‣ 8/10 – This game should be called heart rate up.

‣ Thoughts: Stressful, relaxing, and addictive emotions meshed into a chaotic mess of culinary masterpieces will rush through you while playing PlateUp. If you have ever heard of overcooked, then you will know what to expect from this title.

When I first started playing PlateUp, I didn’t expect to keep going as long as I did. It creates an addictive gameplay loop that pushes you to strive for a better run every time you end a previous one. I would say that this game is straight up impossible alone and heavily lacks some sort of AI stand ins to players. But with a couple of friends this will quickly turn into a real kitchen. You’ll be shouting at each other, begging for the food to be delivered to the right table and cry when it all falls apart. Every player will have a designated role they will need to fill for an operation such as this to go as smoothly as it can. Some players will cook, other will do the dishes etc.

PlateUp naturally guides you into making up strategies that work best with your buddies without even telling you how to do it. All you get are these cards that you can buy which unlock extra items for you to use that can help progress the days in the kitchen. Sometimes you strategize with waiters if they need extra tables, or just stay selfish and buy yourself a new hob. It all boils down to pre-planning and then everyone manning their stations and doing their best.

Overall, the game is rather poorly paced, and it can take quite a few runs to unlock new dishes to cook and progress the game to its ultimate end. Even after 20 hours we felt like we’ve barely scratched the surface and just got tired of the repetitive days. But as quick one hour session this was a fun party game to have in your library in case there’s nothing serious you want to play.

Overcooked with a bit of a roguelike spin. They've added just enough complexity to the simple cooking game formula that it feels less like a party game and more something you have to plan for.

Overall a fun little game with a surprising amount of depth. The main negative being the clashing visual aesthetics. I understand a lot of complexity would come from animating more detailed player models, but they could have at least been of a similar visual style to the rest of the game. The arm-flopping animation for all actions makes it look like a crossover with Humans Fall Flat and ends up looking a bit ugly.

Overcooked if it was a roguelite. Highly recommend you play this in coop though as singleplayer is not nearly as fun.

What I like about plateup in particular is that it's more of a restaurant management game than just a food preparation party game like overcooked. You need to consider the size and space of your restaurant, where to put your tables, what upgrades you need etc. There are a lot of things to consider than Overcooked, which separates this game from being a party game, and something akin to more of a management strategy game.

Highly recommend if you liked Overcooked and want something with a little more strategy and progression, with good coop experience.

I found the idea interesting, but I think the progression made me lose interest quickly.

Attempts, if successful, take a long time to complete (survive for 15 days).

And when the result is failure, I didn't feel like the game gave me something that could really help me survive longer, and at the same time, when I lost, the feeling of "I did my best, I probably lost because the game wants it since I don't have many upgrades" combined, leading me to realize that the Roguelite stimulus is very slow, and attempts become easier, yes, but at a very slow pace.

The gameplay isn't something that's wonderful, but it's far from being bad.

A game that is probably more fun with friends and takes some time, it's a cool game to spend a few hours on but it didn't grip me as I expected, it lacks a clearer and more enjoyable progression.