Overcooked is a fast paced cooking game that brings gamers together to operate kitchens across various locations across the world. While this may sound like a dreadful task, playing Overcooked will prove it is anything but dreadful!

Overcooked places you and up to three other players in a busy kitchen making as many of orders that appear within a 4 minute time span. While this may not sound difficult enough for you, you’d be very wrong. If you’ve ever watched an episode of MasterChef, or Hell’s Kitchen, you’ll have an idea of the chaos you’re entering. You must frantically run from one end of the kitchen to the other cutting ingredients, washing dishes, preparing food, and ensure that you don’t burn the building to the ground; expect the kitchen to catch fire quite a bit. Add in the fact that certain items may need to be cooked before previously appearing items, and Overcooked makes you consistently multitask while using proper time management.

To add to the kitchen madness, each level has its own obstacle that makes meeting these order goals even more difficult. Whether you’re cooking in a busy street where bystanders will walk through the kitchen blocking your path, on a pirate ship where the whole entire kitchen literally slides across the map, or on two moving trucks that split leaving you to strategically maneuver between the two vehicles Overcooked provides enough hilarious challenges to make each stage unique.

Why is everyone in my kitchen!?!

While this game has single-player, it doesn’t have the same appeal as gathering up a group of friends to play. This is a true multiplayer experience where communication, planning, and throwing the f bomb at your friend for screwing up the order matter (that means you Steve, they didn’t want mushrooms in their onion soup!). The problem is that the game does not have any online capabilities which ruins the game for anyone looking to have the true Overcooked experience without anyone immediately nearby.

Overcooked’s story follows chefs (you and your friends) go back in time to hone their cooking skills to prevent the end of the world brought on by what seems to be the Pastafarian deity The Flying Spaghetti Monster. The concept is simple, yet rather funny; but that isn’t the main draw to this game.

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Overcooked has competitive modes that can pit you and your friends against each other; or team vs team. You could play the right way by taking your ingredients to your team, or you can play the real vs way by stealing food that the enemy team had already cut to make for yourself. Things like this add to the fun because a lot of the tactics you’ll use in Overcooked you’ll end up teaching yourself. While you could use methods such as stacking numerous ingredients for your team mate to use later on, you could also stack food on the floor to have it ready to cut one after the other; what’s a few health code violations anyways.

Overcooked provides an experience that is both fun and challenging; but mostly hilarious. With various levels that all have their own unique challenges to make them stand out, and various ways to play with your friends, Overcooked will easily become a party game favorite. The lack of any online mode does take away from the fun of the game when you have no one else to play with though. Nevertheless, Overcooked is not a game to be overlooked.

The Breakdown

PROS

• Levels are unique and fun, allowing for each level to feel different from the rest
• Multiplayer is frantic and hilariously fun
• Variety in characters adds even more humor to the already hilarious game

CONS

• Lack of Online Mode make this game a dread for those without anyone to play with
• Single-Player is frustrating and nowhere near the level of fun as playing with friends.