5 Comments for Restaurant Empire

• 1. Jennifer Piersol  |  July 19th, 2009 at 7:59 am

  Review by Jennifer Piersol for Restaurant Empire
  Rating:
  Maybe not perfect, but I’d still buy it again.Here are the pros:* Campaign mode is not impossible to complete. With some other games like almost all the versions of SimCity, I find it almost impossible to successfully complete their demands, but with Restaurant Empire, it’s much easier. In fact, it may be a little too easy. See “cons” below.* Graphics are great. Not stunning, but great.* Graphics *control* is fabulous. Best in any game I’ve ever played. You can rotate the game in a smooth, continuous motion. You can tilt your view from about 15 degrees above horizontal to straight overhead. You can zoom in and out effortlessly. I’ve never had so much control over my view in a game. Wonderful!* Plot is cute. You’re going to be the wonderboy of the culinary world, out to save the world from the evil OmniFood corporation, known for cheating in the food contests and genetically modifying their food.Cons:* Campaign may be a little too easy. In the beginning of the game, it sets goals that are very challenging. Having your fledgling restaurant make $40,000 in a month, for example, is incredibly difficult with the resources you have at that point. However, once you get past step 5 or 6 (in an 18-scenario campaign), it gets much easier. In fact, I started losing on purpose to build up cash for the next step – and on one or two occasions, I won anyway, without even meaning to. A little frustrating.* There are a few annoying stereotypes to deal with. The mobster from Italy… well, he speaks-a in-a very annoying-a way-a, if you get my drift. But that’s nothing compared to the black chef who is supposed to be from Louisiana, but speaks likes he’s from South Central, “homey”. And there’s only one woman in the game, and she’s demure and waffle-y, letting your character tell her to do whatever you want. She’s only too happy to do what you tell her, but only if you promise you think she’s capable. Not a huge con, but annoying enough to get me to save my game and quit every once in a while.* There’s not as much control as some people would like. I, for one, would have liked a recipe interface where I could add ingredients to certain recipes (or even create my own), or similarly tinker. As it stands, you can only change the quality of ingredients or decide whether or not to use optional ingredients. I understand there would be a lot more programming involved if one were able to create recipes, but I’m one who likes micromanagement. I also missed the ability to tailor my training program – the only thing you can do at this point is put a specific amount of money towards training in general. You can’t target specific staff members (i.e., newly hired personnel).* Lastly, there’s only one campaign! Sure, it’s long. Sure, you can change the way you play and either draw it out (and make loads of cash) or see how fast you can complete it. But in the long run, it’s still the same things you have to acheive to finish, and that could get boring really fast.All in all, this is a very good game. Much better than my previous restaurant sim, Fast Food Tycoon 2. And here are two gameplay hints for those of you who decide to purchase it:1. There’s a website for the game…Go there and download a patch for the game – it’ll fix some of the minor problems and improve some aspects that needed tweaking. However, you have to follow this order: Install game from cd. Input cd code from back of jewel case. *Then* install the patch. Otherwise, your cd code won’t work, and you’ll have to start over.2. Close any programs you may have running in the background, such as AIM or another messenger program. I had a few problems with the game freezing up on me, and only if I had all my background programs stopped was I guaranteed a problem-free game.Enjoy!

• 2. Kala  |  July 19th, 2009 at 8:43 am

  Review by Kala for Restaurant Empire
  Rating:
  I LOVE all the tycoon and Sim games, I play every single one that comes out! This one is one of the most fun out there!! The graphics are not so great, but that doesn’t bother me so much. I played quite a bit in both the sandbox mode and in the campaign mode – both are great fun. Sandbox mode is basically building up your restaurant, then buying more restaurants and building them up (and so on). During the campaign mode, you are following a storyline of an up and coming chef who wants to take over a relative’s restaurant. It’s a cheesy storyline, but it’s fun.Management of the actual restaurant is fun as well. There are tons of items to choose from to decorate restaurant – my favorite is the rock n’roll themed items. One feature I liked in another tycoon game, which I wish this one had, is to have an “auto-decorate” option. What I mean is, you click on a certain theme (rock n’roll) and it will automatically decorate the restaurant for a set price. While I like decorating them, sometimes I just don’t feel like it and want to get down to playing. It’s a minor thing, something I just wish they had!The cooks and the menu options are one of the highlights of the game! There are SO many recipes to choose from! The last restaurant sim I played only had pizzas! Also, the more your cook makes a certain recipe, the better he gets at it! My one complaint is the way the game gives you new recipes and ingredients. I think it’s really silly that the only way to get new recipes is to pay customers for them! Basically how it works is a customer comes in and offers to sell you his recipe (usually quite expensive too!). That part to me was completely unrealistic and I would have preferred a different way of getting recipes. That is also a minor complaint though, because overall I had a blast playing this game. It’s well worth the price and I highly recommend it to Sim/Tycoon fans!

