Overcooked! 2

As I usually play solo, party games like Overcooked! 2 don't end up getting much attention from me. That's why I was excited to learn that this game has a whole story mode with single-player support! Playing hectic party games alone doesn't seem like much of a good time, but I do enjoy a good story, and I definitely appreciate having a goal to work towards, so I figured I would still enjoy myself. Unfortunately, story or no, this is still a multiplayer-focused game, and it gets to be a bit too much to handle on your own.

Overcooked! 2, surprise surprise, is all about cooking, and the story takes a back seat for most of the campaign in order to maintain that focus. Each stage tasks you with preparing as many meals as you can before the time runs out. However, you can't just make anything you want. On the top of the screen, you can see a list of meals, their ingredients, and how long you have to prepare them. Successfully making and delivering these meals to customers earns you some coins, which count towards your performance rating at the end of the stage. The game tries to keep this loop interesting by adding new meals, new ways to prepare ingredients, and unique kitchen gimmicks. These changes are introduced gradually as the stages progress, making them easy to learn as you go. However, the sheer number of things you have to balance starts to make solo play more stressful than fun. Because Overcooked! 2 is a cooperative game, solo players must manage two characters, swapping between the two in order to complete orders on time. This allows you to be in two places at once, but only lets you do one thing at a time, which I had trouble balancing, and ultimately gave up on.

If I had a chance to play this with friends, I am quite sure that I would have had a fantastic time, and it's not often that you find a good cooperative party game. However, my experience revolved around playing alone. It was easy to see that the story mode was well crafted, and its challenges are interesting, but they're just too much for me to handle. I don't mind a little difficulty in my games, but I'm not huge on inducing stress, so I likely won't revisit Overcooked! 2 without some friends to play with.

The game is available for Steam here (as of 5/15/21): https://store.steampowered.com/app/728880/Overcooked_2/
The game is available for Switch here (as of 5/15/21): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/overcooked-2-switch/
The game is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S here (as of 5/15/21): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/overcooked-2/bvjlkdg2tx8h
The game is available for PS4 and PS5 here (as of 5/15/21): https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP4064-CUSA10940_00-OVERCOOKED200000

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