Also for: Windows, Xbox One
First and foremost, let me declare that this top scoring review only reflects the couch co-op playthrough I completed with my brother. It doesn't factor in the single player mode or, for that matter, a three- or four-player playthrough. Since I don't review games professionally, I reserve the right to base my reviews on discrete parts of games.
With that out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks.
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Overcooked! (developed by Ghost Town Games and published by Team17) is an apt title if ever I saw one. It not only describes the setting and gameplay, but also perfectly mirrors the hilarious mental strain of juggling a handful of kitchen tasks at once. After a session of this game, your brain will be simmering in a stress sauce of frustration and delight, making it the most overcooked ingedient of the dish. If you have a weak heart, avoid this game.
This sets you off on a world cooking tour of the Onion Kingdom, where you and your co-chef must work together to feed its hungry populace. Within a set time frame, you must cook and serve a number of orders. Afterwards, based on your performance, you're rewarded points that are added to your aggregate score. With a high enough score, you may proceed to the next stage. After a few stages, you complete the era and proceed to a new year, in a different part of the kingdom.
It's a deliberately ridiculous children's tale, presented through cartoony animation and voiced by subtitled gibberish. A story to disregard, as it provides nothing but breathing room in preparation for the upcoming task.
After a few levels you need to use a bunch of kitchen paraphernalia, like saucepans and frying pans. Frying meat takes time, which you should not waste on waiting. Do you have other ingredients to prepare in the meantime? Maybe your partner needs assistance? And who will do the dishes? It's easy to get lost in your train of thought, and forget about what's cooking. If you leave something on the stove for too long, it will catch fire, spoiling the meal and threatening to burn down the whole level.
This is Overcooked! in a nutshell - the challenge of a thousand menial tasks. Each new stage changes the working conditions in some comical way. No kitchen seems designed with the staff in mind. Would you like to try out cooking on a rotating space station? Or serve a meal by sliding on ice floes across an arctic river? Most of the levels limits the working space, so you'll be in each other's way, or even briefly sealed off from parts of the kitchen.
The enjoyment of cooperating comes from the frantic communication - the cursing, cheering, laughing and raging - across the couch. I would play this game no other way. Together you work out methods of streamlining your work. Nothing can top the feeling of finally mastering a stage together, when you reach the empathetic bond that makes speaking almost redundant. You simply know what needs doing. Overcooked! might be the only teambuilding exercise I've experienced that actually works.
I briefly tried the single-player mode, and the way it makes you alternate between two different chefs reassures me this game was designed with two players in mind.
These were agonizing moments at the time, but in hindsight they register as slapstick comedy. I guess time not only heals all wounds. It also has a sense of humor.
In an unforgettable moment of triumph, on our umpteenth attempt, my brother served the final boss his last order with literally one second to spare. That is a fifteen-minute stage. With no way to help, I remember just watching time running out, all the while repeating: "It's no use. We won't make it." It was like one of those climactic bomb countdowns at the end of a thriller - except this time it was for real, because it was up to us. We had worked so hard to get there.
And together, he made it. And we beat the game.
2020 is still very fresh, but Overcooked! will undoubtedly hold many of my best gaming moments of the year. In this day and age, couch co-op feels like a dying art form. Yet, this game outclasses the ones I grew up with. Do you remember how they were usually designed back then? You died, and were forced to watch your friend play solo, secretly wishing he too would die soon. Overcooked! has none of that. Here you die together, you save the world together, and you laugh together, bonding over the delight of serving the people of the Onion Kingdom the perfect dish.
With that out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks.
---
Overcooked! (developed by Ghost Town Games and published by Team17) is an apt title if ever I saw one. It not only describes the setting and gameplay, but also perfectly mirrors the hilarious mental strain of juggling a handful of kitchen tasks at once. After a session of this game, your brain will be simmering in a stress sauce of frustration and delight, making it the most overcooked ingedient of the dish. If you have a weak heart, avoid this game.
