The reality of simulators, once a niche video game genre, is gradually expanding, touching various aspects of real life (work-related or not): we at Kotaworld, over the years, have taken on the roles of fishermen, electricians, builders and even bus drivers. In recent weeks, however, we’ve even taken on the role of chefs in the latest effort from Cyanide published by NACON, Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator.
Starting from a newly opened small restaurant, we made our way through the gruelling and competitive world of gastronomy, even managing to secure the highest quality emblem for a restaurant: the iconic Michelin Star (all without having a mouse pulling our hair along, incidentally).
Ladies and gentlemen, settle in — this is our review of the day, fresh and authentic, prepared by the chef War himself.
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Fire to the dust... to the stoves!
Let’s start from a premise: in the world of cooking, there are two camps of enthusiasts, those who love to cook and those who love to eat. Here, the author fully belongs to the second category, but, to be honest, attempts to get closer to the hugely important art of cooking have not been absent over the years, an art that, by the way, also defines our Italian country.
I recall how it felt like yesterday when, shortly after buying the Wii in the distant 2006, one of the first games I took on was precisely Cooking Mama, the pioneer of the famous arcade-style cooking simulator series. Thanks to the unique design of the controller on Nintendo’s flagship console of the time, chopping vegetables or mixing ingredients was truly realistic and satisfying.
Fast forward 17 years and here we are, launching on my PC Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator, still a cooking simulator with a decidedly less arcade-like and a managerial component to enrich the overall video game offering.
You begin immediately with a rather deep and politically correct character designer, with inclusivity and gender fluidity at the helm. Once you’ve brought your alter-ego to life, it’s time to meet — or rather, reconnect with — Kassim, an old schoolmate from the cooking school days. Your dream is finally about to come true, and in just three days, the restaurant you’ve always wanted to open will host its grand opening night.
And it’s precisely during these three days that the good Kassim will act as our guide, explaining the fundamental concepts of kitchen work, as well as restaurant management. Initially our options will be limited, allowing us to serve our customers simple dishes like steak and chips or a fresh caprese, but in a short time we’ll unlock and learn more complex recipes thanks to Knowledge Points spendable in the Recipe Book.
A skilled chef...
Our typical working day starts very early in the morning with menu selection, a maximum of five dishes available to the public during the evening service, chosen from recipes we have acquired and mastered. Subsequently, another crucial part for the successful operation of the venue, one moves on to ordering the necessary ingredients via Max, our trusted delivery person.
For each category of ingredients (meats, fish, produce, dairy, grains...) it will be possible to order from different suppliers, who will offer various quality levels of raw materials at obviously relative prices. Great importance is also placed on the suppliers’ sustainability from whom we will source: purchasing organic or zero-kilometre products will raise our “ethical” value, as well as the local establishment’s reputation. Saving money and procuring industrial or lower-quality ingredients, while representing a considerable cost-saving on one hand, will negatively impact the dishes’ success, and consequently the customers’ satisfaction — who, at the end of the service, will not hesitate to leave negative reviews on our establishment.
Once the supplies have arrived and been stored in the designated shelves, we can make use of the morning and the afternoon to practice with recipes we already know, refining them, or to challenge ourselves and learn new ones. To assist us in preparing the various dishes, the interface at the top right reminds us succinctly of the steps we must perform and the ingredients we will need. Just like in Cooking Mama, the act of cooking reduces to a series of mini-games in which we must chop vegetables, fillet fish, sear meat in a pan, fry potatoes, etc... The rather unpleasant keyboard layout doesn’t help here, making us prefer a simpler approach using a controller.
The Cyanide team really paid attention to the creative possibilities of each dish, giving the player a great deal of freedom, for example regarding the addition of certain ingredients at specific moments during the cooking process, or the use of spices. Particularly appreciated is also the plating editor, which allows us to manually compose our dishes, customising their appearance once finished and ready to be served to the customer, for the obligatory photo to post on Instagram.
On paper, it seems very simple and repetitive (and in fact, a bit so) but, once the doors are opened to the local’s customers things change radically: we’ll be called upon to manage more orders simultaneously, preparing multiple dishes at the same time while avoiding burning anything, cooking everything to the right doneness (also observing customers’ preferences) and not keeping our customers waiting too long. To assist us, we can intelligently prepare ingredients ready for use in advance during the day: for example, we can pre-chop vegetables, slice our fillet, prepare sauces and reductions to store in the fridge, or pre-cook certain foods and keep them under warming covers, allowing us to save precious time during the rush.
From the very first moments, you feel the intensity and pressure of being in a real kitchen, and for those who cannot fully enjoy the game under these conditions, Cyanide’s team has come up with some "cheats" that allow you to play Chef Life more relaxedly, for example by preventing customers from getting impatient or food from overcooking.
...an interior designer
Stringing together kitchen successes will earn us enough to not only expand our workspace with new tools and more stations, but also decorate according to our personal taste the restaurant. We start with floors and walls and end with tables and chairs, passing through lamps, tablecloths, tableware, paintings, and assorted furniture to make our dining room welcoming and elegant.
Bit by bit, we will be able to create an environment that complements the kitchen style we propose, which truly features many dishes from the culinary traditions of the whole world.
The management aspect, in my view, definitely takes a back seat compared to the "culinary" gameplay: most items will only be purchasable after amassing substantial amounts of money and reaching a certain level (which increases based on a score awarded at the end of each service). Just like in real life, patience and dedication are required to reach the peak, but there’s concern that not all players possess these qualities, considering the not negligible repetitiveness of the title, at least in the early stages.
A nice twist on the theme, which also allows for excellent freedom of expression and personalisation, but, in practice, the current progression system prevents casual players from experiencing everything the game has to offer. Too bad.
Technically speaking
We tested Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator on the following configuration:
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x @ 3.60 GHz
Gigabyte RTX AORUS Master 3080 Ti 12Gb
Corsair Vengeance RGB RT 32GB DDR4 3600MHz
LG 34GN850 Monitor at 3440x1440 (21:9)
At first glance, the game appears quite clean, with character models clearly inspired by EA’s famous Sim characters, and a slightly outdated but sufficient visual style for the genre the title belongs to. More attention has been paid to the appearance of ingredients and dishes, and this is further enhanced by the plating editor, a feature we definitely appreciated.
One could have done better with regard to the interface and its management, often unnecessarily confusing.
Without art or part, the audio sector lacks dubbing and offers songs in the background that tire (and irritate) at zero time.
Last, but perhaps most important, a problem that affected our build during the early testing phases: sometimes the game failed to save our progress, causing us to lose hours of gameplay in vain. We hope this frustrating issue has been resolved in the 1.0 about to be released.
In conclusion
The project by Cyanide Games, developed by NACON, arriving next 23 February on Steam, is a simulator that, despite its apparent simplicity, engages the player and manages to make you feel the pressure of working in a real kitchen. While on the more strictly gastronomic side the gameplay performs a dirty job, offering a good variety of recipes and mini-games to complete them, the title falters in its “management” aspect, deliberately underscored by quotation marks given its extremely thin depth.
Certainly a title that we recommend for fans, but one that will hardly attract a broader audience, despite the studio having intelligently included tweaks to make Chef Life less simulative and stressful than it actually is.
For culinary metaphor purposes, it’s neither meat nor fish.
