SAVOR THE FLAVOR OF STRESSFUL SUCCESS
After a ten-hour playthrough of this game, I’ve gained a newfound respect for the culinary arts. Did you know chefs are expected to work in catastrophically designed kitchens, tossing ingredients across gaps and hoping they don’t splatter on the floor? Did you know they have mere minutes to fulfill a relentless stream of orders? Or that their workplaces might be suspended from hot-air balloons, mounted on rafts in raging rivers, or housed in magical castles that rearrange themselves mid-shift?
The Overcooked! 2 series shines a light—however absurdly—on the brutal realities behind the meals we take for granted. The overworked kitchen staff is underpaid, underprepared, and constantly in mortal danger. They might fall off narrow platforms to their deaths, drown in rapids, get stranded in alien dimensions, or be consumed by kitchen fires when access to the stove is suddenly sealed off by supernatural forces.
Unpretentiously titled Overcooked! 2, this sequel by Ghost Town Games makes no attempt to disguise its intentions. It is more of the same—and proudly so. You and (ideally) at least one co-op partner must prepare, plate, and serve orders before the clock runs out. Ingredients demand different handling: lettuce must be chopped, rice boiled, chicken both chopped and fried. Later stages introduce more elaborate recipes, such as cakes, which require careful sequencing and long preparation times.
The fundamentals remain intact. You and your teammates—up to four players—are dropped unceremoniously into unfamiliar kitchens. Orders scroll across the top of the screen, and it’s up to you to make sense of the chaos from a top-down perspective. Overcooked! 2 is an arcade puzzle game entirely dependent on communication, and its excellent level design revolves around that necessity. Talk constantly and you might earn three stars. Fall silent and you’re almost guaranteed to get zero.
Much of the joy comes from trial and error—methodically assigning roles and refining workflows. Who handles which orders? Who washes dishes? Who assists while the meat is frying? As levels progress, the environment itself may change, forcing you to adapt responsibilities on the fly. It’s even more stressful than it sounds, sometimes to the point where you drop the controller, hands shaking, and surrender.
The controls and mechanics carry over smoothly from the first game, making it easy to jump back in—though I must note that Switch Joy-Cons are far from ideal for the task. The sequel mostly tweaks the fine print, replacing some interchangeable nuisances from the first game with others. There are new themes, but they’re largely cosmetic. And when the pressure mounts, kitchen layout matters far more than visual flair.
Difficulty-wise, the design philosophy remains similar, but the score thresholds feel more forgiving. This reduces frustration, but it also dulls the sense of triumph. I vividly remember defeating the final boss of the first Overcooked! with my brother after roughly ten attempts, clearing the stage with a single second to spare. It remains one of my most cherished gaming memories.
By contrast, the sequel’s finale was dispatched on our second attempt—with room to spare. We might even have succeeded on the first try, had the game not briefly glitched and refused to let me interact with a half-prepared dish.
The original game felt finely tuned for two-player co-op. This time around, several of the busier story levels appear designed with three or four players in mind, particularly those involving gates or moving platforms. They remain doable with fewer participants, but achieving high scores without extra hands can feel borderline impossible.
Visually, the game is charming and cartoony, but occasionally too busy for its own good. Some levels verge on visual clutter, distracting from essential elements like ingredient icons and cooking stations. At times it reminded me of the overstuffed CGI revisions of the original Star Wars trilogy—where added spectacle detracts from clarity.
The story is flimsy, and wisely so. You must save the Onion Kingdom from the undead forces of “The Unbread,” unleashed after the Onion King reads from the Necro-nom-nomicon. How cooking prevents a zombie apocalypse is anyone’s guess, but the pun-based absurdity is the point. The developers understand that players are here for the gameplay, not narrative coherence.
This is an old-school approach to sequels: refine what worked, remove minor irritations, and deliver more of the core experience. The real story unfolds between players—in shouted instructions, heated arguments, and shared laughter. At its best, Overcooked! generates memories that grow more legendary with each retelling.
Overcooked! 2 is too familiar and too forgiving to consistently produce those lightning-in-a-bottle moments for veterans. Still, it’s an excellent choice for gatherings—holidays, vacations, or family reunions. Its cheerful presentation may suggest a children’s game, but I suspect older, battle-worn gamers—those who’ve lost some of their competitive spark—may find even more to appreciate in this deceptively simple, teamwork-driven chaos.
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