Cook Serve Forever

As someone who's been playing CSD since the first, eagerly followed 2 from early development and was ecstatic over 3, I always wondered whether this game could really work on controller when so much of its core relies on the keyboard. CSF delivers that in spades, while also allowing the already excellent narrative worldbuilding of the CSD games to really spread its wings and fly. If CSD captures all the stress and excitement of being a prep cook at a restaurant, CSF captures the feeling of learning to cook - of mastering individual parts of a recipe, of knowing your strength and flying within them to achieve something fantastic. I arrived late, on the recent patch. But if this beautiful feeling of zen that I get when playing is due to that update, then congratulations to chubigans on once again hitting it out of the park. Also: the music is transcendent. The shift to vocals really elevates what was already an excellent soundscape in CSD. I am obsessed, and I love this!

After a rough start in early access, the gameplay was entirely modified for the better. While not as hard as the previous CSD games, this game still gives you a good challenge if you strive for perfection. The game is a lot more focused on telling a quite nice story. The music works out great again this time around. The art looks gorgeous when you find time to look at it. The story is not going to blow you away but is very heartwarming and nice to go through all the same. My only two negatives (Where one might've been rectified in early access without me noticing) are: (At least initially) you really need a controller to play, the keyboard layout was nonsensical and not rebindable. This may have changed. Still an issue is the loading screens between story sequences and gameplay and menus. They could be intentional transitions, but it just feels weirdly drawn out to sit watching a scene for a couple of seconds before something happens. Other than that, as long as you don't expect the same as the previous Cook Serve Delicious games, and you like having to precisely and swiftly hit and hold buttons, this is a good game to play.

Really enjoyed this game! The story development and the cooking element led it to a game I couldn't stop playing! 10/10

Cook Serve Forever is a departure from the traditional format of the series but is a great game in its own right. The phenomenal audio and visual design from the series have been amped-up to 11, and the atmosphere here is top notch as always. The gameplay, while simplified, does a good job of shifting the focus to the more deliberate and interesting narrative that is the foundation of the experience. Furthermore, it has been really refreshing to see a developer respond genuinely to criticism and work hard to improve their game over the course of Early Access. This behavior should be commended and rewarded. When all is said and done, yes, I still prefer CSD 3 for its engaging and complex gameplay. However, comparing the two games on that criteria alone does CSF a massive disservice, and fans of the series would be remiss to not give it a chance on its own terms.

as it own separate game, it just not that interesting. maybe if it had animations of the food actually being cooked but just doing button combinations seeing the food come together is so meh. the dpad controls annoy me so much, at least on my rog ally; I be pressing down and nothing else and it still be yelling at me, very frustrating. the story line is also boring

The game itself is alright. Instead of the normal gameplay loop the idea of this one is using your right hand and left hand at the same time. That is fine, and is fun. I'm tired of the woke stuff though. GIve me a fun cooking game without dialoge that is just annoying.

It's not Cook, Serve, Delicious.... it's Cook Serve Forever. And I like it.

Unlike the other CSD games that emphasize memorizing sets of ingredients, Cook Serve Forever has a handful of cooking techniques shared by every dish: dicing, mixing, baking, and a dozen others. Though the techniques are shared, each dish feels unique, and you can usually anticipate what steps are coming next. For example, pizza dishes tend to involve some slicing/grating/topping and always end with a baking step. The multitasking component of this game is its primary difficulty. To finish dishes fast enough for "perfect" ratings, you'll need to complete different cooking steps with both hands simultaneously. I love this mechanic; it's very satisfying as your skills improve, and new dishes pair the cooking techniques in new ways to consistently challenge you throughout the game. Lastly, the narrative is engaging, and very cleverly integrated into the gameplay. Hoping to someday see CSF 2 (:

This is a really cute twist on the Cook Serve formula. You could describe Cook Serve Forever as "Are you good at rubbing your stomach while patting your head?" The Game. CSF trades the hecticness of building a complex menu and managing a lot of different recipe configurations with a variety of "cooking techniques" abstracted to your controller. You're making a few dishes really well (like a cooking competition) instead of as many as can possibly be made. The art and sound design are phenomenal from what I have seen and I would expect no less from the developers. I really like it and I think I've gotten over the hump of "Hmm, this isn't what I wanted" to getting interested/involved in how THIS one works. To be clear, this is not another Cook Serve Delicious and one look at any footage of it should show that. What is here though is a great spin off and very exciting to see them trying something different.

banger