As elaborated on by my Emily’s article about the first Overcooked, this game has captured our hearts unlike any other. So naturally expectations were high leading up to the release of Overcooked 2. Once we could start playing it’s like we didn’t skip a beat – immediately falling in love (or love-hate) with the new levels and recipes. The joy came naturally and therefore I have to give Overcooked 2 a good rating and recommendation and right up front.

However, no game is perfect and Overcooked 2, unfortunately, reminds us of that fact a little more than we’d like. So let’s quickly review what I believe are some of the pros and cons are for the game.

Pros

It retains its charm

Overcooked 2 manages to be a game of its own but not on its own. Despite the success of the first game, it’s very clear that the game developers didn’t lose sight of what made it good in the first place. Far too often we see sequels that were too ambitious with its creativity and found itself far too removed from the original source. Fortunately Overcooked 2 manages to explore new paths and opportunities within the gameplay while staying true to its essence.







More and more creative levels

Perhaps the most exciting and equally frustrating thing about Overcooked is discovering and learning the new levels. There’s always a frenzy of panic when starting a new level because you never quite know what tricky mischief it’s gonna surprise you with next. But the point that from a river raft, a wizarding school, hot air balloons, etc, Overcooked 2 does not disappoint with adventurous kitchens, each with their own fun challenges.



Good music

I was impressed with how playful and ‘epic’ some of the music was in the first Overcooked (notably the space levels), but Overcooked 2 kept it going with unusually engaging tunes.



Cons

Online multiplayer needs to be reworked

While it is great that Overcooked 2 took the step to allow online play, it has a few things to improve on. Notably how the host of the party is the only one who progresses through the story and unlocks additional chefs. Which means after putting all that work in, non-host members must redo those levels on their own campaign. Obviously, this is a difficult task to complete – mixing and mashing different saved campaigns on different consoles (especially considering that not all party members may have the same levels unlocked, and therefore it would be weird for a non-host member to progress on levels they haven’t unlocked in their own game yet). Either way though, it’s frustrating and a solution needs to be found and implemented.



Not challenging enough Ok, so when Emily and I first started playing the first Overcooked it was a challenge to get 3 stars on all the levels which made replaying those levels and worthy pursuit. But so far in Overcooked 2 we manage to get 3 stars on either our first or second try. Now, of course, this can be attributed to the fact that both of us are fairly experienced Overcooked players and were able to jump right into Overcooked 2 with almost no hassle, but the levels, while challenging in of themselves, don’t require a high level of points to gain 3 stars.







Inability to pick different chefs before each level

This might be my least favorite thing about the game (which is saying something), but it was always fun being choosey between different chefs at the start of each level. But now you must make your choice before you load your campaign and stick with that one until you exit out of it and choose there. I would be optimistic that they might patch it correctly, but so far I seem to be the only one on the internet who seems to have a problem with it.







Longer load times

One thing to keep in mind as you read this article is that I’m coming off of the heels of the first Overcooked and being used to its flow. And one this that Overcooked 2 fails out comprably are the longer load times. It’s definitely not awful and is easily forgotten, just not as good as the first game and you feel it at the time.





So, in the end, Overcooked 2 is fun and I always look forward to playing it, but it does come with its share of problems and they are a little more numerous than I would have expected. Thankfully in today’s world games are able to make up for mistakes at launch with patches (see No Man’s Sky). But in the meantime Emily and I will continue playing it until there’s no more to play and if you want to see it be sure to follow us on Twitch and tune in for all our Overcooked fun!

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