More Facebook games to review. So many Facebook games, not enough time.
Cooking Mama: Let's Cook! (a handful of recipes)
I have played Cooking Mama before so I am familiar with the game and, on the whole, this game holds the standards of the others games. The movements work on the laptop as well as they did on game systems, or they feel like they do. The meals are still broken into mini-game-like steps that are easy to understand.
However, there's one fatal flaw. Instead of a heart system like most games, where you have to recharge your energy, Cooking Mama only has four recipes. From what I know you can unlock more recipes by playing for seven days in a row. You may be able to get some by completing Papa's Challenges, but most of the time his rewards are practically worthless decorating items.
This basically makes the game become a chore. Play one day then come back in every day just to register that you were there so that you don't have to make yet another steak. I mean, you can combine recipes in amusing ways, but it doesn't make up for the repetition. Three days of challenges giving pointless items make me weary of Cooking Mama.
To clarify again; the cooking gameplay is fine, but the small selection of recipes, the challenges that repeat recipes constantly, and the pitiful rewards are what brings the game down.
It's fun at first, but quickly becomes a chore. Ironically a decent metaphor for cooking itself.
Update: Made it to the end of the week and got a recipe, completed it in a few minutes and combined it with another recipe for fun. Now out of things to do for the next week.
Dessert Shop: Cafeland's Strange Sibling
I mentioned that there wasn't really anything to do in Cafeland. Dessert Shop fixes that problem, but in the process creates a few of its own. You basically run a dessert based shop instead of a cafe, but all this means is a limited selection of menu items, which at first doesn't seem too bad until you find yourself stuck clicking all over the screen. Click this, click that, click this again and then click that to create X to put into oven with Y to make the other.
There's a reason the dining room is so small and the rest of the restaurant is extremely spacious as you unlock it. The goal isn't serving customers, it's clicking a few things to unlock something, to click something else, to wait, to be able to have something on a display counter for when customers who pass in get hungry. There's still the lingering problem like Cafeland where the food will sit for too long. Missions will ask you to make other foods, but the first ones will still sit there as customers slowly appear and vanish. This becomes more of a problem when you serve more than one meal.
Even though there's more stuff to click, Dessert Shop is only slightly improved over Cafeland. Yet it doesn't feel any more fun. I played it for a few days and noticed that I could stick with it a little better than Cafeland, but soon afterwards lost all interest into continuing.
Panic Room: Don't panic, just play.
By which I mean, Panic Room is actually a pretty good game. It's a hidden object game where you complete quests and find items to get through missions and through the story. The storyline would be that the Puppet Master has kidnapped you and taken you into his mansion where you have to play his game with a group of others to escape. Along the way you can collect items to help you, like medicine or food to heal you and give your more energy.
Whenever you open a door, or play a level, it injures your hands and causes you to bleed energy out. This is what limits your energy and it, like the other games, refuels over time. The fact that they explain why you are losing energy is a small detail that I think goes a long way. At least it's a bit more of a story to add onto it.
The scenes of the mansion are nice to look at and put you in the 'dark mansion' sort of mood. The music and sound effects are also quite nice There's also the risk of traps, though I haven't seen them. I'm guessing that they are activated when you click the wrong thing, but I'm not fully certain. At least it sets the mood, but it doesn't give a sense of actual danger.
After playing a couple of other hidden object games on Facebook, I can say that it is the story and tone that makes it stand out a bit more. It's nothing like the hidden object games you'll find on Big Fish Games but it is a nice one to play without having to pay, especially since it advertised that they frequently add more missions to the game with updates.
I recommend a play and I think I'll probably have fun with this game for quite a while longer!
Diner Dash: Dumpster Dash
Diner Dash is one of my favorite games, but this version is a cash grab if there ever was one. The game's difficulty spikes very soon in and becomes generally unplayable. You're rushed with customers who lose hearts relatively quickly. The customers at the table are much, much worse; they will go from three hearts to one in a matter of seconds just because I delivered someone else's food before their's.
The last level I completed, with the celebrity, was practically impossible to complete. Even if you get everyone out of the restaurant, the command to 'click paparazzi away' never worked.They came in immediately, fidget when clicked and then whisk her away. Of course I had to get a perfect score with her to continue. At the sacrifice of five other customers I managed to spam click for my life and succeed.
It doesn't help that Flo is impossible to control. Most of the time she barely moves and I've had her completely ignore commands. I'll send her repeatedly to put a ticket away and yet she'll still be carrying it with her after numerous goes. When she lags the rest of the game does not; I'll lose a wave of customers solely because Flo is too busy stuck in a loop. I also hate that I managed to randomly get an automatic mop that cleans spills yet Flo still stops on them and cleans when in the vicinity. She takes a bit too long cleaning as well.
Also, the spills are a nightmare. I remember when a family would make a spill in the other games and I'd be annoyed because I had to grab a mop. In this game I had one coffee addict create five spills at one time, and naturally Flo's walk path to the ticket taker got a hair too close to two of the spills and cleaned both. In this time both Barb tables went down a heart. It's not like you can give them coffee either when you have to shell out so much to the constant Shakers.
There are two currencies; the coins that you get from playing and the bucks that you sometimes get but usually have to buy. Almost all of the needed upgrades that will help you have any form of fun need bucks. Almost all of the decor options too, and the few ones that don't take a lot of coins. Needed upgrades like the coffee machine can be unlocked, and bought with gold coins, through the levels, but the difficulty, again, will stunt you. When you can't even unlock proper decor items to raise patience you know there's a problem.
The game also constantly logs you out. Sometimes it takes three minutes, but sometimes I'll go to use the bathroom, not even take three minutes, come back, and then I'm logged out. This game also has awful servers, and I've never had a game's loading bar decrease, then increase, and then decrease again. This happens every time it sneaks and 'logs me out'. A true hassle. It constantly spams messages that say either 'my browser is slow' or 'our servers our full'. Game, figure it out. Is it my fault or yours?
Dragging customers never works; sometimes it takes two or three tries to grab a customer, sometimes they get stuck on the wrong colored table and you get stuck seating them. I already mentioned the customers always dropping hearts rapidly. Turning on the jukebox helps, but dishing out menus is just a hassle and a waste of time, especially when the people at the tables are so aggressive.
Then there's the energy. Oh boy, this is a big issue. You lose energy with each level, like most games work. To compare to other games; Suburbia has 15 points of energy and you use one per most actions, though some don't require any, and a point restores every five minutes. Panic Room usually has 120, uses 15-25 depending on room, restores every three minutes, and can be restored quicker with food that you can get as rewards occasionally. Then there's Diner Dash... Diner Dash has three energy points, three alone, and takes a whopping thirty minutes to restore. I couldn't even fathom this!
I mean, consider this; Panic Room takes a while to refresh fully as well, but I can play quite a few more scenes. I feel like I'm doing more in Panic Room, especially when there's a chance that the Diner Dash game will glitch out and cheat me into losing, or log me out if I have to pause for even a split second.
You're probably wondering if there's a reason I'm having all of these problems. There is; I'm not paying. All of the good, almost needed, upgrades are behind a thick paywall. All of the bonuses, the powerups, the decor, all of it is asking for money, and that is completely out of the question. I won't put money into a game that already has so many issues in it; that's insane.
While I do enjoy the other Diner Dash games, this was just a mess, and I would be fine with never playing it again.
Until next time! Speaking of money related matters, feel free to randomly click on some adds around my post if you want to. Don't worry, it's not required to do to read any of my posts!
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