Chop the ingredients, cook the meal, serve the customer, hit the monster with a frying pan, and try not to get fired. Just another perfectly normal shift in Sous Raccoon.
Novice Flow’s restaurant roguelite leaves Early Access today with its full 1.0 release, putting you in charge of a raccoon who has somehow landed a job as Chef’s new sous chef. That means preparing meals and keeping customers happy while monsters attack the restaurant, unexpected problems get in the way, and Chef becomes increasingly unhappy with how long everyone has been waiting.
Dinner Isn’t Going to Make Itself
Every run in Sous Raccoon sends you into another restaurant shift, with orders arriving while you prepare ingredients and get dishes out to hungry customers. Leave them waiting too long and they’re not going to be particularly impressed with the service.
The problem is that you’re also being attacked. Monsters can turn up while you’re trying to work, forcing you to stop worrying about dinner for a minute and start worrying about whatever has just wandered into the restaurant. Different weapons give you ways to fight back, including frying pans, hammers, rolling pins, and torches.
There are four restaurant worlds to work through, each bringing different layouts, mechanics, enemies, obstacles, and other problems to deal with. Unexpected events and changing conditions can also affect a shift, so knowing how to make the food is only part of keeping your job.
You’ll need to adapt when everything else starts going wrong too.
A Raccoon Needs Upgrades
Being adorable will only get you so far with Chef. During runs you can collect loot and spend it on upgrades and abilities, putting together different combinations that change how you approach each shift. There are even birds wandering around that can be hit for coins, which is probably not covered in most restaurant training manuals.
Those upgrades give the roguelite side of Sous Raccoon plenty of room to interfere with the cooking. A useful ability can make dealing with enemies easier, while different combinations can gradually turn your raccoon into something much better equipped to survive whatever the next restaurant throws at you.
If one raccoon isn’t enough, you can also bring some friends. Online co-op supports up to four players, letting a group of raccoons divide up the cooking, serving, and monster problems between them. Whether four raccoons actually make a kitchen more organized is another question entirely.
Chef Still Has the Final Say
Keeping customers waiting or letting the restaurant fall apart isn’t going to do much for your employment prospects. Chef has a short temper and, more importantly, the ability to burst into flames when he gets angry. Push him too far and you’re fired, bringing the run to an end and leaving you to try another shift.
The full release gives you a few more things to do when you’re not being thrown out of the kitchen too. Version 1.0 adds a room customization system and minigames, along with a new Endless Mode for anyone who thinks surviving a normal shift isn’t stressful enough.
That means there’s another way to see how long your cooking, upgrades, and ability to deal with several problems at once can keep the restaurant running.