Overcooked 2 is an exemplary sequel, delivering more of the same madcap task-juggling while layering on new inventive kitchen chaos.

If you’re new to Overcooked, you’re a cute chef (with many wacky costumes available) who has to constantly manage the various tasks of meal preparation in a fantastically unrealistic kitchen. For example, two chefs might be separated by a yawning chasm or raging river, or there are conveyor belts everywhere, or you have to fire yourself out of a cannon to serve the food.

Now that social distancing rules have been relaxed, my brother was able to visit and finally finish the last DLC for this game that we’ve been plugging away at for a while. You can’t just play it consistently; it relies on your brain being in good shape. We’d often find that we couldn’t handle the demands properly, and had to come back to it later.

For the most part the game balances itself very well. You always feel frantic, with the different steps to attend to without losing money on an order or your stove catching fire. But after coming to terms with each stage’s quirks, most of the time it feels manageable… just barely. Communication, assigning separate duties, and reactive initiative are your essential tools (at least in co-op—I expect solo play is a whole different kind of headache).

It’s not always perfectly judged though. In this game, particularly towards the end, we more often found ourselves “settling” for less than three stars after a particularly absurd gimmick, or an unreasonably high score cutoff (in fact, some DLC score requirements were adjusted to be easier in a subsequent update). But it’s all in good fun and the sense of relief and triumph from clearing almost any level in the game is powerful.

Overcooked 2 has also been supported quite satisfactorily with post-launch content. An initial DLC pack was followed by another three in a season pass, plus a couple of costume sets as well as some free seasonal level packs. This extended the life of the game significantly, as well as experimenting with some new mechanics such as “horde” levels which feel quite different to the standard formula, or adding new cooking methods and gimmicks. The base game itself also expands on what the first instalment offered of course, but in essence it’s the same shenanigans, and a worthy successor in the “plate-spinning” genre.