Overcooked: Gourmet Edition Review

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Being a 23 year old male gamer, cooking games never seemed like they would be anything I’d actually want to play. Shortly after seeing Overcooked’s fun art style and easy to understand gameplay, I knew this cooking game was going to be different. Since I didn’t watch any videos of the game that included any of the more complicated levels, I was caught completely off guard when I found myself on a pirate ship with various counters moving as the level went on.

Overcooked kept surprising me every few levels with new quirks and rules that I had to follow to succeed. After completing the main game, players of Overcooked’s Gourmet Edition will be met with several end-game difficult levels added by the Lost Morsel DLC. This DLC can be played whenever but is suggested to be tackled after the main game’s campaign has been completed because the levels in the DLC are as hard as they are interesting. Besides interesting levels with simple and fun gameplay, Overcooked also supports one of my favorite things in video games: local co-op.

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Simply by applying co-op to the typical cooking game formula, Ghost Town Games has managed to create an interesting game with the possibility for many dynamic combinations of foods and kitchen layouts. Taking this even further, the team added many creative, hectic, and sometimes bizarre levels that all require the complete attention of players if they are to be conquered. Beating a level in Overcooked means making enough money by the end of a timer that counts down in the bottom right corner. Once time is up, the game tells players how many stars they earned based on the money they made.

Since there is an achievement for beating the whole game with every level three-starred, me and my fiancee made it a point to beat each level as well as we could. By doing this, we learned how important it was to work together and use simple tricks to cut corners in order to make dishes faster. After trying the game with a third person, I can safely say that playing Overcooked with a team of four serious players would be the best way to play. Even though co-op is clearly what the game is made for, there is a single player mode available where a player will control two chefs as they try to keep up with all the craziness.

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After completing the game, I looked back at how many levels there actually are and was sort of surprised. All the levels are separated into six ‘sections’ that are broken up into (roughly) five levels each. That may not seem like a whole lot of content, but I can assure you that the focus is on quality and not quantity. Without spoiling anything, I can say that even if some levels share aesthetic, they are never the same as one another. This diversity makes its way into the Lost Morsel DLC, adding a new section to the game that has its own aesthetic and rules. The Lost Morsel DLC adds plenty of fresh, new content that makes it a must have for fans of the main game. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that Overcooked: Gourmet Edition has more than enough chaotic co-op cooking craziness to warrant a purchase from anyone that has even an inkling of interest in it.

To add to the fun, Ghost Town Games added a Versus mode that pits either two or four players against one another. The goal being to  complete as many orders as possible in the allotted time to earn more money than the other team. This mode could probably use more levels, but is fun enough to show new players the ropes (or just to throw them into a situation they aren’t ready for). Either way, the game looks wonderful, has great songs to compliment the levels, controls great, and never becomes so difficult that it feels truly unfair. On the other hand, there are a few levels that require planning and determination to even put a dent in the required money to get the three stars. Besides the few annoying levels, the only other issues I really had was with the lack of a screen between clicking ‘A’ on some screens and the screens after and the occasional interaction that didn’t seem to work the way I wanted to. Since the game is sort of short, I don’t want to give too many details about any one level. With that said, Overcooked: Gourmet Edition makes for a great game for any gamers that can muster up a co-op partner or three.

Rating 9

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Microsoft Xbox One code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

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