Restaurant Empire 2 Review

We have seen various business simulation games appear on the gaming menu in recent years. Some are good and others are bad, while a select few are simply downright dreadful. As far as restaurant management games go, Restaurant Empire 2 is good. Compared to the best tycoon games on the market its nothing special, but that said I wouldn't write-off this game completely.

Placing kitchen utensils, tables and décor as you would in The Sims, the gameplay is as much about design as it is business. You initially plan-out the layout of your restaurant, design the menu and to some extent the dishes themselves, pricing and sourcing ingredients as you see fit. In fact, nearly every conceivable part of restaurant management is incorporated and there is a decent amount of customisation on offer. You play a day of business, dealing with customer complaints, making steady improvements to your restaurant(s) and making those all important money efficiency savings. The day's profits/losses are then extrapolated for the whole month and you then continue the next month where you left off.

Upon starting a new game there are two campaigns to choose from as well as a sandbox mode. The first campaign is the same as the campaign from the original Restaurant Empire, which is a bizarre and really rather cheeky choice. It is a good campaign if you are new to the series though, and contains a helpful tutorial that makes the general mechanics of the game more digestible. Playing through a number of story driven scenarios there are a number of objectives to achieve - such as reaching customer satisfaction and financial targets - with the idea of building up your chain of restaurants.

The second campaign focuses on the new features of this sequel, primarily creating a coffee shop and then later dessert style shops, with the story and engaging objectives less apparent. That leaves us with the sandbox mode, which is great for creating and running your very own restaurant or cafe chain from scratch with more freedom, where customisation is at its best. The game boasts 1400 interior objects, 600 recipes and four locations - Paris, Rome, Los Angeles and Munich. However, I could not help but feel the game lacked variety, with most of the décor essentially the same and the dishes themselves lacking individuality and character.

The game difficulty was manageable and the game did grow on me. Sadly, when the number one complaint from the customers is cold food or poor service, you don't expect the staff to frequently walk into each other or dart off in erratic directions, but that is what happens in Restaurant Empire 2. In a game of this fashion the expectation is that you are not let down by fundamental and infuriating problems such as terrible AI, so here I was left feeling unmotivated to improve the customer satisfaction levels when I was told I had to improve service times. A repetitive feeling and waning interest soon followed after around five hours of accumulated play.

The graphics of Restaurant Empire 2 also bares a resemblance to The Sims, though here I am referring to the original Sims game from the turn of the millennium. I admit that is exaggerated, but character models are dated, animation is clunky and the lack of visual detail is disappointing. It would have been nice to see the chef cook up a delicious meal, place it on the serving tray for the waiter who then takes it to a table for the customer to enjoy. What actually happens is an indistinguishable dish appears and disappears with only a basic level of continuity. Load times are at least swift and in essence the graphics are tolerable, but claiming the game uses advanced techniques such as Deus Ex era real-time reflections just adds salt to the wounds.

Meanwhile, on the audio front, the voice acting from the main characters in the story is a little cheesy but remains surprisingly enjoyable. The music is quite catchy in places but is generally forgettable, though I did become quite fond of the guitar solo released upon completing a scenario. The other sound aspects of the game do unfortunately fail to impress. The chatter of guests and the occasional clinks of glassware are not enough to remove a fairly dull ambience which makes the game drag after an hour of continuous play.

Once all ingredients are considered, purchasing Restaurant Empire 2 is by no means a recipe for disaster. The graphics and sound are wavering below average and the AI is appalling, but tinkering with table layouts, fine-tuning the menu and building up your own empire is good fun and a decent way to pass an afternoon or two before the novelty wears off. If you have ever wanted to be Gordon Ramsey - albeit without the shouting and swearing - then rest assured you would be at home here. However, not enough has changed for owners of the original Restaurant Empire to make this a worthwhile enough. If you have a particular appetite for food and management games, then this might just be a tasty proposition if you can grab it for £15.