Epic Chef by Infinigon Games lets you embark on an adventure with a culinary twist. Anyone can cook but add just the right spice sets apart the OK dishes from the great ones. Epic Chef tries to present a great dish by adding different types of flavor in the mix.
Stowaway Zest
The adventure starts with you, Zest, being thrown out of a ship after being found as a stowaway. Apparently, your smooth-talking tricks didn’t do you any favors with the crew leaving you behind with a harsh goodbye. Once you get through “customs” with a bunch of unnecessary bureaucracy you are of to find out what Ambrosia is all about. Soon after arrival, you realize you actually own property in Ambrosia after a once-in-a-lifetime deal. When mentioning it to some of the townsfolk you find out you actually own a big mansion with farmland. Your eyes lit up after hearing the news almost neglecting the mention of it being haunted. Haunted or not, you’ve never owned anything worthwhile so you decide to just make the best of it. The place sure looks creepy but you still manage to make it your home.
Epic Soil
Not soon after arriving you discover the farmland around your mansion has the ability to rapidly grow food when seeds are planted. This might give you the necessary edge to get by in the town of Ambrosia. The thing is, Ambrosia is filled with foodies and chefs. An argument is settled with culinary battles and many hungry residents have quests involving food. Getting good at cooking gets you far in Ambrosia. Cooking requires ingredients so this “curse” could actually be your blessing. Through a futuristic Golem, you learn how to “live” on your mansions including how you craft the things you need. Farming and processing what you gathered will be a big part of Epic Chef.
Life Simulator
Everything in Epic Chef is on a timed cycle. Shops are opened at certain times and close again when the evening kicks in. NPC’s are plenty and change depending on the time of day. The food you can gather also differs from the time of day. Growing crops and reaping what you’ve sown can be done at your own pace. You can choose to do everything at your own good time but eventually, you might start to develop certain routines to optimize things. Going around town and talking to different people – gaining the odd quest here and there – is fun. Just don’t linger around when it’s time to work because you might regret it when you run out of ingredients.
Combat through cooking
Epic chef has a bit of Stardew Valley/Harvest moon vibes but in an extremely whacky world. The thing that sets this game apart – besides the great humor – is the cooking battles. These require you to win a cook-off by making the best dish possible to persuade the judge. The ingredient all have different “tastes”. Certain ingredients go in “symbiosis” further enriching the flavors. Depending on which ingredient you start with and what you add based on what’s already in the pan, your dish has more potential to woo the judge. Get to know your ingredients and find the prerequisites to bring out the most of their potential if you want to be victorious. This odd mechanic is what sets this game apart. Although fun at the start, the process of concocting your new dish gets a bit dull and with no skippable cutscenes frankly takes too long.
Farming and grinding
Epic chef has loads of things to do. Everything is doused with a big punch of Monty Python-esque humor making your stay in Ambrosia fun. The quests are your standard adventure/RPG fetch quests but the process of fulfilling these quests is quite enjoyable. The game tends to go a bit heavy on the farming and grinding aspect for my own liking but the popularity of Stardew Valley / Harvest moon types of games has proven there is an audience for it. I do wonder if the cooking battles will hinder their enjoyment of the game because it’s quite out there, to be honest.
Conclusion
Epic Chef is an odd game in many ways. The visual style, the whacky humor, and the chef battles all make it odd but not necessary in a bad way. I enjoyed my time reviewing this game but I doubt I’ll be back soon to Ambrosia. I just don’t I would recommend this game to anyone. It’s certainly original but I think it is a bit of an acquired taste and you should thread carefully if you want to indulge in it.
