Overcooked! All You Can Eat (PS5) Review

If you’re looking for chaotic cooperative capers in the culinary arts, then look no further than the Overcooked series. It’s been five years since the initial lunch, uh, launch and it’s since spawned a sequel and a host of DLC. Overcooked! All You Can Eat is the most recent addition to the series but isn’t necessarily a new game. However, it is a great package that includes both games and all of the released DLC, including levels and characters with a new coat of paint. I just wish that it took more of an advantage of the capabilities of the DualSense controller.

Both Overcooked games start in a relatively similar fashion; a catastrophic event occurs which brings forth some food-based monster. Overcooked has a Spaghetti Monster while Overcooked 2 has the Unbread. No, I’m not kidding. It’s utterly ridiculous but trust me when I say that this is part of Overcooked’s charm. You’re initially faced with these threats but are ultimately not ready to take on the challenge. The Onion King and his dog, Kevin, then take you back in time to prepare for what’s to come. This is essentially your time to train so that you can be at your best to face the respective monster of each apocalypse. It’s silly but it’s a fun little narrative that creates a reason for you and a friend to go out and do crazy cooking challenges.

The gameplay in Overcooked! All You Can Eat is pretty simple to pick up and play, only really making use of three buttons, aside from the left stick. This is great because while the controls are easy, the gameplay itself is where things get really tricky. Your main goal is to prepare predetermined dishes and serve them to the customer as quickly as possible. This sounds simple but it can get rather crazy thanks to the sheer frequency of the orders or the obstacles that litter the kitchens. It doesn’t start off by throwing you in at the deep end though, but instead eases you into the gameplay before really upping the challenge in a hurry. Ingredients need to be chopped, boiled, fried and ultimately, plated and served to the customer. Then, if that wasn’t enough, dishes will need to be washed before more meals can be plated. It is a true test of speed, patience and also coordination with your friend.

There are also a host of different levels to play through and some of them have distinct styles, from a kitchen floating in the clouds to one that is located in a mineshaft. Additionally, each one will come with its own hazards, from pitfalls to platforms that float erratically in the sky, causing the kitchen to slide around and change its orientation. It’s actually such a manic affair trying to adapt to a new level’s unique obstacles, but it’s actually such a lot of fun too. I loved the creativity that went into creating the different levels. There are so many levels too and it’s incredibly easy for a few rounds to turn into a few hours.

While Overcooked! All You Can Eat can be played solo, it’s designed in a way that favours cooperative play. When playing solo, you control two chefs and switch between them by hitting the L1 button. While it certainly is doable, with a fair amount of practice, it definitely isn’t the best way to play the game, or the most enjoyable. It’s best played with one other friend or more, for maximum hilarity. 

Overcooked! All You Can Eat can be played locally or online. The former works well if you have more than one controller and thankfully because the camera never moves from its position above the kitchen, the game never has to be viewed in split-screen. The online is great and even more so in this new package because it supports cross-platform play and voice chat across all of the included content, making it quite easy to team up with other players on the six different platforms where the game is currently available. However, matchmaking seems to only be present when playing arcade mode and not the story modes. Additionally, finding a match with random players is a little hit and miss.

Visually, Overcooked! All You Can Eat looks great on the PS5. It supports 4K resolution at 60FPS and loads rather quickly. While the visuals are quite simple, everything looks a lot sharper and runs a lot smoother. The soundtrack is really catchy and the sound effects of chopping, boiling and frying are fantastic. The alarm that sounds when something is about to burn or boil over is also great, even though it sent me into a panic every time I heard it erupt from my controller. There’s also some support for the DualSense when it comes to the haptic feedback, but it’s quite subtle and isn’t as fully fleshed out as I had hoped.

Overcooked! All You Can Eat is great. It’s a nice little package containing both games and all of their respective DLCs. Aside from this, there’s even more content to play through such as the recently released Birthday Party update. It also looks cleaner thanks to the 4K visuals and improved frame rate. Hopefully, significant improvements can be made to the haptic feedback via a patch. Crossplay is also a nice new addition, but the matchmaking seems to be a bit spotty. If you’ve never experienced this chaotic cooking party game or just want a remastered version, Overcooked! All You Can Eat might just be for you!

A review code for Overcooked! All You Can Eat was provided to Gameblur by the publisher.