Cook Serve Delicious is quite an interesting franchise. It’s a game that’s all about running your own restaurant, but it takes that simple premise and twists it in a rather fun and inventive way. Part Cooking Mama mini-games, part typing tutorial, the game challenges you to manage every aspect of cooking the food items on your menu. Said menu is crafted at the beginning of each day from a roster of hundreds of different items, with varying levels of complexity.
Whether it’s something as simple as opening a bottle of wine or something as finicky as cooking the perfectly seasoned steak, you have to handle it all. The first game in the franchise nailed the panic and stress of trying to manage unruly customers and their meals really well. And then the second game brought new layers to the mini-games by making them more strategic. Players could prep high-demand meals ahead of time, but you had to very carefully manage your rotation to avoid running out of a particular food item if there was a sudden spike in customers. This made the original formula much more tactical than one would expect from a simple gameplay loop like this. And the keyboard-based controls worked perfectly, adding to the fun.
And now, with the third game coming soon, Vertigo is taking the whole thing on the road. You, and even a friend if you’re playing cooperatively, can now manage the chaos on four wheels, with the addition of food trucks. Check out the trailer below to get a quick sneak peek at the new mechanics.
As with the previous games, there’s tons of menu options to unlock, and your skill at managing your time will be put to the test in Cook Serve Delicious 3. There’s a lot of fast-paced cooking chaos, but if you just want to practice and take it easy, the developer will also include a Zen Campaign mode which slows down the pace of new orders considerably.
Regardless of what more you’re playing in, the addition of the food truck will see players journeying around the US, pumping out regional dishes and cuisine for the hungry masses. As you improve your skills and reputation, you can augment your cooking setup with new items, which in turn allow for more complex dishes. The ultimate goal of this grind is to prove you’re made of tougher stuff than anyone else in the Iron Cook National Food Truck Championships.
Vertigo Gaming will demo Cook Serve Delicious 3 at PAX West 2019 later this month. You can follow the game and the developer on Instagram, Twitter, and Discord for more details, as well as check the official website.
The full release of Cook Serve Delicious 3 will arrive in late 2020, for both consoles and PC.
