Developed by Indonesian studio Panitia GameDev, The Chef’s Shift is a fast-paced typing game and restaurant management sim where you type to cook and serve food to your hungry customers.
Developed by: Panitia GameDev
Played on: Steam
Length: 7 hours
A review key was provided by Panitia GameDev.
If you’re looking for a game that will make you hungry, while being so addictive that you forget to eat, look no further than The Chef’s Shift. Developed by Indonesian studio Panitia GameDev, this typing game meets restaurant management sim is wildly addictive with just the right amount of challenge, and contains more than a few surprises under its chef’s hat.
Its main gameplay harkens back to the restaurant management sims of my childhood — from Diner Dash to Penguin Diner — down to the bold, cartoonish art style and fast-paced, chaotic management gameplay. The Chef’s Shift borrows a lot from its predecessors mechanically, while managing to put its own spin on things through its typing mechanic. Every in-game action, from navigating the menu to serving food to your customers, is triggered by typing in the right words — and that’s just the beginning.
The Chef’s Shift takes place over six chapters, each one focusing on different restaurants and cuisines from around the world. The variety in representation here is refreshing, ranging from baking mooncakes at the Chinese Dim Sum House, to serving up martabak at the Indonesian Hawker. Although the preparation process for these dishes are simplified, but the dedication to cultural accuracy shines through and makes all the difference.
For a typing game, The Chef’s Shift is less about fast typing and more about fast thinking, although a familiarity with your keyboard definitely doesn’t hurt. Instead of pushing you longer words and more customers, the game has you typing out symbols, short-forms, l33t speak, and even emoticons at some point. All the while, you’re forced to contend with all manner of distractions, from troublesome customers, to rats trying to steal your food.
If that sounds too intimidating to you, the game does have accessibility features for slower typists. Case sensitivity, numbers, and symbols can be toggled in the settings menu, and you can lower the difficulty from Normal to Easy or Very Easy at any time. Conversely, if you’re a speed demon looking for a fast track to typing hell, the Hard and Very Hard modes are always there for you. The game also has an Endless Mode where you can customise everything from menu items to restaurant upgrades to ramp up or reduce difficulty.
Tying all of this together is a comedic overarching story packed with more plot twists than your grandmother’s Hong Kong dramas. As one of our personal highlights from the game’s demo, we were delighted to see them double down on the craziness and have it pay off in the form of a highly entertaining and surprisingly heartfelt plot.
While most of the storytelling happens in cutscenes between levels, The Chef’s Shift infused some of its story into its gameplay. Each level comes with an optional achievement that either raises the difficulty of the level or adds more context to the plotline. While running the restaurant, you can eavesdrop on conversations between main characters, or complete tasks that tie back to the main story. These aren’t necessary for story progression, but adds a nice touch of personality to the game.
This is also where we ran into a minor speed bump, as some conversation bubbles would block whatever was behind them, forcing you to wait until it disappears to resume your gameplay. However, this was a minor grievance in a mostly polished and intuitive experience.
Verdict: Ready For My Next Shift
If you’re looking for a game that will make you hungry, while being so addictive that you forget to eat, look no further than The Chef’s Shift. Developed by Indonesian studio Panitia GameDev, this typing game meets restaurant management sim features a buffet of cultures and cuisines, accessible and addictive gameplay, and more plot twists than your grandmother’s Hong Kong dramas.
Wishlist The Chef’s Shift on Steam, and top up your Steam Wallet on Codashop to earn bonus rewards.
