The Cooking genre has been in quite a renaissance these past four years. With the likes of Cooking Mama giving away to the rise of Overcooked, Cooking Simulator and even the Cook, Serve, Delicious series.
For those not in the know, CSD is a cooking game that somehow blends Dance Dance Revolution onto the art of cooking and boy, is it a spicy combo. The thrill of getting each order right as you frantically push your keyboard (or controller, up to you) is something amazing and I’m here to say that the new edition, which recently entered in Early Access, is already the best in the trilogy. Here’s why.
Cook, Cook, Revolution
It’s the apocalypse and you were saved by two androids who happen to drive by in their food truck. What to do now but join them and cook for the hungry people. So the story is a bit convoluted, and probably will be weirder in the future, but it fits quite well within the world. I mean, if you read the food description, it’s filled with lore building stuff which is interesting already. And it also has Ayam Goreng as our national side dish. So take that, a certain South East Asian country.
The game’s levels is split into states where in every level, you have to mix and match your menus to make the most out of it,with a perfect day leads to you getting medals to buy more food for you to sell and that’s basically the game’s cycle. Simple yet effective.
A lot of Quality of Life changes from the previous games make this version quite quick and snappy. There are some interesting choices in keyboard placement of the food for combos for more complex foods. For example, a burger would need lettuce, ketchup, and mustard. So it’s corresponding letters for that action are the keys “L, C, M”. Its weird combos like that make the game quite like Dance Dance Revolution than any other cooking games. And that’s a good thing.
So Time To Don That Chef Hat?
The game at its core so far is quite meaty already with its quite fun gameplay loop. Cooking food rhythmically can’t ever get boring, and with the team’s roadmap for the title being updated consistently ensure that Cook Serve Delicious 3 is already a good purchase for those wanting a challenge, or a break from Osu/Beat Saber.
But in general, I highly recommend this series as a whole really. It’s that good.
This game’s first impression is based on the LOVE COUNTY update.