Epic Chef

It does take a little while for the game to really warm up; the opening hours aim to establish quite a lot quite quickly, but once you're past all that, there's a pretty solid adventure to enjoy. Some aspects may leave a funny aftertaste; loading interrupts the game between areas, which makes getting around feel a bit clunky. The presentation is a little rough too, with several fiddly menus and blocky characters that don't quite hit the mark. However, the witty writing and crazy story, paired with simple but effective gameplay, makes for an enjoyable adventure for your inner foodie.

Epic Chef is heaped with charm and humour that will undoubtedly put a smile on your face as you start your life as Ambrosia's hottest chef. Unfortunately, while the cooking and farming mechanics are simple enough to grasp, the bloated nature of the game makes every task feel more arduous than it needs to be. Add to this the needlessly lengthy dialogue and bizarre limitations around the save function, and Epic Chef feels like a game that can't quite match up with the other life sims available on the Switch. It's not unenjoyable, just more Little Chef than MasterChef.

Epic Chef is a great, laid-back, and simple game that you can play with just a pen and paper. It features simple controls, nice visuals, and, of course, plenty of comical extras. The game might benefit from easier ingredient collection and less of a push toward a full-fledged simulation, because I’d much rather have spent the hours I spent searching at the stove. Even so, it’s a pleasant surprise for just a few bucks.

Epic Chef leaves much to be desired when encountering a game breaking bug that stops progression completely so early on. It has potential with unique cooking experiences, but don’t expect to be the next Gordon Ramsay anytime soon if you hit a game ending glitch.

Epic Chef’s writing is quite funny, and because of that and its fun cooking gameplay, I’m willing to wave off any serious issues I have with it. Does it mean it’s a perfect experience though, no. But I enjoyed my time with it and think it’s a great game to hop into, especially if you’re into the crafting, farming, or cooking genres.

Epic Chef has a lot to offer players who want to inject a charmingly humorous adventure narrative into their farming simulator. With crops to harvest, structures to craft, and cooking battles to win, Epic Chef attempts a diverse range of gameplay, and, to its credit, largely succeeds. If you’re looking for something that isn’t afraid to mix and match mechanics and is unapologetically fun, Epic Chef thinks you should don your metaphorical chef hat and get cookin’.

Epic Chef should appeal to fans of games like Story of Seasons or Stardew Valley. It takes a bit to get going and some of its systems are poorly designed but I still grew quite fond of growing my crops, helping out the townsfolk, and conquering battles to become to top chef around. It’s not the best game in this farming/life simulator genre but it’s certainly worth a look.

Although it's genuinely rewarding and unique, Epic Chef can sometimes be an annoying game to play for various reasons. With that said, the core gameplay loop is handled so well that I'm looking forward to a sequel which will hopefully address its issues.

Epic Chef is a strange game really. It sits somewhere between a cooking game and land management sim and has a wealth of activities for many hours of entertainment. At times it can feel a little too slow-paced but I feel it is an ambitious effort to do something a little different with a tested formula and in the most part it does work well. It is not a game for everyone but if you like this type of game and you can overlook its shortfalls, you will be able to have a lot of fun with Epic Chef.

For anyone who played the demo like I did, they may be worried about bugs. Thankfully, all the bugs that seemed to be present in the demo haven’t appeared for me in the full game. It’s a much better experience now than it was before. This game is fun, funky, and a fresh look at simple cooking and farming sims.