Review: Lost Recipes
At a Glance
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
How to Save and Pause:You have three save slots to choose between, and your progress is saved after each attempt. There's no way to save while cooking. To pause, bring up the game's menu with the joystick's menu button. Time needed per session:Depending on how careful or clumsy you are, preparing a meal could take up to ten minutes or so. Plan accordingly.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Does this game pose issues for Christian players?
 | No - this is a great game for Christians Some stricter Christians may have issues with some of the cultural themes, but I think most Christians will be okay with this title. |
Screenshots
Game Overview
Lost Recipes is a VR cooking simulator centered around food from ancient cultures. However, instead of transporting you directly to the past, this game takes a more fanciful theme, positioning the player as a new "ghost chef" in training. By mastering these different recipes, you'll help make the afterlife more enjoyable for the people from these unique cultures.
Your journey begins in Greece, where you'll learn how to prepare traditional fare like pita bread or souvlaki. Next, you'll visit China to study brewing tea and cooking with a wok. The final leg of your culinary journey will be found in the Americas, where you need to master their unusual variation of the mortar and pestle in order to properly cook chocolate drinks and spicy food.
With each culture comes a ghost who will help guide you through their respective recipes. As you work, they'll also share some of their culture's history and let you know if anything is about to burn. Once you've finished a recipe, the resident ghost will "consume" it and let you know how well you did. Often, they are a lot more forgiving than I expected, so I guess the occasional burned or underdone piece adds a little character to the meal.
Of course, there are some other perks that come with being a ghost chef. For example, you have an unending supply of most ingredients. This means you never really need to worry about spilling things - as long as your work meets with the ghost's satisfaction, there can be as much or as little chaos in the kitchen as you want.
Overall, this is a fun little game. If I had to come up with any major complaints about it, I'd say that it's just too short! There are only nine recipes to play through, so you'll easily master them all before you're ready to quit. Definitely check this one out, and maybe even check out the free cookbook (under "quick links")
the developers created - their version is updated to use ingredients you'll find in a modern kitchen!
Your journey begins in Greece, where you'll learn how to prepare traditional fare like pita bread or souvlaki. Next, you'll visit China to study brewing tea and cooking with a wok. The final leg of your culinary journey will be found in the Americas, where you need to master their unusual variation of the mortar and pestle in order to properly cook chocolate drinks and spicy food.
With each culture comes a ghost who will help guide you through their respective recipes. As you work, they'll also share some of their culture's history and let you know if anything is about to burn. Once you've finished a recipe, the resident ghost will "consume" it and let you know how well you did. Often, they are a lot more forgiving than I expected, so I guess the occasional burned or underdone piece adds a little character to the meal.
Of course, there are some other perks that come with being a ghost chef. For example, you have an unending supply of most ingredients. This means you never really need to worry about spilling things - as long as your work meets with the ghost's satisfaction, there can be as much or as little chaos in the kitchen as you want.
Overall, this is a fun little game. If I had to come up with any major complaints about it, I'd say that it's just too short! There are only nine recipes to play through, so you'll easily master them all before you're ready to quit. Definitely check this one out, and maybe even check out the free cookbook (under "quick links")
the developers created - their version is updated to use ingredients you'll find in a modern kitchen!
Points of Interest
Semi-realistic animations
As you cook, the ingredients change color, texture, and in some cases shape to reflect what you've done to them. There's also a helpful sparkle effect and audio cue that lets you know when something has finished marinating or cooking.
Extremely forgiving
It's actually quite hard to disappoint your ghostly clients. You can make a huge mess, drop important ingredients and cutlery on the floor, and even serve stuff raw without anybody getting upset or giving you low marks. This does make earning the five star ranking on each recipe a bit too easy, however.
Not remotely long enough
As mentioned above, there are only nine recipes to play through. You could try experimenting, but since key ingredients will only appear when their specific recipe is selected, there really isn't a sandbox mode.
Concerns and Issues
A little alcohol
Some recipes do involve alcohol. For example, in Greece, you'll use wine as both an ingredient and as part of a mixed beverage. The player never actually consumes any, nor do the spirits become drunk.
Ghosts, obviously
Depicting your clients as long dead ghosts is an interesting way to try and bring authenticity to the cultures that these recipes are from, but some stricter parents may not like the idea of talking with the dead.
That said, your clients are shown as floating balls of colored fire, which isn't scary at all.
That said, your clients are shown as floating balls of colored fire, which isn't scary at all.
Some recipes are based around holidays
If there's any real issues with this game, it might be the cultural significance behind some of the recipes. While cooking treats known for their use in celebrating the New Year's Festival or the Olympics may not be an issue, one of the recipes from Central America is for Hanal Pixan, which is sometimes compared to the Day of the Dead, where food is left on altars for the souls of the deceased to enjoy.
, where food is left on altars for the souls of the deceased to enjoy.