Game Review: Overcooked

A warning before we start - Overcooked has the potential to make you very angry with everyone you play it with!  Choose your companions well!

We bought this game having seen it round someone else's house.  (At the time it was on offer on the PS Store for a good price including the two DLCs.)  It's a co-op game for up to 4 players, and you can share controllers (so for 4 players you can play with 2 controllers, with each player using half the controller).

The game begins with the Ever Peckish (think the Flying Spaghetti Monster) attempting to destroy the world.  The only way to defeat him is to sate his appetite.  Alas!  Your cooking skills are pathetic!  There is no way to win...  And so the Onion King sends you back in time, to learn to cook, in the hope that when the time comes you will be able to vanquish the pasta-based villain.  (The game doesn't really need a plot, but Seb loved it and has left drawings of the Ever Peckish all over the house.)

Throughout the game you learn various recipes that are split into tasks.  For example, burgers:
Chop meat, fry meat
Chop lettuce (depends on customer choice)
Chop tomato (depends on customer choice)
Put onto burger bun
Plate it up
Serve!
Wash up...

You're given a list of orders at the top of the screen and you have to fulfil them, the quicker the better.  There is a time limit.  If you fail to do so or deliver an order no-body wanted you lose points.

You really have to work together to get the job done.  Depending on the layout of the kitchen, sometimes you have to have one person assigned to chopping, one to cooking, etc.  Sometimes that's impossible. You might think it sounds easy but the kitchens are a COMPLETE NIGHTMARE.  I don't know how any of them pass inspection!  Some have conveyor belts, some have counters moved around by ghosts periodically, some keep having earthquakes that raise one level higher than the other, some are on icebergs, galleons, there are ones where rats steal your ingredients...  We're currently stuck on one in space where the ingredients and sink are all in an airlock that goes between two workstation areas.  (Aargh!)

Oh, and if you leave something on the stove too long it will catch fire, and you have to use the fire extinguisher or it spreads across your kitchen.

The more players you have the higher the score has to be to pass the level.  This might be fine if you're playing with three players who are pulling their weight, but if one of them's a six year old who's spinning around in circles spraying the fire extinguisher continually it's a bit of a problem!

My brother came up with an approach that worked really well but it's very unhygenic - basically he kept throwing all the ingredients needed on the floor near the chef who needed it.  This does work well on a lot of levels where the ingredients keep being separated from the workstations, but I would NOT want to eat at his restaurant.

All in all, this is a brilliantly done co-op game.  Highly recommended!  But heed my earlier warning - it might cause some rage...

Overcooked is rated PEGI-3 and is currently £12.99 on the PS Store.