"An Undercooked Mess"
"Overcooked" was a title I was meaning to try out for quite some time, and managed to give it a shot alongside my girlfriend. We were intrigued by its cute aesthetic and simple to understand, hard to master gameplay, and were looking to see what else we would enjoy from the experience. Unfortunately the gameplay did not evolve very well throughout our adventure, and after some incredibly frustrating sets of levels, boring repetition, and a barebones "plot" we decided to give up on this title.
The aesthetic of "Overcooked" is something that will drive many to give it a shot in the first place. It has inoffensive graphics and a goofy charm to its world and characters, all wrapped up in a fairly colorful and bright package. The music is a little repetitive, but the levels are designed with some good attention to detail. It's a shame that this is where it stopped with its creativity...
The story in this one is essentially absent. There is some weird shtick where you must open successful restaurants in order to stop some evil monster, but honestly it takes such a backseat that it doesn't even matter after a few levels. The characters are also bland despite their aesthetic, which was quite disappointing to say the least.
The gameplay loop is also really boring. You start off with a single recipe and slowly get used to making it in a batch of different levels. However, this game contains only a handful of recipes and subtle variations of maps, so you'll not only get tired of what you make, but also WHERE you make it. This led to some really bad pacing for the levels following the first five, and afterwards felt like a slow decrease in quality with each new level set.
Lastly, the gameplay is also really frustrating. One minor mistake will throw off your whole operation, and the controls are finicky and at times less responsive than one would hope. There is also the stage that you must fight against at times, and this feedback loop starts to feel less exciting and more irritating with each progressive level. The maps are also designed in a weird way where certain tools are scattered around in obscure spots, or so close together that you will accidentally keep placing yourself on the wrong station. Some smarter level structure would have helped tremendously, and the neat visual design of them was sadly wasted on some sloppy layouts.
Overall, I would Not Recommend "Overcooked". It's a bite sized game in design, but it tries to be something much larger and greater than it is. This ends up hurting the pacing and exposes the flaws in level design, the weak story, and its finnicky controls. It ends up being more frustrating than fun, which is never a good pairing for a co-op title. While it is cute and colorful on the surface, the gameplay lacks the same level of charm.
Final Verdict: 4/10 (Below Average)
"Overcooked" was a title I was meaning to try out for quite some time, and managed to give it a shot alongside my girlfriend. We were intrigued by its cute aesthetic and simple to understand, hard to master gameplay, and were looking to see what else we would enjoy from the experience. Unfortunately the gameplay did not evolve very well throughout our adventure, and after some incredibly frustrating sets of levels, boring repetition, and a barebones "plot" we decided to give up on this title.
The aesthetic of "Overcooked" is something that will drive many to give it a shot in the first place. It has inoffensive graphics and a goofy charm to its world and characters, all wrapped up in a fairly colorful and bright package. The music is a little repetitive, but the levels are designed with some good attention to detail. It's a shame that this is where it stopped with its creativity...
The story in this one is essentially absent. There is some weird shtick where you must open successful restaurants in order to stop some evil monster, but honestly it takes such a backseat that it doesn't even matter after a few levels. The characters are also bland despite their aesthetic, which was quite disappointing to say the least.
The gameplay loop is also really boring. You start off with a single recipe and slowly get used to making it in a batch of different levels. However, this game contains only a handful of recipes and subtle variations of maps, so you'll not only get tired of what you make, but also WHERE you make it. This led to some really bad pacing for the levels following the first five, and afterwards felt like a slow decrease in quality with each new level set.
Lastly, the gameplay is also really frustrating. One minor mistake will throw off your whole operation, and the controls are finicky and at times less responsive than one would hope. There is also the stage that you must fight against at times, and this feedback loop starts to feel less exciting and more irritating with each progressive level. The maps are also designed in a weird way where certain tools are scattered around in obscure spots, or so close together that you will accidentally keep placing yourself on the wrong station. Some smarter level structure would have helped tremendously, and the neat visual design of them was sadly wasted on some sloppy layouts.
Overall, I would Not Recommend "Overcooked". It's a bite sized game in design, but it tries to be something much larger and greater than it is. This ends up hurting the pacing and exposes the flaws in level design, the weak story, and its finnicky controls. It ends up being more frustrating than fun, which is never a good pairing for a co-op title. While it is cute and colorful on the surface, the gameplay lacks the same level of charm.
Final Verdict: 4/10 (Below Average)