RS2 News (Apr 2016)

Here we go with more news from the ever so busy Restaurant Story 2. Since my last review we've completed a cruise event, started another and gone all Irish.

We begin with the Easter Cruise Catering Event which begins a run of out of place updates. Easter was last weekend, and yet we got this event at the very beginning of March. This was a little surprising, but at least it meant we could have all our Easter décor ready to go for the ceremonies.

Main page of Easter Cruise Catering Event

For me the cruise was hard work, not least because I was busy with my real life (yes, I do have one!) on day nine, and thus was essentially out of the loop. I generally hold off for a day before starting the cruises in order to have the last two days land on the weekend, but on this occasion I really should have held back an extra day and accepted finishing on the Monday. That in itself wouldn't be ideal but it would certainly have been better than pretty much having to squeeze the last two days efforts into a 24 hour period.

In the end I parted with 65 quick serves and 6 gems to make the deadline and unlock the latest gem recipe to be introduced to the game. The Bunny Cupcakes is the eighth gem maker, and although it doesn't rely on Tomatoes for making as the previous couple of cruise prizes have, it does again avoid utilising the most precious resource of them all - Sugar.

Bunny Cupcakes from Easter Cruise Catering Event

And to make the Bunny Cupcakes you'll need to collect Easter Eggs from the Easter Bunny who visits every eight hours. That's one of the longest waiting periods we've seen but is worth it for a sight of the world's most famous rabbit kitted out in a suit. Having him wearing clothes puts me in mind of the character Buster from the kids TV show Arthur. Just me? Alright then...

So having had Easter early we then proceeded to have St Patrick's Day late. Technically speaking this isn't true as the Luck of the Irish goals were released on March 17th, but that did mean by the time we were all completing them the celebrations were long over.

Step from Luck of the Irish goals

The format for this quest was relatively simple with just the two strands on the go. The first of these introduced us to Bridget the Baker and her ability to give us Four Leaf Clovers when visiting our diners. Her drops were typically of five clovers, although 10 could be gathered on rare occasions. I personally seemed to have the luck of the Irish on this front, with quite a few 10s over the course of the week.

The main aim of the main strand in the goals was to master two new limited time recipes on the Diner Oven, these being the Irish Soda Bread and Bangers and Mash. Not sure why the latter of these was chosen - bangers and mash is more of a traditional British dish than specifically Irish, but I have to say the graphic for the sausages was unbelievably realistic (and thus hunger inducing!)

Personally the most in demand ingredient in this challenge flipped day to day between the Four Leaf Clovers, Beef and Potatoes. A high restock number was really necessary for the latter two, and regular check ins to collect from Bridget was also imperative. Ultimately it was those clovers that slowed me down the most, meaning I ended up completing the quest with 12 minutes to spare after spending six quick serves. I'd like to think it was more relaxed than it sounds!

The other strand for St Patrick's Day was an encourager to spend gems. By purchasing the Fairy Cottage and Irish Moss Divider for gems you were awarded a third gem item, the Fairy Feast, for free. I think I've partaken in every one of these gem goals, just because the decorations are usually all worth having, so you may as well bag one of them for nothing.

And from a belated St Patrick's Day we did some time travelling (the Chemist and Cat would be proud!) to undertake the Mardi Gras Cruise Catering Event.

Notification for Mardi Gras cruise catering event

This year Mardi Gras landed on February 9th, which leads to the inevitable question of what were Storm8 thinking about here? We did have Super Bowl and Valentine's Day themed stuff around that time, but in that case surely it would have been wise for the gamemakers just to ditch their Mardi Gras plans and save them for next year?

Despite my initial scepticism, I am happy enough with the content available via this cruise. As a collective it doesn't appeal due to the lateness of the release, but there are some quality individual prizes up for grabs. The Big Easy Trumpter and New Orleans Macaw are particular highlights, and definitely usable in lots of environments, not just a Mardi Gras tribute.

The final reward in this cruise is yet another gem producer - the King Cake is the latest addition to the Celebration Stove, with Mardi Gras Belle delivering the Celebration Beads needed to cook it. Striking for its blasts of colour, this recipe only adds to my increasing Celebration Stove problems.

At the time of writing I have 893 special ingredients in the seasonal section of my Pantry. That's a heck of a lot, and it's because my incoming specials are now outweighing the outgoing. In other words my gem production is capped by having only one Celebration Stove. So the next time this appliance goes on sale I'll be jumping all over the opportunity.

 RS2 News

 05/03/16 March 2016
 06/02/16 February 2016
 09/01/16 January 2016
 05/12/15 December 2015
 07/11/15 November 2015

Of course before I can return to worrying about that I need to complete the cruise. Presently progressing through day nine, I'm hopeful that it's going to work out well. I've actually had to make up a little ground with this event after suffering with a rather bizarre issue on day three. I was late to finish that day because I couldn't get a low coinage order. I was in the position where a two coiner would get me over the line, and consequently was reluctant to waste resources getting a more difficult order done. Yet refresh after refresh led to more and more high coinage dishes, meaning I eventually had to bite the bullet midway through day four and make Apple Cider just to move along. I doubt I'll have that problem on these last couple of days!

This was the second cruise launched in March (just) and means we now have a pattern of alternating between cruises and standard quests update to update. There's not been new level up goals (with no time limits) since the Grape Press and Wooden Aging Barrel were introduced at the back end of November, so I'd like to see the game's developers add something else fresh. A raising of the level cap would be appreciated too.

In spite of this, my enjoyment of the sequel game doesn't look like going away any time soon. The quality of new content is generally very high and unlike in the original title, most of the popular seasonal themes that everyone craves are being covered. All we need now is for Storm8 to cover them in the right order!