Hot Plates

This game has SO MUCH of wasted potential that I'm genuinely annoyed by just seeing the state this game has ended with. Gameplay-wise it's a straight-up ripoff of "Overcooked" but without a single thing that made Overcooked enjoyable. There are also other similar games in this genre, but others do introduce something unique, this one does not. The premise is actually good, I mean it's a ripoff but hey, you run your own restaurant as a sole member and you're serving your dishes. Where is the problem then? I wonder where to start, maybe we start from what makes this game unplayable in the first place? Bugs and optimization. Game has absolutely no optimization at all, putting ingredients into a grinder or bowl causes 1-2 seconds freeze, making a "time management" a freaking chore supported with swear words rather than a challenge. Orders can randomly disappear from the list, making you wonder what the ♥♥♥♥ you're supposed to prepare in the first place. People can order foods that you can't even possibly cook yet, because you didn't even SEE the missing ingredient in the freaking store, on top of the fact that you lack appropriate machines to make them! Even more ridiculous is the fact that some dishes have actually ZERO profit rate, they cost exactly the same what we order ingredients for, so it's not even profitable to prepare them in the first place. If I wanted to run a charity organization then that'd be okay, but I thought I'm running a restaurant with making profit in mind? No? Time and effort are free? Game has absolutely nothing interesting to offer, this could be a really good game if EVERYTHING was polished, from that awful UI, through pricing and balance, ending on bugs and optimizations. For a game in early access I'd forgive all of those quirks and assume that they will be fixed before the release, but this thing looks not only officially released, but abandoned since half of the year as well, making the entire experience the absolute worst. Even though the price would be OK if the game >worked<, the game doesn't work, and it doesn't look like being fixed anytime soon. There is not even a single reason to grab this game instead of a proper, original "Overcooked" that this game has ripped entire idea from or any other similar game that isn't bugged to death. It's a chore to play it, and constant memory leak and lacking optimization will make you either a restart every few hours, or uninstall, whatever comes first. All of what I mentioned could be easily fixed in a few weeks tops, and it'd make this game finished to the point of at least being possible to play. This is what annoys me, because the premise is good, there are fundaments and general idea what the game is supposed to offer, but everything is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up from top to bottom, offering half-broken tiny part of what the game should be about. I intentionally didn't even start talking about the game itself, because the moment I found out that everything is RNG-based, from lack of meat in the store for several days, to opening previously-bought ticket and receiving different amount of money each time, I knew that this is the moment I should stop being a masochist and uninstall this piece of garbage once for good. Avoid at all cost. Even bundled price of a dozen cents is too much. --- If you liked my review, you can find more of them on [b][url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/ArchiPL/recommended/]my profile[/url][/b] and on my [b][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/10639590/]curator page[/url][/b].

[h1] What was first? Chicken or potato? Looks like potato [/h1]

For me the controls took some getting used to and sometimes I still struggle to target exactly what I want. After the first few days it can get pretty hard to keep up with orders and you will run out of supplies a lot. I recently restarted my cafe so I haven't gotten really far in the game yet and I'm hoping there's upgrades that make things easier in the future. I am enjoying it so far but it's not as casual as I expected a cooking game to be mostly because of the controls. At $5 it's certainly worth a try if you enjoy cooking/restaurant management games. EDIT: After 20 hours of playtime my poor little diner still struggles. The store RNG can really mess you up when much needed supplies are unavailable for weeks. So many orders come so quickly it feels like I'm trying to play a co-op game all by myself. I'm not going to change my review to a thumbs down but only get this if you're looking for a challenge. It's gotten too frustrating for my tastes.

