Developer: RedDeer.Games
Publisher: RedDeer.Games
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Cook For Love – Review
Have you ever wanted to feel like Gabriel from the Netflix series Emily In Paris? Well, now is your chance! In Cook For Love you play as Clement, who just like Gabriel aims to become a head chef in a restaurant. As you start the game, Clement is an intern and when the big boss of the restaurant you work for goes on a leave, Clement has to take over. He – or rather you – creates quite a number of delicious meals and makes the restaurant bloom like never before. And all of this with the help of certain locals. As Clement you go on a cooking adventure learning a bunch of recipes varying from lemonades to desserts and even pizza! In the meantime, your friends provide you with kitchen supplies, decorations, and even renovations.
Story
The story of Cook For Love is quite simple as teased in the introduction. You play as Clement who starts as an intern in a restaurant and the more dishes you prepare the more Clement progresses to become a real chef. In the meantime, certain characters appear and reappear for a good meal, a piece of pie, or just a fancy drink. In between cooking sessions, you follow their conversations and discover how everyone’s related to one another. This definitely adds to the game since Clement’s story is rather linear and not particularly deeply developed. You don’t really get to know him or his background.
All of the secondary characters have their own – albeit simple – story. The conversations they have with each other in between the cooking sessions aren’t too long, which helps to keep the game running smoothly. They’re lighthearted and some of them are actually a bit funny too. At some point, two women are gossiping about another family you saw in your restaurant earlier in the game. One of the two has a crush on another secondary character in the game and – spoiler alert – in the end, they even end up together. These lighthearted conversations and background stories make the game have this familiar touch and radiate a cozy vibe. They make Clement’s shallow story a lot more interesting.
Graphics
Kudos to the art style of the game because the graphics are so bright and colorful that it totally adds up to the familiar touch and cozy vibe mentioned in the previous section. The cutscenes look like they’ve been taken from a cartoon. It basically looks like a bunch of drawings put together, and that right there is the charm of Cook For Love. The graphics give you that homely feeling that you can’t get enough of.
Sound
Soundwise there isn’t much to be said. One track keeps playing over and over again as you’re cooking. The tunes are happy and upbeat though and it makes you sway along. However, after playing for a while you’re just done with it. Yet, after finishing more or less half of the recipes a second track swoops in and is actually even better than the first one. It gives a magical feel to the game. But this one, too, keeps repeating itself.
Gameplay
Cook For Love is a cozy cooking game in which you help Clement become a professional chef by preparing all kinds of dishes in a puzzle-like way. Generally, the gameplay in Cook For Love is quite smooth. However, there’s always room for improvement. While you’re cooking you often have to switch from one frame to another using the L and R buttons. Each frame contains a different set of equipment. For example, you might have to switch from refrigerator to oven to blender. Switching between frames may sometimes happen rather slowly.
Secondly, at the start of Cook For Love, you are given certain ingredients to work with. These remain the same throughout the game, so there is little variation there. Because of this, the game might sometimes get a little monotonous. For instance, at one point you have to bake a cake five times. Each time, only one ingredient is different. However, the recipes are quite simple which makes Cook For Love a fast-paced game. And overall, there is enough variety between types of dishes.
In addition, you control everything with a cursor which would seem a little strange at first, but it doesn’t disturb at all. On the contrary, this works very well and suits this kind of game. Eventually, Cook For Love even becomes a tad addictive since you always want to figure out which recipes are about to come your way.
Conclusion
If you want to step in the shoes of a chef for a while and if you’re a fan of cozy games then this one is definitely for you. Cook For Love has its cons but overall it’s a pretty good game and it’s ideal if you want a change of pace between bigger titles. Cook For Love radiates warmth which is just what you might need during these colder times. Furthermore, it teaches us that a great deal can be achieved when we work together with others. It’s as they say – teamwork makes the dream work. And besides, cobbling together dishes in a fun puzzle-like manner – sounds rather tasty, doesn’t it?
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