RS2 News (Jun 2017)

The tumbleweed has been passing through in Restaurant Story over the past couple of weeks, with no update since the theatre themed goals were released. Luckily the sequel title, Restaurant Story 2, has done its best to keep us occupied, with two cruise events sandwiched by the return of Lani and her tasks.

The first of those cruises was the Madder Tea Party cruise event, which was a rehash of the Mad Tea Party themed cruise from May 2016.

Main page of Madder Tea Party cruise event

For some months now I've been whining about the re-release of events with the same prizes. But now Storm8 have even given up on bigging up these events. My evidence? Just look at the title - the 'Madder Tea Party' is the gamemakers' nod to the fact that this is not the first appearance of this cruise.

Anyway, there were two key points to come out of this cruise, with the first being the absence of stamps as prizes. It was the same with the previous month's Las Vegas themed event, and left me pondering if it was even worth completing the cruise. After all I've got so many gem producing recipes now that I can't keep up, so what use was another to me?

The other notable aspect of this cruise was the inclusion of stamp dishes as orders. My reaction to this is mixed. On one hand it's a much needed novelty for this type of challenge, and with every stamp recipe providing three or four cruise coins they can certainly boost your progress. However stamps are hard to come by, and that means a significantly greater number of refreshes were required, at least for me.

I've mastered every silver and bronze stamp linked food in the game already, and for a long time I just horded the duck eggs and turbinado sugar accumulated from silver and bronze stamps respectively. But a while back I decided to just use most of them up, keeping just a small contingency - what a mistake that is looking back now! As for gold stamps, my preference is still to keep the European butter for recipes which I've not mastered, and so gold stamp linked orders are more than likely to be given the refresh treatment at The Onion Bush.

And there were many refreshes needed. The stamp dishes seemed to take over this cruise event, with a large proportion of my orders being such foods. It meant a lot of refreshes, and with no stamps to be gained as prizes, I was ultimately left a little put out.

After using up all the duck eggs and turbinado sugar stamps I could muster, I did complete the cruise with relative ease, thus gaining the visits of the Red Queen who pops by every five hours or so with Teabags which are an ingredient in the Raging Red Rooibos. This drink appears on the Jubilee Oven and is far from my favourite gem making recipe given that it also requires sugar and cream, both high demand ingredients.

Following the end of the mad tea party themed cruise, there was no doubt that I was on the lookout for opportunities to bag some much needed stamps. And low and behold, Lani pops up!

Introduction to a silver stamp Lani goal

I used to groan whenever Lani put in an appearance, but now she's become a godsend. This was the 13th set of goals offered up by Lani, with the usual premise of two goals rewarding silver stamps and another a gold stamp.

So was I all over this trio of tasks from Lani? Eh, not really. This was Lani's first showing since February, and I just couldn't get into the mode of checking in with her goals. I'd go into the game, serve my dishes, buy up ingredients and set off another batch, all before realising that Lani was patiently waiting for some attention. And therefore it is rather sheepishly that I admit that I didn't complete any of Lani's goals, and indeed didn't even come close. I'm so sorry Lani, I've let you down - please don't let it put you off returning soon!

After my debacle there you can imagine my relief when another cruise was launched. The African expedition cruise event hit our screens on 1st June, and was yet another re-release.

Notification for African Expedition cruise event

So why was I relieved to see it? Because stamps were back among the prizes. Silver and gold stamps are up for grabs, and their inclusion really helps motivate me to swing by regularly to ensure I reach the end. To add to the positivity, the stamp recipes seem to have been scaled back on this cruise. Given that their overuse in the mad tea party edition was a common complaint, it seems that Storm8 have taken action, which is nice to see. Having said that, I'm stalling at the minute with my progress, having barely got started on day nine, and with 37 hours until the cruise ship departs (at the time of writing) I'm going to have a busy climax to this event.

If I do finish within the time constraints them there will be Klappertert waiting for me. This is essentially a coconut pie which is native to South Africa. Thinking about it, more unusual recipes which give a taste of other cultures are not all that common in the game, certainly when compared to the original. Hopefully we may see a few more in the coming months, although given that the final cruise prizes are the only fresh recipes added in ages I'm not holding my breath.

To cook the Klappertert you'll need six coconut, five cream, four flour and three sugar. It makes sense given the type of dish we're dealing with here, but ultimately it is yet another entry which will deplete vital ingredients. The coconut is the component unlocked by the cruise, with Hattie the Huntress delivering it.

 RS2 News

 06/05/17 May 2017
 01/04/17 April 2017
 11/03/17 March 2017
 04/02/17 February 2017
 07/01/17 January 2017

I've reached a point in Restaurant Story 2 now where I have signed off on an imaginary pact. If I ever master every recipe in the game, I will quit. At the moment I have 834 mastery stars (closing in on Creme's 888!) which still puts me way off maxing out. And with many of the foods still to be mastered having high numbers for the third star or tough ingredients, it will be a long while yet before I get to the end.

But I've put it out there - unless the game picks up and starts offering something different from the mundane repeats it currently does, the mastery stars are a measurement of my time to deletion for what was once a really fun game which has grown stale over the last six months.