CafeWorld

I'm trying my best to avoid playing this game but it seems that I have no other choice. One of my housemates plays this game a lot and sometimes I really wonder what so addictive about it. My first impression on this game was good, cute and colorful interface, too cute in fact that it actually makes me looks gay playing it =.=

Here's my summary bout the game:

THE GOOD
1. Good Tutorial. It is definitely helpful when there's a tutorial at the starting of the game. The game is not hard though, basically clicking up the button once the timer is up. Maybe it will be more challenging when I have to prepare multiple food simultaneously. There's one small confusion though, that is overloading of information at the starting of the game, such as coin system, food recipes etc.

2. Simple yet Pretty UI. The combination of 3D graphic with 2.5D background is amazingly well done. The in game objects are quite interactive such as the stove and the counter tables. The tooltips are simple and informative at the same time.

3. Good Gameplay. This game actually keep the players occupied by requiring them to take part in the cooking progress. Player are actually required to chop, slice, grill, cook the food by clicking on the stove manually and cleaning the stove after cooking. Other than that, there are lot of features such as character customization, restaurant expansion and etc, making the game a little more than just madly clicking the stoves. This cooking thingy kinda remind me of Cooking Mama.

4. Good SoundFx and Bg Music. The first time I opened this game, the background music really reminds me of the nostalgic Sim game which I used to play years ago. I'm actually quite impressed with the sound effects as well. Almost all actions performed in the game are accompanied with an audio feedback such as sound of slicing and boiling stuff. The sounds are useful where it can remind the players that their foods are ready. The bg music is good, but i hope they add more variations of musics as it get a bit boring listening it looping over and over again for quite some time though.

THE BAD
1. Complexity. It took me quite some time to actually learn how to customize my character and why am I black in the first place!? There's a bit steep learning curve in expanding the cafe. New users who are not used to Sim game will have a hard time expanding their virtual restaurant. I actually had hard time adding new stoves into my restaurant initially because i didn't know that I am required to drag it (instead of clicking on it) to the empty space. The objectives and way to "leveling up" is not properly introduced too.

2. Too Much Clicking. Ok, the first time cooking for new food was fun, but it soon get a bit repetitive and some time irritating that I have to actually click on each stoves every 5 sec. Just as i thought MouseHunt was bad enough (interval of 15 min), this actually required you to sit and watch the whole game as you play it. I don't even have time to read my email when I was playing the game. Maybe they should make it like Cooking Mama where players are required to perform certain gesture to complete a certain cooking task, instead of just clicking the stove.



3. UI and Layout. I think the size of the flash window is a bit too big. Its height is somehow to big that my it just wont fit into my firefox browser unless i put it in to full screen or scaling it down by zooming out. The menu options (toggle sounds, music, save game etc) are way too small! And is there a need to have a save game button given that the game is supposed to auto save on its own? The purchasing of virtual currency should be done inside the game, so that it wont interrupt the game when users clicking on it.

This game does have a lot of potentials, but it will need a lot of consistent updates to the game (in terms of new in game items and new game mechanics) to actually retain the current users. Take for example, the Sims , the secret of their success are actually all relying on the continuous release of expansion packs. Many of the current pc / video games are actually taking the similar path by profiting through DLC.