Ampu-Tea is a tea-making simulator in which the player uses a robotic arm to make a cup of tea. As you can guess, the title of the game is a pun on words (amputee).
Even though the premise of this game appears simple to understand and play. With actually playing this game. This game is tricky because it uses a keyboard/mouse to control the movements of the arm, hand and fingers. Not dissimilar to the control system as used in Surgeon Simulator. Unsurprisingly, this game is very fiddly to play on, whilst I had no issue with picking up cups. Most of the other tasks that you need to do are awkward, just like in Surgeon Simulator.
However, if you compare this game to Surgeon Simulator, there is a big difference. On Ampu-tea, there is one scenario in the game. This scenario is making a cup of tea in the kitchen. Outside of this, there is no other content available to earn/play in the game after you complete the game. Even though there is 3 types of tea to make based on the difficulty chosen.
With regards to gameplay, I think the game is a chore to play. However, I did enjoy the game for a short period of time. But I feel that the novelty of the game wears off very quickly. This is because you have a robotic arm rather than a human hand in a modern kitchen. The fact that there is a limited number of objectives provides little to no extra reason to play the game, which doesn’t help the game either.
I also think that the game is a quick cash grab or even a school project. I think this because the content on offer is limited and basic. The fact that the lack of inspiration/effort put into the game goes against it. Personally, if the game hadn’t had the robotic arm, I still think Ampu-Tea would have a little more charm. Mostly, because the arm looks so out of place for a game set in the modern day.
Although this is a small indie game, the overall quality is poor and/or rushed on many fronts. The quality of in-game assets is an example of this. The tea bags, in particular, I feel, prove my point as the tea bags in-game appear too full for a tea bag. The aesthetic texture that is used on the teabags is ok. There is some detail on the tea bags. The tea bags also use the expected colours. However, I think the in-game models could be improved upon.
The visual effects are poor, as the assets in-game are represented in either a solid item or a gas. I dislike the binary choice of asset forms, as this game is about making tea; the game requires the inclusion of liquid. Take the milk machine, for example, instead of pouring milk in a liquid form. The game will actually spawn the milk in a solid material that looks like a table tennis ball instead. The water is also the same, but it looks like a blue orb rather than water. It also doesn’t end there, as whenever you have made a cup of tea, the steam effects that the game uses are more like smoke rather than steam.
However, if this game had been set in a futuristic setting, it could have been better for many reasons. Potentially, this game could have you making tea in a spaceship or in another setting where gravity no longer exists. There could have been a mode where you make tea for others, timed against the clock.
Unsurprisingly, this game is short, since you can get all the Steam achievements in 2 hours. However, to get the final achievement, it will take you 6.7 hours to complete the game. This is because to get the final achievement, you have to load the game 500 times. This achievement is a senseless and monotonous task. Generally, due to the aforementioned factors, I feel this isn’t a real game. But instead, this feels like a demo or even something for people to play with/create videos for YouTube.
I think that the limited content is tragic. I think this is the game that should have taken more leaves from Surgeon Simulator’s book. Since Surgeon Simulator has different options/modes, this game should have a similar amount of content. The game could have had different kitchens to play on, or extra cups of tea to make. This game could have even more scenarios, providing a refreshing and unique way to play. I feel that if it were well-made and featured more content, this game could have been a better experience.
Inevitably, I wouldn’t recommend that anyone buy Ampu-tea at all because there are better games in the genre.
Resources For This Game
If you still want to play this game yourself, you can find it here.
Steam Community Page For Ampu-Tea
If you still want to play this game yourself, you can find it here.
Steam Community Page For Ampu-Tea
