Restaurant Story 2: The review (part 2)

Following on from a post about the cooking aspect of Restaurant Story 2, today I continue my review of the sequel game with the focus turning to decorating.

Title screen for Restaurant Story 2

The general premise of decorating is broadly similar to RS1, but the game's developers have made some changes to the way the market operates. You still have a button to tap in the bottom-right corner of the screen to enter design mode, and there are still a variety of categories for the different types of item. But the manner with which products are purchased has been altered significantly in some cases.

For tables, chairs, counters, flooring and walls, you no longer buy individual items, but rather buy the style. Once purchased you can tap any decoration of the same type which is out in your restaurant to convert it to that style. I absolutely love this feature! It makes the décor all seem much better value when you only have to pay a one-off fee.

Take for example the floor tiles. A flooring which comes at 25 gems might seem expensive, but unlike in RS1 where that would only be able to buy you a small number of squares, in RS2 you can use it as much as you like. This is great for situations where you have increased the size of an area of your place and need more of the same style of flooring. In the original game I try to be careful to set the dimensions of themed sections which need a gem flooring in such a way that I won't need to purchase any more of them - no such problems here!

Of course it goes without saying that there are some limitations, and I'm not excactly talking about needing to reach a certain level to unlock decorations. For tables, chairs and counters you can only have a certain number of units at your disposal, based on your current level.

Buy more units option for tables, chairs and counters

Depending on the way a player tends to set up their restaurant, this can be somewhat confining. I am among those who struggle with this constraint since I like to have two chairs for every table, but unfortunately there is a one-to-one ratio of the two, so I have to have fewer tables on the go than I have available.

However other than this niggle, I'm pretty pleased with the structural changes to the market. The fact that there are far fewer decorations in the game at present than in RS1 no doubt helps, but it does feel well-organised and relatively easy to navigate.

A demonstration of this is a new category labelled 'Featured'. in this section items which have recently been introduced are promoted, meaning you don't have to take a wonder through all the categories to find the new content. And when you level up the items unlocked are also displayed in here for a while, so everything is nice and easy to access.

One category which is missing is the boxes category. That will be a relief to a lot of players who loath seeing quality content thrown into a box with the element of unpredictability. Of course there's always a chance that boxes will be added further down the line, but I'd much prefer if TeamLava either didn't bother, or introduced the much more rigid bundles like in RS1 (hint, hint!)

Another type of item which has transferred over from the original game is the fabled limited time offer.

Rosepetal Fountain limited time offer

This week the Rosepetal Fountain is available at half price, and hopefully special deals like this will be a regular thing in the sequel app!

In pointing out the featured category, I touched upon something noteworthy - there are already updates rolling out with new stuff! TeamLava have wasted no time in commencing routine updates to the game, and they are coming thick and fast at the moment. Over Christmas there were several festive updates with items for giving your place a jolly feel. Those products have since been removed but, much like this year in RS1, the gamemakers have done a good job of making it very clear what exactly was going to be dropped.

And in the run-up to Valentine's Day there has been lots of additional bits and pieces for us to enjoy. A special edition of the app was added last week with new content as well as our first limited time set of goals. Sadly the goals are massively flawed and have caused much friction in the community, although I won't clamber on to my soapbox with regards to this until the third part of the review.

With so much content to buy, it is a necessity to expand our restaurants. Unlike in RS1 the expansions don't branch out in two directions simultaneously, but instead only one, with the direction alternating after every two expansions. I'm not too fond of this development - it feels like my place isn't growing very quickly and that I'm paying more for less.

Another alteration is that there is now a waiting period for an expansion to complete. In the interim period the strip of land being worked on is marked out with black and yellow stripes. This is a constraint I'm not so worked up about since it takes a good while to get everything in place to execute an expansion. Waiting just a few more hours for it to be ready is not a problem.

The conditions for increasing the size of your diner have also had a makeover, with the requirements still including a certain number of coins but not a certain number of neighbours. Instead there are a number of part demands need to be met.

Anyone who has spent more than five minutes playing RS2 will know that Cid the construction worker is the key to everything. A bloke in a yellow safety helmet, Cid pops into your place for a bite to eat every 30 minutes or so.

Cid the construction worker offering up a part

Not only does he pay his dues, but when you tap on a speech bubble above his head he also drops off a constructible part. From Nails and Wood Planks to Hammers and Blueprints, Cid provides them all, although only one at a time and not all with the same probability.

Very often Cid is the make-or-break for players who are unsure of whether they want to commit to RS2 in the long-term. In the earlier levels everyone finds that he has a tendency to drop Nails like there's no tomorrow and treats Wood Planks like gold dust. Being unable to upgrade the various features is stifling, and has led to scores of players packing their bags prematurely. A level of patience is certainly necessary. I have found that the distribution of drops has changed as I've moved up the levels, with Nails now a valuable commodity.

I do wonder if TeamLava have been too cruel in their coding of Cid. He has been the bane of so many's existence, and could do with being a little more helpful in providing the parts which we need most at that particular moment in time to progress. Especially since parts are integral to any hope of gathering momentum in the game.

Alongside Cid there's also Lily to stop by bearing gifts. She's the resident gardener and offers up special ingredients used for blending spices, which you can otherwise only obtain via the Garden. Although it can be infuriating having to wait for these two helpers to make an appearance, this is an effective way of keeping us logging back in. Depending on what you've got cooking it is possible to leave the game for hours at a time, but with the constant need to check-in for Cid and Lily, you can easily be hooked!

 Restaurant Story 2: The review

 31/01/15 Part 1 - cooking

The last thing I'd like to comment on in this part is the graphics. A big development in RS2 is the move towards a more 3D engine. Having suffered Farm Story 2 upon its release, I had serious concerns about how reliable the graphics would be, since I had big issues with the similar style in FS2 on my ancient iPod Touch. However I now play on an iPad, and the game functions perfectly well via that medium. I have tested my iPod Touch, and fortunately RS2 doesn't seem to suck all the power out of it, so that's terrific news for players not lucky enough to have a recent device.

As for the actual appearance of the graphics? They've actually grown on me after a very negative outlook on first impressions. Let's face it, they're not revolutionary. There are plenty of pointy edges in there (look at the trees!), but for some reason I've grown used to the appearance. Within the restaurant everything looks nice, although the repetitive movement of the bots and waiters remains a slight annoyance. But hey, at least we've got mobile waiters and cooks on the staff now!

Talking of movement, a real positive is that some of the decorations have faint little animations. For example, the Grandfather Clock has its pendulum swinging side-to-side and the Outdoor Heater's flame quivers around. I think we've all dreamed of having animations on certain objects in RS1, so it's great to see a few simple but effective movements applied in RS2.

That concludes the second instalment of the big review, with one more part which delves into the social aspect of the game along with one or two other bits and pieces still to come. Expect to see that in a couple of weeks.