Restaurant Story 2: The review (part 1)

It has now been over a month since Restaurant Story 2 got its worldwide release on iOS devices, and so at last I'm going to provide some of my thoughts on this sequel title which had been in the pipeline for so long.

Title screen for Restaurant Story 2

Since there's lots to discuss I'm going to split my review into three posts. Today I bring you my thoughts on all things cooking, while in a fortnight I'll turn to decorating before closing out with the social aspect and some loose ends.

So, the basis of the game remains the same as its predecessor. We cook and serve recipes, the bots sidle in and find a vacant seat to eat, and after finishing they pay up and leave. This is the crux of RS1 and is still the main process in RS2. But there is much which is changed about this sequence of events which makes for a very different gaming experience.

So lets begin at the start of this operation with the key action of preparing recipes. In RS2 you not only need to pay a fee to cook a dish but are also required to buy up certain ingredients to cobble it together. I'm not too pleased about the idea of paying for the ingredients and then paying more on top of that to cook a food, but the concept of having to stock up on the raw materials is interesting.

Having to buy ingredients seems to be a big turn off for a lot of players. I can understand that after the freedom that RS1 afforded, but this addition does add a touch more realism to proceedings. Every recipe has its own ingredient requirements, and you can buy them at some of the surrounding buildings. To start with you only have the General Store to stock up on some of the essentials but progression up through the levels soon leads to Bob's Butcher and the Veggie Market unlocking, with more to follow.

General Store

The small shopping bag icon on the left of the screen during main gameplay means you can access these stores without needing to move around the world looking for the right place, which does quicken things up.

There are a couple of special stops also open up as you progress. The Garden offers plots which you can water for free and harvest some useful ingredients not purchasable in the standard stores. In contrast the Street Market does provide the usual materials on a periodic basis, and these beat one of the limiting factors I'll outline shortly.

To begin with the idea of stopping off at local sellers is quite alien, but as you grow familiar with the game it does become less tedious and more natural to make these stores and a topping up of goods your first priority upon logging in. And familiarity really is key - to know how long recipes are, which ingredients are required and in what quantity, and where to go to buy them takes time to get a handle on, but I've certainly found myself growing accustomed to all these variables.

One variable I've never paid much attention to is the cost of each ingredient in their respective stores. Everything seems to be priced pretty fairly - certainly cheaply enough for me not to notice my coin balance taking a hit!

And as you motor through the levels not only do new stores become accessible, but so do new ingredients in the existing stores only used for recipes unlocked at that point.

Now purchasing materials is all well and good, but being a TeamLava game, there are inevitably some restrictions in place! When it comes to ingredients there are two serious ones in place. Firstly at the outset you can only buy one of any particular ingredient in a go, with a time period specific to that material counting down before you can get another. This is where the Street Market comes in handy since it is not subject to the wait for another batch that the standard stores are.

The second factor is a limit on the total number of ingredient you can hold in your pantry. This one can be really frustrating, since if the combination of ingredients you have in a capacity pantry don't suffice to cook any dish, then you're kind of stuck.

Pantry at capacity

The only option is to delete an ingredient, which feels so wrong. Even if you were able to sell ingredients from your pantry for a reduced price it wouldn't feel quite so deflating. You'd still be making a loss, but at least there'd be some form of compensation. Ultimately you just need to be astute and on top of your pantry at all times!

Both of those constraints can be tempered repeatedly by upgrades which can be initiated by accumulating enough coins and construction parts, which I'll look at much more closely in a later part of the review. Of course you can always fast track upgrades using gems but, as in RS1, I'd rather blow my hard-earned gems on décor.

So now that we've got some ingredients, what next? Just as in the original game, there are numerous appliances which each house a different set of recipes. Only the Diner Stove is available when you get going, but soon the Commercial Range and Diner Oven unlock too.