• 3. Anonymous  |  July 19th, 2009 at 8:56 am

  Review by for Restaurant Empire
  Rating:
  While some software companies seem to be generating cheap, poorly designed management simulations with little lasting appeal, Enlight Interactive has done a good job creating Restaurant Empire. The game has two modes: a sandbox mode for freeform play, and a campaign mode that consists of a set of scenarios with predefined goals. In both modes, the goal is to design and run a profitable restaurant or series of restaurants while satisfying the customers. Users can lay out rooms and furniture, hire staff, and design menus. While the game’s graphics are not aestheitically appealing, the gameplay is fairly good. The user interface is straightforward for the most part, although it can be troublesome when moving furniture and rooms. New options become available as progress is made through the campaign, so the user is presented with stimulating new challenges and creative opportunities in every scenario. The goals for the campaign mode may be a little too easy, but only a little. The storyline for the campaign mode, however, is very entertaining; this was the first computer game I had played that featured a character with a prostate condition. The major drawbacks, aside from the blander-than-average graphics, are that the menu requires too much micromanagement and the staff cannot be managed well to imrpove efficiency, even with a patch that introduces some new options. Nonetheless, the game’s positive values outweigh the game’s drawbacks, making this a good game for people interested in nonviolent games and management simulations.

• 4. Anonymous  |  July 19th, 2009 at 9:46 am

  Review by for Restaurant Empire
  Rating:
  I can’t emphasize enough how much sheer FUN this game is. Yes, the graphics aren’t the greatest and the storyline is a bit clunky. I am disappointed by the almost total lack of female chefs (kind of unrealistic in this day and age). The objects you place in your restaurant are limited and difficult to maneuver, and you can’t shape and control your characters like you can in The Sims. But the game is a lot less expensive and a lot more FUN than anything else I’ve played in years. I don’t have a particular interest in restaurants, and I don’t play tons of sim games, but this one has plenty of elements to keep any gamer interested. It’s fast moving, not terribly difficult, with lots of things to watch (your cooks cooking, diners dining, etc.) and lots of ways to tinker with your restaurants to improve them.Before you play, install the patch and make sure to turn off all other programs, including your firewall if you have one. After I did this, no more crashes. Very stable game. This is a great game; get it.

• 5. aralissia  |  July 19th, 2009 at 10:30 am

  Review by aralissia for Restaurant Empire
  Rating:
  I’ll admit, I didn’t expect much of restaurant empire. So many business sims/tycoons are a huge disappointment. This one had me addicted after 5 minutes.
  You have two choices at the start; sandbox game, or the scenario. Sandbox is great fun but this review will mostly deal with the meat of the game – the long, excellent campaign.
  It’s made up of about 16 or 17 scenarios, some easy, some harder than the others. You deal with the same area, but you slowly add more and more restaurants. One of the funnest aspects of this game is the RPG aspect. You play a chef, Armand, and talk to people through him (in special sequences). The chefs gain experience through cooking – if they cook only amerian soups they will become excellent with that but know nothing about french and italian! That’s right – this game has 3 main types of food and restaurants, with a few subcategories (seafood, steak) thrown in.
  You lay out the entire restaurant much in the fashion of THE SIMS, with some nifty things to choose from (I wonder if someone could make some objects to use in the game hmm). You hire staff, choose recipes to include on your menu, serves customers their favorite food in order to gain customer satisfatcion, lay out your menu, assign selected chefs to selected recipes so they can grow super good at that particular thing. Shop and buy ingredients with Armand, or through the main way, the supplier list. Improve your food, buy recipes off of customers, sell secrets if youre low on money (these last two are only when the oppurtunities are given).
  The tutorial is very easy to follow, but there were some things it took me awhile to discover myself. But that’s part of the games charm – its very in depth, but not overwhelmingly so. It focuses more on cooking and making your customers happy – which in turn leads to more money.
  Another great aspect are the cooking contests. Armand (or sometimes other chefs) can enter – but make sure their skills are up to par. Different contests require different things.
  Here is the low down: (1= horrendously terrible 10 = fabulously stupfying)GRAPHICS: 7 – nothing fancy, but cute enoughSOUND: 6 – decent restaurant music – plus you can use winamp while you play.GAMEPLAY: 9 – easy to learn, lots of features designed to make going through all the restaurants easierPLAY VALUE: 9 The one campaign should take a good 40 hours to go through the first time, and sandbox gives endless oppurtunities. FUN: 10!OVERALL: 8.2About 4 stars on Amazon I guess If you like the sims, the IDEA behind those crap old tycoons, business sims, rollercoaster tycoon etc you should give this a roll. It will entertain.

Leave a Comment for Restaurant Empire

Trackback this post  |  Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed