Game: Overcooked 2
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Ghost Town Games
Publisher: Team 17 Digital LTD
Age Rating: E for everyone (US) | 3+ (Europe)
Number of players: 1-4 Couch/ 2-4 Online (Couch players can play online)/ 2-4 Local Wireless
Price: £19.99 | €24,99 | $24.99| AU$ 37.50 (and AU$59.95 physical game)
Release Date: 7th Aug 2018
Overall feeling: I like it a lot!
Review code courtesy of Team 17
Overcooked the sequel
Wacky Cake Mania 2, I mean Overcooked 2, is the sequel to Overcooked.
Despite Kevin’s warning, the Onion King decides to read the Necro-nomnom-icon. This rises the Unbread and you must journey to gather your skills to defeat them.
Like the first game you must make orders that appear in order at the top of the screen. You collect ingredients, chop them, mix them, fry them and so on. Then you dish it up and serve it to go. Unlike other similar games, it’s not that simple.
The levels are all different kitchens with various obstacles. Roads, people, moving platforms, fire you name it. Some levels you can’t even access the other side, either due to a bench or having a kitchen on two floating rafts.
What sets this game apart from its predecessor are a few things. Most importantly you can now throw raw or cooked ingredients, unplated, across the kitchen. On some levels this is necessary, others not so but it makes it much easier. You can’t always rely on throwing, some parts of the kitchen are higher and you can’t throw up, only down.
Playing with friends you might end up covering the floor in thrown ingredients and make it difficult for anyone to get what they need. There’s also more recipe types with different cooking methods and new level designs with different obstacles. While the art style and character designs are the same there is a graphical upgrade. As well as a lot more unlockable chefs. If you buy the DLC you can get a very nice platypus, and then why would you play as anything else?
Kevin also prepared a few extra levels you have to unlock, and if you want a challenge you’ve got one in that.
Too Many Cooks!
While you can play Overcooked 2 in single player it is definitely designed for two or more people. As if you play by yourself you have to swap control between two characters. If you put one to chopping they will keep doing so when swapped over. When playing single player tasks like cooking take longer but you don’t need to get as high a score compared to when playing co-op. Still I think it takes way too long even with that in mind.
I feel that the best way to play, if you mean to finish the campaign, is two players. First I played with my online friends with three to four players. Though we mightn’t always listen to each other we somehow still managed to get things done. It looked chaotic but somehow we got a flow together, mostly. Playing two player with my boyfriend actually felt a lot more relaxing. Probably partly because he does what I tell him.
The game does adjust the passing score needed based on how many players there are. I think two players is a good balance at making the game a nice difficulty. Single player is not for me but I have a friend or two that are at least halfway through the story by themselves. Four players is the great hectic fun the game is meant to be. Three players is definitely the worst, as the kitchen often splits and one person can be stuck on the busiest side. This can be especially more difficult when it is a less skilled player, or little sister, on their lonesome.
Online Play
Overcooked 2 comes with online play for a few different modes. You can have a mix of couch and online players if you so choose. To play with your friends one has to host the session, and in it you can play through story mode together. Unfortunately the progress only saves to the host so I had to play through the first chapter quite a few times. I understand that people can join in at any time, but it’s kinda lame that you won’t get to keep that progress on your end.
Arcade mode is just the story mode levels but picked at random to play together online. You can play in private sessions with just friends or go into a public match. I can’t recommend playing in public as you can only communicate through emotes.
Versus mode is back and I found a way to make it a little unfair. You can play with a couch partner and go into a public session. If you are quick enough you can pick to be on the same team. The other two people on the same team can be two strangers to each other. So while it was funny to do, it was very one-sided.
Skilled
Unfortunately four player is when the Switch tends to have trouble with the joy-cons. This is a problem specific to the console rather than the game. I ended up switching to single joy-con use or pro controllers to try to alleviate the problem.
Unlike the launch of Overcooked, I haven’t noticed any frame rate issues with this game. I didn’t play a lot in handheld but it seemed to run fine as well. It’s hard to tell how well the online functions when you have Australian internet. When I was hosting I didn’t experience any issues at all. Friends playing in my session did sometimes lag and one dropped out in the middle of a level! Playing on other people’s sessions I also had the kind of lag where I would suddenly appear somewhere else.
Order’s Up
The first one took a little time to make it to a Nintendo system so I’m glad this one launched with the others. After all the Switch is the perfect console for this. Going back to the first Overcooked to compare it, I’m not sure I could be happy going back. It might be more of the same but the differences are pretty significant. Having online is a really great feature and will lead me to return to the game more than I have the last one.
The only technical problems were due to the console and Australian internet rather than the game itself. I suppose the soundtrack was acceptable, I didn’t really notice it but it’s best not to have distracting music in a frenetic game. It looks great and plays better than the last. I don’t think it’s quite a game for young children just due to the difficulty. Though my little sister certainly beats random strangers I can only emote to. I can’t recommend it as a single player experience but it’s a wonderful couple’s and party game.