Cooking Simulator 2: Better Together

Cooking Simulator 2 was provided by Big Cheese Studio for review. Thank you!

One of the games that completely turned me onto the simulator genre has to be Cooking Simulator. There was something about it that just captivated me, being able to fling and throw around ingredients and utensils, while also being able to cut and serve dishes however I wanted felt like a dream. For the sequel, the team at Big Cheese Games was promising bigger and better. More customization options, new methods of progression give you new abilities or make your kitchen better, and the cherry on top, co-op play. It felt like the developers were bringing in everything I wanted in a follow-up, and while there are some parts missing that I do miss from the first game, it’s hard to deny just how much fun Cooking Simulator 2 is with friends.

One of the best parts about Cooking Simulator 2 has to be co-op. I understand it’s the big feature that is defining this release, and it really is a game-changer. It’s so hard to put into words just how much fun I had trying to coordinate as we took orders and made food. It was extremely hectic at first as we figured out our rhythm, and we had to investigate how exactly we needed to actually make the food. Yet, as our menu expanded, we were able to divvy up all of our tasks and keep the food pumping out. The chaos of sharing the kitchen, the utensils, and all of the ingredients became so funny as we stumbled over each other just trying to turn the stove on.

I can’t overstate just how fun it is to try running a restaurant with someone else. The constant chaos of tripping over each other while trying to organize the food we needed to make was so much fun. There are some minor sacrifices made to compensate for co-op play, which includes some physics interactions that are now more static, like when cutting and preparing ingredients, but while I was sad, they were gone, and being able to play with another person more than made up for it.

However, restaurant management becomes a little bit more detailed here. We get to choose the menu of our restaurant from an assortment of recipes that are either there by default, or we make ourselves. We have to look and see which ingredients we have to make sure we can actually create the recipes, we’ll have to take orders manually from customers, and we will have to bring out their food. And of course, we will be making money and getting a tip based on how well we did. This, paired with upgrades we can make to our kitchen, offers a decent management experience without the more in-depth bells and whistles that we see in other restaurant management games.

Probably the most in-depth aspect of management is going to be creating our own recipes with the Blueprint System. It took a little for me to understand it fully, but there is a lot of customization and possibilities with the system. I was actually blown away by it, using it for little changes here and there at first and expanding into creating full-blown dishes. My first experience was actually changing one part of a Hamburger recipe because I didn’t have the right type of Onions when the store opened, so I changed it to the other type that I did have. Of course, I accidentally made it so each hamburger needed 10 slices of Onions, which sucked. However, this eventually was fixed, and I learned just how malleable the system can be.

The only issue I see here is the UI. The system is extremely customizable, but the interface is not the easiest to use. I’m not sure how much more can be simplified without losing some of its detailed charm, but it does take some time to get used to.

I did feel a little disappointed with how many changes were made from the previous game to accommodate this one. Some of my favorite parts of Cooking Simulator, like free-cutting, have been removed. The team clearly went a different way here, trading the freedom of choice we had for a more structured cooking and restaurant management experience. It's not necessarily a bad choice; I still had a lot of fun, but there were times I missed some of the features that made the original unique.

And I did mention earlier that we have kitchen upgrades that we can use the money on, which can make cooking significantly easier. However, the game actually has multiple progression systems. Apart from kitchen upgrades, which can go so far to increase the size of our appliances, add timers to them, and even add new appliances altogether, we can also upgrade ourselves directly with skills and perks. These skills can make cooking significantly easier, though I wish some of the skills were just part of what we could do already.

Things like being able to select multiple objects at a time or season multiple ingredients at once save so much time. It makes the tedious work way more manageable. It also takes a while to unlock these skills, which can feel especially frustrating when playing alone. I wasn’t as excited about later skills as I was about the initial ones, but they are all helpful in their own right. Perks are similar in that aspect, and while they can be helpful here and there, they weren’t as noticeably impactful as I hoped.

Still, there’s enough there that adds excitement to managing the restaurant and getting better through skills and managing which perks are on at any given time. Apart from the enjoyable cooking, there’s a lot to be excited about in continuing to manage your restaurant.

In the game, we have two main game modes: Career and Sandbox, and both of these can be played in co-op. The sandbox mode is pretty straightforward, where we choose between different restaurants to manage, get a starting set of ingredients and tools, and start playing. Career mode is pretty similar, but it definitely has an easier start. We have a few extra ingredients to start with, and have a limited menu to choose from that is catered to the ingredients we have.

However, unlike Sandbox, we have a bit of guidance in the form of Quests. As the name suggests, these are quests that we can take, which give us optional objectives to complete as we are cooking and serving dishes. These can range in what they ask, but it isn’t too hard to achieve just from normal cooking. These quests will give us currency that we can use to buy perks and get new unlocks, which include new customization options for our characters.

The only reason I went to play career mode is to get the unlockables from quests. Otherwise, I much preferred the sandbox. Being able to have the full assortment of recipes and start from a harder position in multiple different restaurants is way more enjoyable.

Cooking Simulator 2 is also quite difficult to play with a controller. Usually, I wouldn’t really discuss this until later on when I talk about the Steam Deck, but just trying to play with the controller was rough. There were some options in the UI that I couldn’t interact with, and there were times. It just didn’t feel as great as trying to play with a Keyboard and Mouse.

Cooking Simulator 2 - Steam Deck Performance

And then we get to Cooking Simulator 2’s performance on the Steam Deck, which is a little tough sometimes. It can run relatively well, and I would consider it playable, but it does need some compromises to be stable.

Generally, we will need low settings and a 30 FPS cap to play in the most stable way possible. The game still looks decent, and almost every single stutter or drop is gone. Playing it at a higher framerate, including at 40 FPS on low settings, will still have drops depending on where you look. However, it always sticks above 30 FPS, so I recommend keeping it there.

The biggest issue with playing on the Steam Deck is going to come down to controller support. I mentioned it before, but it just doesn't feel great to play with. There are UI that are just too difficult to use or completely unusable with the gamepad, with some options not even clickable.

アクセシビリティ

In the settings, we can change the language, change keybindings, modify sensitivity, and change audio settings.

The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and has controller support (with issues). There are no HDR settings.

結論

When it was said and done, Cooking Simulator 2 went in a different route than the previous game, sacrificing some of its uniqueness for a streamlined approach. Co-op and the blueprint system are easily the two best features of this sequel, with the former improving general gameplay in so many different ways. It does suffer a little when it comes to its progression systems, and I miss what made Cooking Simulator so engaging, but it doesn’t change how solid the experience is, especially with friends.

It could be better on the Steam Deck, but it’s still manageable and playable. This isn’t a game that needs the highest framerate or the highest-quality visuals, so the concessions we need to make here aren't that bad.

このレビューはPC版に基づいています。

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