If you've ever wanted to truly explore your culinary talents and put them to a virtual test then Epic Chef is the game for you.
In Epic Chef, you play as Zest (get it?) who must go on his own journey to achieve cooking legendary status by crafting, farming, and cooking his way to success. Described by publisher Team 17 as "a quirky, tasty blend of life sim, crafting and culinary chaos", Epic Chef sounds like a laugh-out-loud way to virtually cook your way to happiness.
It all starts with your own plot though: you don't become an epic chef with everything given to you on a silver platter, after all. As Zest, you'll learn to live off the land, grow your own produce, and turn your hand at being a farm owner, rearing and tending a weird and wonderful array of livestock from cows to unicorns.
You'll need to gather resources to build machinery and tools that can harvest and process your crops, turning them into delicious ingredients. After all, a chef is only as good as his kitchen and tools - or something. To complement your work on the land, you'll need to repair your dilapidated and run-down mansion - that may or may not be haunted.
Your home-building, farming, and gardening will diversify the ingredients that you have to hand and this will greatly help you when you engage in culinary clashes along your journey. These cooking faceoffs pit you against competing chefs against rival cooks to see who can produce the best food and meals - judged by an objective… judge.
The game's focus on dynamic recipe crafting and creation mean you won't be limited to familiar foods: you can create your own masterpieces from thousands of different ingredient combinations to create incredible new recipes, modern takes on classic favorites, or wreak havoc and chaos with some horrible concoctions - if that's your style.
What's more, the setting of the city of Ambrosia is a wonderful place to explore, and you can do so as you wish; from fishing in the watercourses to hanging out at the tavern. And all this tomfoolery, crafting, competition, and kitchen wizardry is built around a fun and engaging story that takes place in a world inspired by the writing of Terry Pratchett.
If you're a fan of games like Overcooked, Don't Starve, and Stardew Valley, and enjoy the madness of Pratchett-esque stories and worlds, then Epic Chef is going to be for you.
