Writing this as a warning to those who are thinking of buying this game lovingly after completing the first Overcooked. After finishing this game, I felt so betrayed and unfulfilled and took to online to see if other users experienced the same kind of anguish I did. To my surprise, Overcooked 2 has generally favorable reviews very similar to the first game, even though it is significantlyWriting this as a warning to those who are thinking of buying this game lovingly after completing the first Overcooked. After finishing this game, I felt so betrayed and unfulfilled and took to online to see if other users experienced the same kind of anguish I did. To my surprise, Overcooked 2 has generally favorable reviews very similar to the first game, even though it is significantly worse than the first one.
Here are some my issues with the game.
Like others noted, the star scoring system is laughable. Speaking from my experience playing with 3 people, including myself, it’s nearly impossible to not get 3 stars on all the levels. I can’t speak to say if it’s different with 2 or 4 players, but with 3, we were able to achieve 3 stars on every single level within 3 tries and with most of the levels achieving 3 stars on our first try.
By no means are we ‘hardcore players’ – we would always dedicate our first try to get accompanied with the quirks to the stage, note the patterns to any changes, and find what role each of us fit into well. We’d try different things and when anyone made an egregious mistake (like turning in the wrong recipe, falling off the edge with a fully cooked meal, or just making too many small mistakes), we would actively set things on fire, push each other off the edge, and fling pasta at each other’s faces for the remainder of the time. Some of the levels, this tomfoolery began 2 minutes before the end of the required time and we still got 3 stars on our first try. Whenever we saw the results screen, we would look at each other and say, “Really? We did reeeaally bad”, but would shrug and keep going, even though we could have done worlds better just because we already received all the reward the game would be willing to give us.
On top of that, Overcooked 2 added a 4th star that we were all looking forward to so that we could go back and seek a challenge, but we were severely disappointed to see the scaling absolutely bonkers. The 4th star are based off of Steam stats of people who played the game, some of them with glitches, with 4 players, and by abusing mechanics, meaning that most of the levels are impossible to reach 4 stars with 4 or less people. This makes the game only really usable to it’s full potential with 4 players, but the online mechanic is pretty much broken as well. World 5 and 6’s Kevin levels are also impossible to unlock without 4 players as well if I recall correctly, and you can’t get all the characters without completing all the Kevin levels.
On top of all this, the game is ridden with typos in the dialogue, flagrant underutilization of switches in the overworld, poorly thought out level-design, and repetitive gimmicks throughout the levels that make the game extremely unrewarding and downright not fun at the end of the day. Our group kept going because we absolutely loved the first Overcooked and thought that they made it easier for everyone else (which if fine) and then added the 4th star as an appropriate challenge. Come the end of the game, there isn’t even a cut scene or indicator of a finale (you pretty much never interact with the antagonist, the last level just cuts to the credits in a very unsatisfying way) and the 4th star is not scaled so that groups less than 4 can enjoy it.
Overcooked 2 just feels like an unloved cash cow after the first one. I have more contentions with the overworld, the music, the inconsistencies, the way it handles switching chefs, and much more, but what I listed above are the things are really the things that broke my heart. All 3 of us are severely disappointed to the point where we considered trying to return a game for the first time ever. If you loved the first one for it’s witty game level designs, appropriate challenges, pacing with implementation with game mechanics, and engagement with audience, please save yourself the $20-$30 this game costs and do not buy it. Let the first one live on in your heart.… Expand
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