THE ONION KING AND HIS KINGDOM
In the campaign mode, you and your friend control a couple of cooks trying to stave off an alien invasion in present day. The Ever Peckish, a massive hunk of alien-spaghetti-and-meatballs, is trying to gobble up Earth. To keep this from happening, you need to feed it a row of dishes and satiate its appetite. Problem is, you're not skilled enough to keep up. The friendly Onion King knows of a solution. He sends you back in time to 1993, to get ample practice for that fateful day.
This sets you off on a world cooking tour of the Onion Kingdom, where you and your co-chef must work together to feed its hungry populace. Within a set time frame, you must cook and serve a number of orders. Afterwards, based on your performance, you're rewarded points that are added to your aggregate score. With a high enough score, you may proceed to the next stage. After a few stages, you complete the era and proceed to a new year, in a different part of the kingdom.
It's a deliberately ridiculous children's tale, presented through cartoony animation and voiced by subtitled gibberish. A story to disregard, as it provides nothing but breathing room in preparation for the upcoming task.
TRY TO KEEP UP
The simple matter of cooking gets progressively harder by ever-worsening working conditions. You learn new, more advanced recipes as you go. From making simple salads and soups at the start, you end up cooking advanced tortillas, burgers, pizzas and deep fried dishes before you're done. You need to cultivate your multitasking skills to make it happen.
After a few levels you need to use a bunch of kitchen paraphernalia, like saucepans and frying pans. Frying meat takes time, which you should not waste on waiting. Do you have other ingredients to prepare in the meantime? Maybe your partner needs assistance? And who will do the dishes? It's easy to get lost in your train of thought, and forget about what's cooking. If you leave something on the stove for too long, it will catch fire, spoiling the meal and threatening to burn down the whole level.
This is Overcooked! in a nutshell - the challenge of a thousand menial tasks. Each new stage changes the working conditions in some comical way. No kitchen seems designed with the staff in mind. Would you like to try out cooking on a rotating space station? Or serve a meal by sliding on ice floes across an arctic river? Most of the levels limits the working space, so you'll be in each other's way, or even briefly sealed off from parts of the kitchen.
The enjoyment of cooperating comes from the frantic communication - the cursing, cheering, laughing and raging - across the couch. I would play this game no other way. Together you work out methods of streamlining your work. Nothing can top the feeling of finally mastering a stage together, when you reach the empathetic bond that makes speaking almost redundant. You simply know what needs doing. Overcooked! might be the only teambuilding exercise I've experienced that actually works.
I briefly tried the single-player mode, and the way it makes you alternate between two different chefs reassures me this game was designed with two players in mind.
UNFORGETTABLE COMEDY
It's such a simple concept, but nonetheless brilliant. This morning, I woke up from half-sleep, laughing from recollecting some really silly Overcooked! situations. Like when I kept rushing back and forth across one of those narrow passages, accidentally bumping my brother off the stage with him holding that dish we'd spent forever cooking. Or losing a fully prepared meal to a thieving rat, because I had to leave the meal untended to do the dishes.These were agonizing moments at the time, but in hindsight they register as slapstick comedy. I guess time not only heals all wounds. It also has a sense of humor.
In an unforgettable moment of triumph, on our umpteenth attempt, my brother served the final boss his last order with literally one second to spare. That is a fifteen-minute stage. With no way to help, I remember just watching time running out, all the while repeating: "It's no use. We won't make it." It was like one of those climactic bomb countdowns at the end of a thriller - except this time it was for real, because it was up to us. We had worked so hard to get there.
And together, he made it. And we beat the game.
2020 is still very fresh, but Overcooked! will undoubtedly hold many of my best gaming moments of the year. In this day and age, couch co-op feels like a dying art form. Yet, this game outclasses the ones I grew up with. Do you remember how they were usually designed back then? You died, and were forced to watch your friend play solo, secretly wishing he too would die soon. Overcooked! has none of that. Here you die together, you save the world together, and you laugh together, bonding over the delight of serving the people of the Onion Kingdom the perfect dish.
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