Epic Chef is a story-driven adventure game flavoured with life-sim farming, and crafting elements, blended together into one delicious dish via an interactive cooking experience - all served with a side of humour and elaborate cast of characters inspired by classics such as Mister Ajikko, or the writing of Sir Terry Pratchett. Grab your spatula and start on your journey to become... Epic Chef...

Crafting games have a habit of sucking all your free time

I thought I was done with time sucking crafting games. I love them, I do, but they have a habit of taking over all of my free time. Epic Chef is no exception. Once you start, you won't want to stop.

You start the game as a stowaway onboard a ship. When you're discovered, the captain throws you off at the nearest island. Here you discover that the locals are a little... well... odd. The most important job, it would seem, is that of chef. And in this strange land chefs not only cook, they also engage in plenty of fisticuffs with one another... for reasons that no one seems to know.

You are given a house to live in, but it's on a side of the island that is rumoured to be haunted. Just as you're settling in, and think things couldn't get any weirder... an alien robot crashes onto your land. Your new mechanical friend will help you learn the basics of the game, from planting crops to cooking meals. As you slowly start to get to grips with your new life, you can also visit the main town and talk to the locals. Some have important information to impart, some have quests for you to complete and at least one is a famed carpenter who has a (not so) hidden past.

Cooking involves choosing three ingredients and mixing them together

The main aim of the game is to buy, find or grow ingredients in order to take part in cook offs with other chefs on the island. But first things first, you need to earn enough money to buy a chef's licence if you don't want to fall foul of the law.

Cooking is easy enough. You must choose three ingredients and mix them together, earning various points as you stir them in your pot. There are certain criteria and elements that will give you a higher score (which you'll learn as you go along) and whoever's meal is judged to be the most aromatic and tasty, as well as meeting certain ingredients criteria, is the winner.

The cooking element is only a small part of the game. The numerous quests and farming and crafting elements will keep you coming back for weeks and month at a time.

Level up your skills, by sitting on benches

The game saves when you go back to your house to sleep. So if you've had a busy and productive day, you'll need to make sure you return home to sleep. You can gain various points, which help to level up your skills, by sitting on benches or reading in your study for a period of time.

The humour in the game is another element that makes this a fun game. On the whole it's funny, but occasionally it falls a little short of the mark.

At launch the game is currently on sale on Xbox Marketplace. But even that seemed a bit strange. If you buy it while on a PC on Google Chrome you get £4 off, but if you buy it on the Microsoft Edge browser you only save £2.

A fun and very addictive game that adds a little bit of a twist on a well loved genre.

8

Nick Smithson