If you have played Cookie Clicker previously, then you know what to expect, and you’re well aware that this might ruin your free time in the coming months. On the other hand, if you’ve never given it a chance, or if this is the first time that you’ve heard of Cookie Clicker or incremental games in general, then you might be confused as to why such a silly game has garnered such a huge following.
In essence, incremental games all have the same goal, you gotta make numbers go up. Sometimes you’ll have to reset a part of your progress to reap some rewards, but it all comes down to maximizing your productivity, whether that be cookies, ores, or whatever. In this case, in Cookie Clicker you’ll be building your cookie empire little by little, spending cookies as a way of further expanding your cookie making capabilities.
There are plenty of games like this out there, each with their own theme and mechanics, but I’m pretty sure that the genre only exploded in popularity when Cookie Clicker became a thing back in 2013. I actually find it hard to believe that it’s been almost a decade since I clicked my first cookie and found a new source of a dopamine rush.
So yeah, Cookie Clicker is a game about clicking on a huge cookie, but it actually isn’t. Despite its name, Cookie Clicker is more what you’d call an idle game, or an idler, and this is true for a lot of games in this genre. What this means is that you’ll actually only be doing something in the game every now and then, like buying upgrades that allow you to make more cookies. Meanwhile, most of your progress happens when you just leave the game open and let it do its thing, which in this case is making delicious chocolate cookies.
Still with me? Does it sound silly? If you’ve answered yes to both of these questions, then good, that means you’re one step closer to embracing a new addiction. Now, the truth is that, even though the game has only recently been released on Steam, it’s actually available for free here. Yes, it’s the whole game, pretty much a carbon copy of the paid Steam version, or vice versa, but you get what I’m saying.
So, the question is, what exactly does one get from buying the game on Steam? Well, besides the obvious one of having the game neatly stored in what’s probably your biggest game’s library on PC, I’d argue that its biggest feature is support for cloud saves and its integration with Steam Cloud. I honestly can’t stress how big of a deal that is for me, as I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve lost all of my progress in the past 9 years.
Besides that, the game also supports mods through Steam’s Workshop, over 500 achievements for all the achievement hunters out there, as well as some lovely music by the one and only C418. If that sounds familiar, that might be thanks to Minecraft.
At the end of the day, if you’ve read this far, I honestly don’t know why you did so. The game is free, so just try it out for yourself instead of letting someone online try to convince you to click some cookie. If you find any slight amount of enjoyment from it, then the game is ridiculously cheap on Steam, or you can also support the developer directly on Patreon.
Whether you end up liking Cookie Clicker, hating it, or letting it consume you, I won’t be held responsible for your actions. If you choose to delve deeper into the incremental games’ abyss, you do so at your own peril. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go check if grandma is still keeping up with the cookie production.