The state of play with regards to appliance slots is somewhat different to RS1, and not in a good way. Rather than having a total number of slots which can be filled with any assortment of cookers you fancy, each of the appliances has an upper limit. For example without spending gems you can only buy a maximum of three Diner Stoves and two Commercial Ranges. I really dislike this lack of flexibility, especially since the old mantra of only being able to add another appliance once you've reached a certain level still stands.

At least there's the Water Cart, which is a cool addition. The Water Cart unlocks relatively early and when placed has the capability to give thirsty customers some replenishment. A parched bot will provide a speech bubble to let you know of their predicament, and by tapping it they will get refreshed and you will earn extra coins.

Water Cart with customer requesting refreshment

This is a really good innovation, not least because there are no constraints placed upon the Water Cart - it only holds three servings at a time but restocks itself when necessary! This feature is a big plus for TeamLava as it obviously encourages players to hang around and collect some supplementary funds.

Another special appliance which pops up is the Spice Station. This beauty can prepare two different spices which when complete can be added to recipes mid-cooking to increase the yield per plate. What a fantastic idea! It's great to have a working appliance which serves a different but equally useful purpose.

With the appliances now in place, let's look at some recipes. The lists themselves are really good, with four foods shown at a time and the duration, cost and portions clearly indicated.

Recipe list for Diner Stove

And to the delight of many I'm sure, there are two tabs allowing you to sort the list based on the first two of these stats. We've campaigned for this in RS1 since the dawn of time, so it's nice to see the game's developers incorporating this in the sequel.

My only issue with the lists is the lack of XP information. As you'd expect different foods have different XP gains, but yet this detail has been omitted. Meanwhile the mastery meter only appears when you've got a specific recipe selected, and varies from dish to dish, usually depending on its length. The mastery aspect was only added this week, and at the moment doesn't appear to give any rewards such as a free gem. So it's clear that there are still some major tweaks being made (and to be made) to the game!

Right, let's get cooking. Correction - we need to do some learning first! When preparing a dish for the first time it needs to be 'learnt' with a bumper fee and much longer wait while it simmers away. This concept really annoys me! Getting that golden plate cover and adding a recipe to your recipe book is satisfying, but the extra waiting is really unnecessary. Of course it's just a ploy by the gamemakers to try and encourage you to use up gems, but I refuse!

Once done, a recipe is served with a single tap, and leaps on to a placed counter. Another long term RS1 concern is dealt with here, with multiples of the same dish all being placed on the same counter. Gone are the days of 20 counters full of Biscuits and Gravy! Unfortunately the option to change the counter a food is on is still non-existent - I really hope that is something that gets added eventually.

There's one last new feature relating to the cooking process which merits some discussion, and that is quick serves. These can be obtained as gifts from neighbours, and have two functions.

In-game information on quick serves

They can be used to cut out the cooking process much like the 'manage appliance' gem trap we all hate in RS1, or can be utilised to instantly sell all the servings of a dish on a counter. The second of these is particularly useful for those situations where you're mega overstocked and need some space. Now you can clear some counters without missing out on any coins!

Overall I do like the new set-up, but then again I've been trying not to take the game too seriously (or at least not as seriously as RS1!) There's no doubting that the cooking process has become more complicated and convoluted, but most of the additions add some extra depth to the gaming experience. Being relaxed about the game is slightly disconcerting to me considering my obsession with the original, but the fact that there is no longer the daunting challenge of customer satisfaction which can plummet when the bots storm out in a huff does help reassure me!

In fact my greatest concern probably falls with the durations of the recipes. At the time of writing I'm at level 23 with 29 dishes unlocked, and yet 6 hours is the longest length I've got, and even that is only for one recipe. This means that overnight and on busy days productivity is way down on what it could be. Perhaps I'll find things even out as I climb the level ladder, but having played for over a month now it is a touch frustrating.

So that concludes the first (and most long) part of my Restaurant Story 2 review. The next instalment will take a meticulous look at the decorating side of things, including the subtle changes made to the market.