Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale Oculus Quest Review
Fast Facts
Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale
Developer: Resolution Games
Publisher: Resolution Games
Website: www.resolutiongames.com/cookout
Genre: Casual, Food, Social
Platform: Oculus Quest
Age Rating: Everyone
Release Date: 03/09/2020
Price: £14.99
A code was provided for review purposes.
Chaos in the Kitchen
There’s no slouch to frenzied food featuring games on mobile, consoles, and handheld. The Oculus Quest has a few games that dabble in it as well, though none are as fun and frenetic as Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale. The main premise of the game is that you and up to three other friends, or you and a Rob-Bot helper, are tasked with serving up dishes for the fantastical creatures like mice, rabbits, werewolves and more. You progress through increasingly more difficult and task oriented sandwich building, earning up to three stars, some coins, and satisfaction of a job well done.
Each team member has their fridge which houses a type of bread, some toppings like mushrooms, peppers, onions, carrots, and other tasty treats. You need to chop each item up and place it on the proper plate, which is set spinning on a rotunda where up to five plates may have sandwiches all waiting to be put together. Along with the toppings found in your fridge, there is also mayo, ketchup, and peppers, as well as a grill for those toasted items. In between each side separating two players, there is a tub for washing dishes as well, as dirty dishes do come into play in mid-tiered levels.
A Spell of a Time
Where Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale really shines is in the online multiplayer where you can join an existing room, set up your own, or set a private match with friends. Jumping into random matches can pit you with…or against, folks that are just monkeying around. And while that is always the case on online games, there were enough online rooms open with real people wanting to progress through the levels and work towards gaining more stars and coins.
Once you find a rhythm, Cook-Out starts to find its groove. Soon you and your three other chefs will be barking orders to one another, sending food flying, and hopefully putting together impressive orders and even more impressive scores. If you have ever played a game of Overcooked 1 or 2, and shouted heinously at your spouse, significant other, or young child to SERVE THE ORDER! You will find yourself right at home in Cook-Out.
Kitchen Unlockables
Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale has perks you can use in the form of potions. These potions allow you to one chop items to have at the ready, clean dishes just by dumping them in the wash bin, slow down the spinning rotunda, and create perfect orders with one drop. When playing with others, it’s imperative to call out which potions would be helpful based on the three star needs and work together to formulate a plan.
Along with potions for game perks, there are visual upgrades as well, like various cleaver/knife skins you can unlock, cutting boards, and more. While these are only visual, they do add to your gloat level when in a room with folks that obviously haven’t played as much as you.
The Cupboards Were Bare
If there’s one issue that may arise from Cook-Out’s campaign of 40 or so levels, is that the game is really more fun with people. While the bot is helpful for 2 player cooking, you do have to constantly crank his power level up on top of making sandwiches to keep him energized. Online games in VR can have a hard time finding their niche audience, and finding matches, while not yet a problem for me, could become a problem as the game ages and if it falls out into obscurity instead of notoriety. So far it’s easy to find matches and jump into new ones, and I have had a blast working with random folks in VR to accomplish our goals.
A Squashpickle Perspective
Like Jonathan, I was also able to spend some time with Cook Out and whilst I didn’t spend as much time with the game as he did (I played about an hour) I still had a lot of fun! In terms of gameplay features, there’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been covered. I’m a big fan of both Overcooked games and Cook-Out certainly feels like a VR version of that series. The simple task of actually “cutting” vegetables and “assembling” sandwiches highlights the power of virtual reality. In fact, I had moved around preparing sandwiches so much that by the end of the hour, I had increased my heart rate a fair bit.
Visually, the fantasy design of Cook Out looks really good with a surprising level of detail to the kitchen environment: there’s a candlelit staircase, cluttered shelves and a town plaza where your hungry customers await their food.
All in all, I was impressed by the game and the combination of easy to grasp gestures and hectic orders combine to create an awesome experience.
Rapid Reviews Rating
You can purchase Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale for Oculus Quest here.
You can read our VR game reviews over at vrgamecritic.
