BetweenUntil You Falland theI Expect You To Dieseries, Schell Games have quickly proven themselves masters at crafting unique VR experiences. But while titles such as those are built around worlds filled with action and suspense, sometimes you want something more laid back and chill, even in virtual reality. So it’s a nice change of pace to see Schell decide to work with something different in that area, though it’s safe to say we didn’t expect something like a cooking simulator, let alone one built around cooking throughout ancient time periods. But that’s what we have now with Lost Recipes, and it’s something different, to say the least.
The setup for Lost Recipes is simple. You’re a newcomer to the afterlife, ready to begin your training to become a Ghost Chef, cooking the favorite dishes of various ghosts and helping to pass on their traditional recipes in the process and keeping them alive, hence the title. Meeting up with ghosts from Creek, Chinese and Maya civilizations, you’ll learn just how to craft their traditional cuisine the exact ways they would have back in the days, learning enough to eventually graduate to the title of a full-fledged Ghost Chef. This means working in recreations of ancient kitchens, and working with the tools and ingredients of the era as well, nicely recreated.
Lost Recipes isn’t exactly a visual powerhouse, but it more than makes up for this in the area of authenticity. Schell actually worked with experts in order to verify that the kitchens presented are as accurate as possible, and it shows. You get a feel for each era with all of the various pottery, tools and surroundings given to you, all referred to by their original names while each ghost explains various tidbits about the significance of each dish, ingredient or technique. It’s basically the type of VR educational game our younger selves dreamed of, one that actually manages to put a creative spin on things, make you feel like you’re really there, and yes, actually make learning fun.
What helps things out is that Lost Recipes puts the emphasis on taking the time to absorb everything and take it all in. There’s no clock you’re working against, no customers to end your game if you don’t feed them on time, no rankings to…well, okay, you are given a rating of up to five stars after each dish, fair enough. But unlike out cooking games, the emphasis here isn’t on speed or quick movements, but rather taking your time. Making sure that each ingredient is measured properly, doing these recipes justice and following each step as best as you can…again, it’s all a nice, relaxing experience, helped out by nice and simple controls: triggers to grab, thumbsticks to turn around and move to certain spots (or just use the triggers to grab onto scenery and pull yourself around when you can).
Indeed, a lot of the joy is in savoring bits such as successfully grinding chili peppers and adding them to the xocolatl, sprinkling cinnamon over the honey-coated loukoumades, or adding your freshly-cooked meats and veggies to your hand-crafted masa bowl for mukbil pollo. Again, Lost Recipes may not have fancy graphics, but it does have rather delectable food imagery as you watch your dish come to life each step of the way, especially as you get to experience cooking methods and foods that you may not have seen before. Heck, despite being a traditional food for Day of the Dead, the aforementioned mukbil pollo doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page (as of the time of writing), and highlights how games such as this can be valuable when it comes to showcasing different windows into the world.
Mind you, VR controls and gameplay still aren’t 100% precise, especially in physics, so there may be the occasional clipping or hard-to-pick-up object. And while the game generally does a good job of providing visual and audio cues for when you’ve successfully completed a step, sometimes you might get occasions where it feels like you’ve botched a dish in an area but get five stars anyway, or occasions where you get four stars because the ghost says the pita bread needed more salt, despite adding exactly one spoon of it as mentioned. Yet all of these little hiccups feel minor once you get into the groove and try not to worry, as working with the tools of each time period quickly becomes second nature.
In short, Lost Recipes is easily one of the most unique cooking simulators on the market and an extremely-clever educational game as well, one that provides a detailed and fun look into different cultures…which makes it all maddening that the whole experience is so annoyingly short. Three different time periods/cultures with three different dishes/meals, that’s it. And given all the different parts of the world throughout history – especially those that haven’t received a lot of representation in areas such as this – what we have here is a game that’s begging for more content. Maybe with any luck, we’ll get some additional content down the road, but for now, Lost Recipes is still worth checking out. Plus, you can always try cooking everything you see in real life afterwards thanks toa tie-in recipe bookthat serves as a cherry on top.
Closing Comments:
Lost Recipes is a great cooking simulator, a nifty VR title and a highly-creative and fun educational game all wrapped up in a one-of-a-kind package. Though ironically, it could have benefited a lot more if it has found even more recipes to work with, as the end result is a rather tasty bit of fusion cuisine that’s lacking meat where it counts. Still, for those who just want a quick nibble of something fresh in order to satisfy their inner foodie or history buff, this is something worth checking out, and a good addition to any Quest owner’s library.
