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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The Great Chocolate Chase
A new title from PlayFirst games, The Great Chocolate Chase is a Time Management takeoff of the popularChocolatier franchise.The player is Evangeline Baumeister, and start your first chocolate shop in Iquitos, Peru. The playstyle and strategy is similar to Turbo Pizza or Cake Mania, two successful time management games. Evangeline serves chocolate bars and chocolate sauce to customers who line up at the bar. The customers get a menu, take some time to decide, place their order, and Evangaline delivers it, then takes their money. Chain bonuses are available through multiple menu delivery, chocolate delivery, or money collection. There are 3 types of upgrades: decoration (nicer place makes for happier customers), machines (make them faster or produce more), and power-ups. The power ups either improve Evangeline's speed, increase the amount that can be charged for chocolates, or improve customer tips.
Of course the main goal is to keep the customers happy. The happiness level is indicated by color and lines of the box around the picture their order. I found this to be a little more difficult to interpret than the typical shaded hearts. As with most time management games, the more satisfied the customer, the bigger the tip. Angry customers will leave the store. Each level has a minimum amount of money the player must earn to move on.
What they did well:
Each level begins with a short journal entry written by Evangaline. Some of these entries contain important information about customers and their level of patience. Other entries are "quests" where a certain goal must be met (such as serving 3 people in a row or earning master level dollars on the level) in order to unlock ingredients. This is similar to the Chocolatier games, where the player runs across characters who give recipes and ingredients once the player has met certain goals. In The Great Chocolate Chase, however, the player only has that one level to meet the goal and unlock the item. While a player can complete the level without earning the ingredient, that ingredient will never become available. The story line is a very fun part of the game.
There are many achievements to unlock, and the player starts earning them very quickly. There is even a dubious achievement for discarding items! This system is very rewarding to players who like to earn achievements.
For fans of Chocolatier, players create all different types and flavors of chocolate, starting with plain dark chocolate bars. In later levels, other types of chocolate (light, medium) are added, as are fruit flavors and infusions.
They scale the levels well - the intro levels are easy to manage, and the later levels have just the right amount of hectic action to be fun.
What could be better:
I found that I had a difficult time telling the banana from the Amazonian spice in the dark chocolate. That was the most frustrating part of the game for me. Also, the system of showing the customer satisfaction wasn't terrific, and the background music was mediocre.
Otherwise, The Great Chocolate Chase is a decent time management game that players of Turbo Pizza, Cake Mania, or fans of Chocolatier will like.
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