and carry on playing. And this is where
things start to go downhill.
You see, Overcooked is designed
to cause arguments. The goal is to
deliver meals to hungry patrons, which
means you and your fellow chefs have
to grab, chop, cook and serve the food
customers order before you miss the
window and you lose points. But the
real challenge comes from the
frankly dangerous kitchen
environments in which
you cook. You’ll be frying
burgers in moving vans,
chopping onions in
rat-infested restaurants
and serving burritos
surrounded by burning
lava. It’s like Delia Smith’s
fever dream.
Kitchen nightmares
Getting around these obstacles – and
preparing the right meals before their
meal ticket timers run out – requires
constant communication and clear
instructions. And when a rat makes
off with your diced mushroom,
shouting anything other than, “GET
OFF MY FLIPPING MUSHROOM YOU HAIRY
ARSEHOLE I JUST CHOPPED THAT!”
becomes a secondary concern.
As the clock ticks down and the
pressure to reach that precious
three-star score ramps up, we both
find ourselves forgetting how to press
the A button, dropping raw meat on
the floor and literally setting fire to the
entire kitchen when the soup boils
over. Thankfully, while we both
start raising our voices,
we manage to keep fairly
calm with each other.
Yes, I might be holding
a tomato when actually
Lyndz needs a clean
plate from the sink that
only I can access, but she
isn’t screaming at me for it.
We’re doing okay!
We soon develop a workable
method. It’s far from perfect, and
it usually flies out the window six
seconds into the level, but it’s a
method. After we first play through
a level, Lyndz correctly says, “Right,
we need a plan.” We look at the level,
discuss the challenges we face, then
come up with a solution to simplify
things. The level begins again, we
instantly panic and the plan falls
apart. That process repeats until we
finally get three stars (hey, I can’t get
that 199G on my own) – and then we
do it all again on the next level. Halfan hour later, Lyndz says something
sensible like, “Can we go to bed? This
is stressing me out.” And because
she is 100 per cent right, we head off
to bed and I lie there, staring at the
ceiling and thinking about that one
point of Gamerscore.
But you know what? Despite all
of that nonsense – all of the stress,
and the panic and the stupid goddam
rats stealing our carefully sliced
vegetables – we’re having a great
time. Not only am I proud of Lyndz
picking up the game so quickly, I’m
happy that we’re talking stuff through,
problem-solving and getting three
stars on every level. We haven’t played
games together in a long time, and it’s
great to have a title we can pick up
and enjoy without me having to spend
ages explaining control schemes, or
weird mechanics. Ghost Town Games
might be a monster for its choices
when it comes to that Achievement,
but the team made a damn fun
game. After this, we’ll probably give
Overcooked 2 a try. Or maybe we’ll look
for something a bit more relaxing – I
think she’d love Super Meat Boy. Q“The real challenge comes from
the frankly dangerous kitchen
environments in which you cook”
PLAYED ANYTHING GOOD RECENTLY? COME SHARE IT AT WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/OXMUK
ABOVE Look at
that inviting,
whimsical piece
of art. Watch
out, though: it
lures you into a
false sense of
security.
FAR LEFT Here’s a
typical example
of everything
going well and
both of us
chatting calmly
about how fun
this all is.WHAT IS IT?
A local multiplayer
argument-starter
set in poorly designed
kitchens that would
make Gordon Ramsay
nervous.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 097