It's simple and fun! What's really nice about this game is that you can stock every ingredients freely in any way you want which I think it's not the same as any other restaurant games. I may have not reach the level that you can farm your own ingredients yet, but 2-3 of first level make me feel this game is so much enjoyable for me. Totally recommend this game for sure! :D P.S. : yep, this game was totally intense! after you got your own farm (level 12 above) the amount of customer that come to your restaurant is increase a lot. So the big tip for this game is that you should setting priority stocking item like these. 1. Tomato 2. Meat ( every kind of meat you want) 3. Salad 4. Bread other than that is up to you. Also keep in mind that the shop won't have anything you need in each day. so sad

While Hot Plates has sound mechanics and, at times, fun gameplay, I cannot recommend a purchase. The game is way too slow to get started and does a poor job of explaining what all of the icons mean. While some people may like to learn as they go, basic instruction as to your starting kitchen appliances and receipes would be great. However, you don't learn about the receipes until mid-way through the VERY slow, VERY boring tutorial. If you like mindless, and time-wasting, cooking sims. Hit up Hot Plates and buy it. See for yourself: https://youtu.be/E_7MIGyPd9w

This game is just barely on the recommended side of things for me. I personally didn't love it but I also spent a good half of my play time being confused on what to do. The menu is not in english so good luck changing that but I did show where to fix that in my video linked below. All in all I can see the appeal for this game but im not 100% sure I will keep playing. That being said IF you enjoy simulator games like this then this game is nothing to complain about and the only $5 price tag is what tipped the scale for me to go ahead and recommend this game. If you enjoy these types of sim games! Check out my video to see some gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqBcNRZgiQ8

Played for a couple of ingame days now. I like it that you can buy and stock up on ingredients how many you like and put them in every container possible. Also prepping for the next day and then buying ingredients tpo finish your prep for the opening hours. Already quite addictive to me and cant wait to see all the features in the game.

Stay away from this abomination at all costs!

I enjoyed playing this a lot but probably wouldn't recommend it to others due to all the issues. It feels a bit like an abandoned early access game. The gameplay is basically Overcooked (you run around with ingredients, chopping and cooking them at the right station) except you stay in the same restaurant every day and have some additional management options - buy upgrades, manage stock etc. Pros: [list][*] Lots of busy work - wash the dishes, take out the trash, prep ingredients, rearrange your storage, etc. There's always something to do. The game gives you lots of time before and after work time to get everything organised. [*] Lots of new ingredients, meals, customers and upgrades keep it fun for a long time. [/list] Cons: [list][*] Customers will just come in and order things you've never made before, and there's no help with figuring out the recipes. You end up just buying everything because you have no idea what you need which makes storage a nightmare. [*] As the ingredients you can buy are random each day, you often are unable to buy core ingredients. E.g. at the start a lot of your recipes are tomato based but you can go days without being able to buy more tomatoes. [*] The game will randomly handicap you and there's no way of playing around it. Sometimes the machines break for half the day and that's it - they're just broken and you can't make anything. You just have to stand there and wait til it's over. I got a notice saying there won't be many customers that day, and then you only have 2-3 customers that day. Nothing you can do about it. [*] Laggy. It starts off fine but after about 30 mins of playing I get lag that increases in severity the longer I play. It fixes itself if I restart the game but I have to do this constantly. [*] The art style isn't great. It's not the worst thing ever though. [/list]

I love cooking games. Ever since "I am the Chef" / "Ore no Ryouri" on the Playstation, a fantastic, but little known Japanese arcade cooking game that never got a North American release. I have played them all. *Very* few games impress in this genre. "Cook Serve Delicious" came closest to that winning formula, which was about multitasking and arcade-quickness. This game falls more under the "Order Up" category, a game for the Wii that I found to be very fun. If you are a fan of management or tycoon games, or cooking games, you will get sucked into this and find it hard to pull yourself away. It has both frantic multitasking *and* really in-depth management. Run around like a chicken with your head cut off serving both humans and aliens throughout the work day, then do some dishes and settle down at the computer to re-stock your ingredients and see if you have any budget left to upgrade your kitchen with more machines, more fridges, more counter space, get things organized for the morning, etc. Getting prepared for the day in the morning is important. I put tomatoes next to the grinders, make sure I have some pre-ground sausages ready to go... This game even has farming, and cloning animals! I imagine it will take me quite a while to get to that level. Just saving up for some basic kitchen improvements is tough to budget for. The only technical problem I found was a short pause when putting ingredients into the 'meal maker' machine, the game must be doing some hard thinking then, parsing the huge recipe menu. I do hope this game gets optimized more though. Don't leave your meats out, they will spoil quickly and you'll end up with filth from the grinders.