Restaurant Empire

Here are the pros:

* Campaign mode is not impossible to complete. With some other games like almost all the versions of SimCity, I find it almost impossible to successfully complete their demands, but with Restaurant Empire, it's much easier. In fact, it may be a little too easy. See "cons" below.

* Graphics are great. Not stunning, but great.

* Graphics *control* is fabulous. Best in any game I've ever played. You can rotate the game in a smooth, continuous motion. You can tilt your view from about 15 degrees above horizontal to straight overhead. You can zoom in and out effortlessly. I've never had so much control over my view in a game. Wonderful!

* Plot is cute. You're going to be the wonderboy of the culinary world, out to save the world from the evil OmniFood corporation, known for cheating in the food contests and genetically modifying their food.

Cons:

* Campaign may be a little too easy. In the beginning of the game, it sets goals that are very challenging. Having your fledgling restaurant make $40,000 in a month, for example, is incredibly difficult with the resources you have at that point. However, once you get past step 5 or 6 (in an 18-scenario campaign), it gets much easier. In fact, I started losing on purpose to build up cash for the next step - and on one or two occasions, I won anyway, without even meaning to. A little frustrating.

* There are a few annoying stereotypes to deal with. The mobster from Italy... well, he speaks-a in-a very annoying-a way-a, if you get my drift. But that's nothing compared to the black chef who is supposed to be from Louisiana, but speaks likes he's from South Central, "homey". And there's only one woman in the game, and she's demure and waffle-y, letting your character tell her to do whatever you want. She's only too happy to do what you tell her, but only if you promise you think she's capable. Not a huge con, but annoying enough to get me to save my game and quit every once in a while.

* There's not as much control as some people would like. I, for one, would have liked a recipe interface where I could add ingredients to certain recipes (or even create my own), or similarly tinker. As it stands, you can only change the quality of ingredients or decide whether or not to use optional ingredients. I understand there would be a lot more programming involved if one were able to create recipes, but I'm one who likes micromanagement. I also missed the ability to tailor my training program - the only thing you can do at this point is put a specific amount of money towards training in general. You can't target specific staff members (i.e., newly hired personnel).

* Lastly, there's only one campaign! Sure, it's long. Sure, you can change the way you play and either draw it out (and make loads of cash) or see how fast you can complete it. But in the long run, it's still the same things you have to acheive to finish, and that could get boring really fast.

All in all, this is a very good game. Much better than my previous restaurant sim, Fast Food Tycoon 2. And here are two gameplay hints for those of you who decide to purchase it:

1. There's a website for the game...Go there and download a patch for the game - it'll fix some of the minor problems and improve some aspects that needed tweaking. However, you have to follow this order: Install game from cd. Input cd code from back of jewel case. *Then* install the patch. Otherwise, your cd code won't work, and you'll have to start over.

2. Close any programs you may have running in the background, such as AIM or another messenger program. I had a few problems with the game freezing up on me, and only if I had all my background programs stopped was I guaranteed a problem-free game.

Enjoy!

I played quite a bit in both the sandbox mode and in the campaign mode - both are great fun. Sandbox mode is basically building up your restaurant, then buying more restaurants and building them up (and so on). During the campaign mode, you are following a storyline of an up and coming chef who wants to take over a relative's restaurant. It's a cheesy storyline, but it's fun.

Management of the actual restaurant is fun as well. There are tons of items to choose from to decorate restaurant - my favorite is the rock n'roll themed items. One feature I liked in another tycoon game, which I wish this one had, is to have an "auto-decorate" option. What I mean is, you click on a certain theme (rock n'roll) and it will automatically decorate the restaurant for a set price. While I like decorating them, sometimes I just don't feel like it and want to get down to playing. It's a minor thing, something I just wish they had!

The cooks and the menu options are one of the highlights of the game! There are SO many recipes to choose from! The last restaurant sim I played only had pizzas! Also, the more your cook makes a certain recipe, the better he gets at it!

My one complaint is the way the game gives you new recipes and ingredients. I think it's really silly that the only way to get new recipes is to pay customers for them! Basically how it works is a customer comes in and offers to sell you his recipe (usually quite expensive too!). That part to me was completely unrealistic and I would have preferred a different way of getting recipes. That is also a minor complaint though, because overall I had a blast playing this game. It's well worth the price and I highly recommend it to Sim/Tycoon fans!