Recipe For Disaster Review – Chaotic Restaurant Tycoon Sim In The Test

Testing this time: The new restaurant manager simulation Recipe for Disaster

In this Recipe for Disaster review (with test gameplay) you can see the new restaurant management business simulation that went into Early Access on Steam in November 2021. In this tycoon-style manager game, we create recipes, hire employees, buy tables, chairs, decor, and kitchen equipment and try to make real business, very similar to games like Restaurant Tycoon. This Cooking Tycoon simulation game has it all, the full range of restaurant strategy games. While the customer’s mouth is burning, the stove is burning in the kitchen, and we are responsible for everything.

This article is available here as text, but also as a YouTube video (German voice-over, many subtitles). This way you can choose how you would like to enjoy it most.

Recipe for Disaster Review Video

German Voice-Over, many subtitles

Recipe for Disaster Review – Intro

Hi there, this is the Zap. In this Recipe for Disaster review, you’ll get a sneak peek at the new restaurant management game with hilarious accidents and exciting business simulations. I’ll tell you how it plays, what’s in it, and at the end, I’ll give you a rating. But most of all, I want to give you all the info, so you can decide for yourself if you might enjoy the game.

Recipe for Disaster is developed by Dapper Penguin Studios and published by Kasedo Games. The studio has already released a successful game with Rise of Industry, so there are no complete newbies at work here. I received a free test key, my thanks for that. However, this should have no bearing on my review, as I always test all games with the thought in the back of my mind, how would I feel if I had paid full price?

Background – Early Access

Recipe for Disaster already was released in Early Access at the beginning of November 21 and is not yet a finished game. But you can play for a few hours now and for the low price of fewer than 20 dollars, you also get a good selection of game content.

But clearly, this is a game in the middle of development that already offers interesting gameplay elements, but not everything is as the developers intend it to be yet. And as an Early Access title, it also offers the opportunity to actively contribute to the game via feedback, bug reports, and suggestions.

Recipe for Disaster is particularly exemplary here. Because there is not only the typical survey form and a Discord server where you can give feedback but also an in-game feedback menu that can be called up via the F11 key. There you can express your opinion directly while playing or send in bugs with a screenshot and the corresponding information.

Game Type – Tycoon Game – Restaurant Manager Game

Recipe for Disaster is a classic restaurant tycoon game, with some unique features in terms of employee abilities and properties. It roughly reminds me of the versions of Pizza Connection from the ’90s and early ’00s.

The game gives us the opportunity to create our own recipes, from a very extensive range of ingredients. We have to plan stock keeping and there is also cleanliness to take care of. Our staff has likes and dislikes, both towards certain activities and co-workers.

There is a level system by which our employees gain experience and increase their proficiency in eight different job skills. As they level up, we can also select one passive skill from the three offered each time. This allows our employees to get better overall as they gain experience.

When working, breaks and endurance must be considered. Every employee also has a stress level that can arise due to numerous influences, such as low salary, dirt, or problems at the restaurant. And when it gets too high, there are nervous breakdowns, or our mellow, friendly waitress can become a raging fury and set fire to the kitchen.

And of course, as befits an economic simulation, everything costs money. There are running costs to consider, ingredients, equipment, furniture, decor, and salaries all gnaw away at our assets. So we, our employees, but most of all our restaurant and the food have to be well received by the customers in order not to go broke or just to cover the costs. And to possibly even bring in fat profits, it sometimes takes a lot of fine-tuning and micromanagement, depending on the level of difficulty you choose.

In addition, the game offers an extensive construction mode, with which we can rebuild our restaurant according to our ideas, expand it or, if necessary, completely demolish it and build a new one. If our money is enough for that because building a luxury restaurant will cost really big amounts of money.

Here we can build walls, create wallpaper and flooring, and from a wide selection of furniture, decorations, and plants to create the most attractive restaurant with an outdoor area. Later, there will also be additional land plots to buy, which we can use to build even larger restaurants.

Recipe for Disaster Gameplay – Campaign and Freeplay

Currently, the game offers a short tutorial and a 5-level campaign, with different objectives and small stories around it. Thereby the game duration increases from level to level and so does the challenge. Depending on how fast you set the game and how skillful you are, these 5 missions should provide 5-10 hours of gameplay.

In addition, the game has now received an extensively adjustable Freeplay mode with a first major update. Here you can either start your game with Easy, Medium or Hard defaults or set it exactly according to your own preferences with 20 different parameters.

With this, the replay value has increased enormously and you can start a new game every now and then. And completing all the Freeplay objectives also takes a lot longer than the campaign tasks.

Recipe for Disaster Screenshots InGame

Click or tap on the image for a larger view.
In the enlarged view, you can scroll right and left on the edges

Tech, Graphics, Sound, GFX, SFX, Engine, Translation

Recipe for Disaster is built in the Unity engine, and that gives a stable foundation for the game. It didn’t crash once for me even in >30 hours of testing. The view in the game is rotatable in 90-degree increments and freely zoomable (meanwhile, an additional FreeCamera Mode was integrated). With my mid-range RX580 graphics card, I always had more than 30 FPS at 1440p and full details, even in large restaurants.

The graphics are kept rather simple in a low-poly style, but can also bring quite chic variety to the screen with its simple yet effective lighting. This is also supported by a large number of variations in the characters and furniture, as well as numerous different textures for walls and floors.

