Game update: 04/03/15

A late update! It's a mystery...

This week we are delving into some criminal cases to try and decipher some unresolved mysteries. There is a set of goals included too, so get ready to cook like crazy to unlock some of the new content. Here's your usual list:

Tables:

• Question Table - 8,000 coins

Chairs:

• Question Chair - 4,000 coins

Wall decorations:

• Candle Lamp - 6,000 coins

Floor decorations:

• Detective Phoebe - 10,000 coins
• Caution Tape Divider - locked by goal
• Floor Safe - locked by goal
• Dinner Party - locked by goal

Floor tiles:

• Footprint - 1,000 coins

Appliances:

• Gas Stove - locked by goal
• Mystery Machine - locked by goal

Counters:

• Dusted Counter - 8,000 coins

Update: Looking for information on the Christmas content removal? See here.

Before we get to the contents of the update, a quick word on the delay in its release. It arrived almost three hours later than usual, although in fairness there was a heads-up from a community manager over on the Storm8 Forum. To be honest I'm not getting particularly irate over this delay. It's happened before and we should be appreciative of weekly updates at all these days what with Restaurant Story 2's increasing prominence.

Anyway, let's turn our attention to the new stuff, most of which can be seen in an image over on the Storm8 Blog:

Items from update as shown on Storm8 Blog

Obviously a number of the fresh items can only be accessed by working through the goals, so I'll leave any deep analysis on them for the goals content report. But at a glance the Dinner Party - which is surely the final goal prize - is a messy sort of item. I presume it's a murder mystery themed party that it is supposed to depict, but with the bright colours, both on the table and via the two pots of flowers, that feeling is quickly lost. Harsh perhaps, but I would have expected something a bit more sinister or edgy for a crime themed piece.

On the other hand the Caution Tape Divider and Floor Safe are great ideas. I can imagine myself using the dividers to cordon off areas of my diner which are in the process of being redecorated. And the safe should hopefully find a home too - after all we need somewhere to store all those coins which are rolling in!

The Question Table and Question Chair have that air of mystery which the Dinner Party lacks. The question mark printed on the tablecloth clearly helps, but the deep red has the ominous connotation of blood. The same goes for the chair, and together there's a nice combination here.

The Candle Lamp also promotes an uneasy atmosphere with the candles being half-melted and the bracket rather rickety in appearance. Compare this to the Candle Holder from the Valentine's Day goals update, which was clean-cut and had a suave curly bracket.

Unusually for a quest update, there's a floor decoration not initially behind a padlock. Detective Phoebe is another member of our fancy dress Phoebe collection, and here she's suited up as your stereotypical detective. Complete with deerstalker and magnifying glass, I do like this latest incarnation of the darling of Restaurant Story. However I can't help but feel disappointed that Gran-Gran has been ignored once again.

The remaining two additions are both marked. The Footprint is a white floor tile with a pair of footprints stamped on. There's one serious flaw with this flooring - because the tiles cannot be rotated the footprints all face in the same direction, meaning that unless the culprit is a crab, something is amiss! I've asked for rotation of flooring in the Suggestions Box previously, and perhaps the gamemakers should take note...

It's fingerprints which are the order of the day with the Dusted Counter. I guess that the boldness of the prints mean the detectives have already wiped it down. My concern with this decoration is that it doesn't really look like a counter. With a glass panel on one side and a grill on another, it more resembles an appliance, so I'm afraid I'm going to say no to this one.

All in all I've got mixed feelings for this update. It's a cool idea and one which has sufficient scope for use in a goals week. But not all of the additions are executed that well in my view. I guess we've been spoilt with the goal updates (and specifically the final goal prizes) for a good while now, so it was inevitable that a less impressive one would come eventually. Having said that, it's still an interesting set of goals and one I'll be racing to finish as ever. And I'm having early thoughts of incorporating this update into a major makeover...

Before I pack it in for the night, I'd like to give a quick shout out to the game's developers who have achieved quite a milestone this week. Storm8 - who are the company behind the game - have now reached one billion downloads of their games! This mighty landmark provided the perfect timing for a change of identity, with all the games produced by the company being brought under one title - Storm8 Studios. That means I can't refer to the gamemakers as TeamLava anymore!

The process of initiating the re-brand is in progress, with many TeamLava games already converted. Restaurant Story is still to have its revamp, but expect an app update shortly. And in case anyone is concerned that this could mean a change of direction from the developers, fear not! They have made it clear that this is simply a re-branding and that the glorious gameplay we all love isn't going to be changed as a result of this remodel.

So there it is. Another goals update, this time coming with an air of mystery.

Introduction to mystery crime party goals

For more details on the goals head over to my dedicated post on the subject here. In the meantime, does anyone want to guess whodunnit? Action Chef Lee? Phoebe? The Lounge Lizard?!