a lot of work for that payoff and for many the toll it takes on the old noggin won’t be worth it.