Developer: Live Motion Games
PS4 Review
*Disclaimer: I was sent the code for this game for PS4 in return for a review, all opinions are mine and mine alone. I played the PS4 version on my PS5.
Baking is one of those things that you are either good at or simply can't get to grips with, no matter how much you practice. But what if there was a way to bake without all the stress of real life? That's where Bakery Simulator comes in, allowing you to spend hours creating recipes and learning how to improve them without having to deal with real life and wasting money on ingredients that end up in the trash. As a big fan of baking shows, especially Bake Off, I figured Bakery Simulator was the perfect game for an enthusiast like me, even though it doesn't compare to real life baking, but it's just as much fun, right?
What's the purpose of this game? Like many other simulators it puts players at the forefront of the task you've been given, this task would be working in a bakery shop. You mainly take the reigns from the kitchen, fulfilling orders that appear on a bulletin board, click the board an assess what the orders are, see how much you will make from the order, then you can then decided if you want to proceed or not. There is a tutorial that seems a little overwhelming at first. However, once I understood what I had to do, I was able to get through the steps pretty quickly.
One thing I want to note before I continue: if repetition isn't your thing, you'll get bored quickly, but that's not a problem for me. Back to the review: As a baker, you are responsible for measuring, mixing, baking and delivering each order. There will be times when ingredients run out. Keeping this in mind is crucial as you must have the resources to buy more. I was careful to make a profit on every order I filled, just in case I couldn't afford the cost of ingredients, and with the money I had left over, I would customise my bakery and equipment. Baking in the bakery Simulator is timed, and I've never exceeded the time limit while playing. So I take as much time as possible to bake the perfect product, and if you realise while baking that an ingredient is empty or low, you waste more time than necessary. Replenishing the ingredients themselves runs on a timer and eats up time.
That's why I make sure I have all the ingredients on hand before baking. When you're done baking, you have to deliver the goods. You have the choice of having someone delivering the goods or not, which can lead to losing money because you have to pay the delivery person and they don't deliver the goods properly. I've had a few disasters with this option, but none of them were as bad as my driving skills when I delivered the order myself. It's safe to say I'm a bad driver in this game. I don't think I'm alone when I say this, the driving aspect felt like it was unnecessary. I understand that bakeries deliver themselves, but this part of the game was more annoying than anything else. I wanted to get back to my kitchen to see what features I had unlocked and could bake next. You start with a car and can switch to a delivery van later, which I think is a good thing in my books.
Creating the orders themselves isn't that difficult. The only thing I struggled with was the shaping, when I thought I'd got used to the controls after learning how to knead the dough, I was clearly wrong, which meant I sometimes had incorrectly shaped baked goods (my bad). I put this down to how awkward I would make the controls so it's user error on my part. There was something very satisfying about finding out how well I did after a job and seeing how quickly I moved up a level. It was very relaxing for me to spend time in the kitchen creating baked goods. So when I saw that I could make sourdough bread, I was very excited. We have our own thriving sourdough starter that we have used many times for baked goods, and now I could make it in a video game? That's a thumbs up from me!
Press triangle on the PS controller brings up a wheel, from this wheel there are a number of options one of which is how much profit you have made over a period of days, it has a breakdown of all your costs and helps players see where they're spending the most money. For me it would definitely be on deliveries, the cost is worth it if it means I don't have to drive. This menu is where you go to order ingredients, customise your bakery and you can have a look through your recipe book.
One downside to the game, however, was the upgrades. Upgrading is a great added bonus to the game, but the more you upgrade the bakery, the less work you have to put in as a player, so it's less taxing. I would have liked the game to be more challenging, but the progression happens too quickly, so the developers definitely should have made leveling up more difficult. I understand that in life, the more you learn, the easier it gets, but I also think it's important to take on harder tasks and challenge yourself. Hopefully there will be some sort of DLC in the future that does this.
The graphics and sounds are just right, even if they are not as realistic as in other simulators, this does not detract from the gaming experience. The developers have obviously researched exactly what is involved in baking. This led me to google some of the foods I prepared and eat them myself! I enjoyed continuing to play the game as I want to try and platinum it on the PS5 as a PS4 copy at some point. I'm starting to enjoy simulation games to relax, more than I ever thought I would.
Have a cosy day
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