Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! will hit the road in a semi-apocalyptic food truck
Well that escalated...
Having honed our culinary multitasking skills from humble beginnings running a greasy spoon through to a fine restaurant, we'll next be put to the test in a food truck. On a road trip. Through a dystopian near-future United States. Where we'll also fight other heavily-armed food trucks. Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! is a fittingly-escalated name for a sequel which escalates things so much more. Announced today by developers Vertigo Gaming, it'll roll out next year. For now, come watch the announcement trailer for proof I didn't make all this up.
Creator and designer David Galindo explained in today's announcement that he wanted to make a third game but was wary of fatigue creeping in, so the plan was to "take it in an entirely new direction for the series." The switch isn't just new garnish on the same gamedish, he says.
"Whereas the first two games had a structure of opening a restaurant in the morning and closing it at night with two rush hours in-between, CSD 3 takes the gameplay on the road and instead has players making a specific amount of food for each stop they make, which can range from two to five stops at a time. This change in gameplay meant I had to strip out a ton of the core game mechanics- chores, side dishes, and the buzz mechanics from the first two games are gone now. In a lot of ways, it takes the management systems of the very first game of the series, adds the gameplay mechanics from the second, and adds in an all new story-based campaign and new gameplay structure."
He says it has more of a story element too, through our two robot helpers. Typical kitchen management stuff.
Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! is due to hit Steam Early Access in January 2020. The full and finished launch is expected to follow later that year.
Galindo explained that with Cook Serve 2 they "saw the way the community influenced the design of the game, to the point where I was including features I never thought I'd add, such as Zen mode, that broadened the game's appeal to a whole new audience." So he says it's "a no brainer" to make that the original plan this time and go through early access.
If you want your apocalyptic food truck games a little shootier, mind, you might be after the Romero family's Gunman Taco Truck.