It’s certainly one of the more different ones that I’ve played, and I will neither confirm nor deny that I’m a simulator addict. What made it a stand out twist on the genre? There were actually a couple things, but I’ll start with the most obvious and my favourite, which is the steampunk setting.
The steampunk universe really made this game an even more fun experience than I believe it would have been in just your average typical world. You have your little robot friend who runs you through the tutorial and otherwise helps you out as you grow your chocolate store, and even the very cool delivery system which involves sending it off in a hot or balloon to be picked up by the delivery ship. Even all of the machinery used for cooking the chocolate and recipes up is very steampunk-y with giant, coal-run machines that heat things up or press the chocolate into shapes. The steampunk world and atmosphere was definitely my favourite part because it made for such a cool experience and unique characters which I very much enjoyed.
Now, I also found it to be a bit more of a complex experience than your average simulator. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though for me it did detract from enjoyment of the gameplay and experience a bit. This is entirely a me thing, if I’m playing a simulator, typically I’m going for a straightforward, easy experience that likely amps up the difficulty as you go. Generally speaking I look to enjoy games, not look for the greatest difficulty. I’m by no means saying you have to be the gamer of all gamers to play it, it just to me felt like a lot to learn and remember all at once, combined with a cooking system that requires a light hand, and great attention, two things I’m not great at. For example, in measuring out ingredients you have to be very careful about getting exact measurements, as you are controlling the pour of the ingredients into the bowl and it’s easy to have too heavy of a hand, or to over pour if you get distracted easily like I do.
Another aspect to this game that works in its favour is that there are orders with different difficult to levels and expectations. I like this because it allows you to choose what you’re comfortable with doing, so if you’re like me, having easier jobs to do to get used to the game is essential, whereas the simulator veteran has more difficult opportunities to keep them happy. It even throws in timed jobs which, to be perfectly frank is far too stressful for me so I sure did avoid those ones. But it adds that extra bit of challenge for anyone looking for it. In this way it caters to a bunch of different needs which can keep the game from getting stale too quickly.
All together I found this to be an enjoyable play, although at times it felt like I was drowning in information and trying to keep the many different machines straight. But I do anticipate playing more and seeing how much I can grow the reputation of my chocolate shop!
