Shoot your friends in Overcooked 2’s fun new tropical resort DLC
Following the very good Overcooked 2 released back in August, the new tropical DLC Surf ‘n’ Turf now sees your cute little chefs cooking once again with new recipes, new locations, new chefs, and a water pistol to be used for either good or mischief.
Set after the story events of Overcooked 2, the Onion King has been banished from the kingdom due to his role in raising the viciously-doughy Unbread fiends. Believing he will be let back into the kingdom if he creates new recipes, the regal vegetable assigns you to get to work in the resort kitchens. Of course, the Onion King’s role is to sit back and do nothing alongside everyone’s favourite canine companion, Kevin.
Building upon the foundation the previous Overcooked games established, Surf ‘n’ Turf immediately introduces new recipes and cooking techniques to master. Beginning with the relatively simple blended fruit smoothie, you’ll quickly need to get up to speed with what and how many fruits need to go in each one. These fruits don’t need chopping or preparing, conjuring the funny visual of chucking whole pineapples and watermelons into blenders, without the horrible mess this would no doubt create in real life – this is Overcooked, after all. Following smoothies, the other main new recipe added to the menu is the humble kebab – the BBQ skewer variety, not the wrapped shredded meat perfectly designed for past-midnight consumption kind. Requiring a bit more involvement, the kebabs need you to keep the BBQ running hot by regularly fanning it with the old-fashioned billows. Failing to keep it hot means the food will take ages to cook, likely leading to missing the order deadline.
Definitely aimed at returning players, Surf ‘n’ Turf features some of the best level design in the series, creating challenging and varied scenarios iterating on everything the games have thrown at you so far. Many of the stages are split into separate sections, requiring a greater emphasis on communication and teamwork than ever – doubling down on Overcooked 2’s integral feature of throwing ingredients across the stage. Further to this, the water pistol introduced in Surf ‘n’ Turf is a vital tool to reaching the coveted three-star high scores. One stage sees two kitchen areas split up the middle, with no sink for washing dishes. Instead, the player on the right-hand side can access the water pistol and wash the dirty dishes from afar, as long as the opposite player places the plates on the bordering bench within range. Alternatively, you can be a complete troll and spray your teammates with the pistol, disrupting their actions, and laugh maniacally while they frustratedly yell at you.
In addition to the reasonably-priced Surf ‘n’ Turf DLC, Nintendo Switch owners of Overcooked 2 can now download the free content patch adding in New Game+. You didn’t think the base game was hard enough? Well, now you culinary sadists can attempt to get four stars on each level. More importantly, you can now change your chef avatars via the pause menu in between story levels. Previously, you could only change chefs by exiting out to the main menu, which was annoying for those of us who wanted to quickly change to the adorable new chef we just unlocked, dammit!
The only drawback during my time with Surf ‘n’ Turf was that fully cooked BBQ kebabs would glitch out and refuse to go on a plate to be served up. This only happened a handful of times and could not be easily replicated. Restarting the level whenever the BBQ glitch occurred solved the issue, but it was still a bummer considering it halted a couple of decent-scoring runs.
However, rare glitches aside, Surf ‘n’ Turf is a delightful addition to Overcooked 2, especially for those seeking more of a challenge in addition to the New Game+ update.
