Fans of cooking adventure games will soon be able to get a deeper look at Vertigo Gaming’s Cook Serve Forever when it releases in early access on PC storefronts in April. Vertigo has released a number of cooking games over the years, beginning with Cook, Serve, Delicious! in 2013, which was followed by two sequels.
While it shares a similar name to previous releases, Vertigo’s upcoming cooking game is an entirely new IP. Cook Serve Forever puts players in the role of Nori Kaga, a self-taught cook who dreams of becoming a superstar chef. To start, she only has a food cart, and it’s the player’s job to help Nori make a name for herself in Helianthus, the “solarpunk” city where the game takes place. Nori will need to manage her menu, learn and perfect new recipes, and will (hopefully) eventually achieve her culinary dream.
Cook Serve Delicious will be available in early access on PC digital storefronts like Steam and Epic Games Store beginning in April, though the specific date hasn’t yet been announced. The immersive cooking game may also be released on other platforms, but that will be confirmed at a later date. The adventure title will be featured in the February Steam Next Fest as well, which runs from February 6-13. In the meantime, a demo for Cook Serve Delicious is currently available for download on Steam.
The indie game promises dozens of hours of gameplay that “simulates the rhythm and tactility of cooking.” Players will get to handle hundreds of ingredients and recipes as they help Nori become a celebrated chef, and along the way, a series of optional side quests will give the foodie protagonist the opportunity to meet an interesting lineup of characters.
Vertigo’s catalog of releases also includes a match-3 title called Spirits of Metropolis and another cooking game, Chefsquad, which was developed specifically so that Twitch chat members could play together, cooking and running a restaurant.
Cooking games have been popular for decades, and it’s become the norm and almost expected for some releases, particularly RPGs, to include at least food to eat and maybe even the ability to cook meals. There’s something oddly satisfying about cooking delicious foods in a video game, with none of the mess or potential hazards of reality. Of course, some of the foodstuffs in games seem so tasty that people have found ways to recreate them in real life, and franchises like Halo, Skyrim, and even God of War have released official cookbooks for those more chef-oriented fans.
Cook Serve Forever will be available in Early Access in April 2023 on PC.