Arctic Eggs | A strange yet refreshing challenge

Sometimes you don't need to make sense

I rarely feel the urge to play a short game, even to my detriment. I adore sinking my teeth into a dense world and story, but occasionally a game can keep my attention through gameplay alone. Balatro is a prime example, it's a game that gets me into a perfect flow state. When I play Balatro it feels like time isn't real and I'm trapped in my own little void separate from real life. Arctic Eggs is nothing like Balatro, and it has a set play time of ~2.5 hours unlike Balatro's endless limit, but Arctic Eggs puts me into a similar flow state.

This game is simple, charming, and absurd. It opens with your character in a dark room being reprimanded by a guard, he says your functions have been reduced to walking and cooking, and you've been assigned the role of Poultry Prepper. You will notice that you are surrounded by rows of caged chickens. The only way you can escape is if you have an audience with the Sage of Six Stomachs, but to be worthy you need to feed 27 people. According to the Sage’s guard, the number doesn’t hold significance it just felt right.

The opening image of Arctic Eggs, a dark room, filled with caged chickens.

The city you're in is oppressive and tight, as you explore you can feel how the layers have built upon each other. Yet, the layers don't even make sense. You are surrounded by metal walkways, stairs, and falling snow. Next you're in a windowless prison, illuminated by dim red lights. Then a lonely aquarium. Even a lively nightclub, though time is ambiguous here. All these places are filled with a variety of citizens, surrounded by many armed guards. Despite them all living in the same desolate conditions, we find people in a mix of joyful and sorrowful states. The character models are expressive despite the stagnant expressions, their emotions being shown through their eccentric movements and their dialogue.

The writing ranges from bare-boned simplicity to the most long winded pretentious paragraph of a statement. You can't help but be amused. From what everyone says you get fragments of this city's history. Poultry has been banned, which is the reason for the caged chickens. There was a war with Argentina. Flamingos were banned and are gone. Dolphins have been decommissioned. There's so many disjointed facts you discover, yet it seems to fit this world perfectly. It makes you question how deep can you go with this game or are you overthinking things?

The environment of the game just adds to the gameplay and the task you'll be doing for the whole run time: frying eggs and other miscellaneous things. You control your frying pan with your mouse and your main goal is to fully cook what the people desire. The sensitivity can be adjusted with the scroll wheel and that's it. Extremely simple mechanics that can lead you into a time sink.

If you're struggling on a dish, and you do the same thing over and over again, there's a high chance you'll get stuck. Like any challenge, you need to make changes, whether it's how tight you're gripping the pan or how hard you flick the pan. Positioning also matters at times depending on the 'dish' you're cooking. I would lose myself to all these miniscule changes, repeating dishes again and again, adjusting again and again, until a satisfying fry is completed.

Characters you meet will sometimes describe your cooking as beautiful. Some will critique you, judge you for being reduced to a Poultry Prepper. Some just want to continue to see your pan swing.

The entertainment of this game doesn't just come from the act of frying, but what you're frying. It is such a joy, at times a shock, to see what these citizens want you to cook for them. You just need to go along with it and adapt to whatever object they throw in.

This game was such a funky ride. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. Maybe it’s a sign of my mental state. Maybe it's because the challenge it presented was satisfying, without the need to grind endlessly. This game ended up being exactly what I needed, a short, strange gem with lots of charm.