The soundtrack is in a range of sufficient to good. There are short samples for many important events here, and sometimes variants so that several of the same events in a row don’t sound exactly the same.

The music consists of some jazz tracks, and is overall quite appropriate and not too annoying. But all in all, a bit more ambiance could be built up with more variations in the soundtrack.

The game has no voice acting, but it doesn’t need any. And the on-screen texts are available in a total of seven languages. In addition to English and German, there are currently French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, and simplified Chinese offered here.

The texts in German and English are okay, but still have minor issues here and there, and sometimes a text blows up the border or is abbreviated a bit strangely. Overall, the user interface still looks a bit immature in some places. There is definitely room for improvement here. But on the whole, everything works as it is now.

Recipe for Disaster Test – Opinion and Conclusion

Well, I do not have very much really fundamental to complain about here at all. The game runs stable, bugs are rare and almost never that dramatic that they could destroy the game’s fun. The balancing is still a bit strange here and there, but there is nothing really massively disturbing.

The city map could be bigger, or rather the game should just use more of the map that is already there. Because if you press F2 you can already see that a whole district is shown, around the square on which the restaurant is located. However, most of it is unused so far.

I would like to see even more statistics and more information about customer preferences. And also in the kitchen I often wished for more accurate tools that could help to analyze the processes better, without the game telling me directly “build a fryer more, then it will run better”.

Of course, overall I’m dreaming of some sort of Pizza Connection, with multiple restaurants, advertising, marketing, competitors, different tastes depending on the neighborhood, more stats, more complications, etc. Speaking of complications, there is still something lacking in what gave the game its name, namely the disasters. There are nervous breakdowns, dirt, and fire, but other than that, nothing chaotic or disruptive happens in the restaurant’s daily routine.

Recipe for Disaster offers a lot of choices when it comes to character visuals. By offering to use RGB colors for coloring almost everything and a viable variety of nice 3D models, the game allows for a lot of design freedom. More of everything would be great, of course, because there will probably never be too much here.

In general, Recipe for Disaster could have more content, because there is never enough of a good game. But the developers have a lot planned here as well. More campaigns would be nice, and a multiplayer is already teased in the menu. There you should then be able to cook with friends in a competition. I hope there will also be a co-op mode, to run a restaurant together with a friend or partner, that would be something exciting.

Player-created scenarios are planned, how exactly thereby the adjustment possibilities will then be, is not yet known, however. I would like to see a complete campaign editor, where you can build your own levels, create tasks and define problems. But let’s see what will come from Dapper Penguin in the next few months.

A connection to the Steam Workshop is already in function, so you can already share your recipes with others. If the other user-generated creations then also all make it to the Steam Workshop, hopefully even non-builders will soon be able to download more content for the game.

All in all, Recipe for Disaster is at least a lot of fun for me. My wife also tested the game and came to the same conclusion. And on hard, the game is also really challenging, even for someone like me who plays tycoon games and economic sims very often. And for those who don’t like it so challenging, everything can be turned easier.

Recipe for Disaster Review – Rating

If we add up the few criticisms and the many advantages, I would like to give Recipe for Disaster an 80 % rating even now in its initial Early Access state. It is fun and has a sufficient replay value and can be adjusted for any kind of player, from “just relaxing” to “crunchy challenge with micromanagement” everything is possible.

Nothing is currently so annoying that I would have to deduct points anywhere. Then, looking at the quite reasonable price of $16.99, I would also like to give the game a bonus of 5 % for the fun it offers per dollar. This brings us to a final rating for Recipe for Disaster of 85 %.

And since the developers still have plenty of plans for the game, I see chances for a top rating in a few months. Here matures an insiders’ tip for gourmets of good economic sim cuisine.

Recipe for Disaster

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Testing this time: The new restaurant manager simulation Recipe for Disaster
In this Recipe for Disaster review (with test gameplay) you can see the new restaurant management business simulation that went into Early Access on Steam in November 2021. In this tycoon-style manager game, we create recipes, hire employees, buy tables, chairs, decor, and kitchen equipment and try to make real business. This Cooking Tycoon simulation game has it all. While the customer’s mouth is burning, the stove is burning in the kitchen, and we are responsible for everything.

Simulation

Feature Scope

Graphics

Sound

State of the Game

Fun per Price Ratio

Rating

If we add up the few criticisms and the many advantages, I would like to give Recipe for Disaster an 80 % rating even now in its initial Early Access state. It is fun and has a sufficient replay value and can be adjusted for any kind of player, from “just relaxing” to “crunchy challenge with micromanagement” everything is possible.

Nothing is currently so annoying that I would have to deduct points anywhere. Then, looking at the quite reasonable price of $16.99, I would also like to give the game a bonus of 5 % for the fun it offers per dollar. This brings us to a final rating for Recipe for Disaster of 85 %.

And since the developers still have plenty of plans for the game, I see chances for a top rating in a few months. Here matures an insiders’ tip for gourmets of good economic sim cuisine.

4.3

Outro

Do you like taming scurrying employees and cashing in on satisfied customers? Or are complex simulations and management not your cup of tea? Feel free to write me your opinion in the comments or in the community Discord.

You can find more gaming news, game reviews, and guides on the ZapZockt YouTube channel or here at https://zapzockt.de – clicking thumbs up at the video, subscribing to the YouTube Channel, and sharing with friends certainly can’t hurt, and then I wish you a great day, ciao ciao, your Zap

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