Cusineer review: Delightful made-in-Singapore roguelite with prata and ice kachang, but gets monotonous halfway

Made by Singapore-based BattleBrew Productions, Cusineer is a game that blends the fun premise of running a restaurant while hunting for ingredients in a dungeon. I really loved the cutesy art style of Cusineer, but the gameplay left me wanting more.

You play as the adorably cute cat person, Pom, who has to take over her parent's restaurant after they left on an epic retiree vacation around the world. It's a tough gig, but somecatbody has to do it.

As Pom, an adventurer by trade, you have to juggle between running the restaurant, while also delving into nearby dungeons to find ingredients.

What is Cusineer's gameplay like?

Since Cusineer is a roguelite, each time you go in, the dungeon changes, with the layout different each time. But it doesn't vary too much that you will find adventuring difficult.

Each monster killed drops an ingredient, and you'll need to survive or escape successfully to keep them. If you die, then you'll drop most of your loot. It's honestly quite punishing, and can make the game feel unfun.

When I first started on reviewing the game, the inventory was only limited to 20 per stack, which felt really tiny. Since then, a patch has increased it to 30, which has made it more bearable.

Once you get enough materials, you can open your restaurant to earn money, and you do so by pressing buttons to cook the ingredients you collected. Once the food is cooked, you can click on it to serve your guests, or they can pick it up themselves. I recommend letting them do so, though some customers will require you to serve them. You also have to man the cash register and be prepared to catch any eat-and-run guests.

What's the verdict on Cusineer?

While it initially feels fun, it starts feeling really monotonous after you're about eight hours in. That's because it's the exact same thing even after a while.

You can't hire people to man your restaurant, so you have to keep repeating the same motions over and over again to make money. And you'll have to do so, because the quest storyline leaves you with a massive debt that you have to repay.

Tthere's no impetus to actually repay the debt, even though you're told that your restaurant will be repossessed if you fail to pay, and there's no deadline.

So you can ignore it until you wish to progress. However, doing so means you get saddled with a bigger debt, and it takes you even longer to earn it. And paying it means, you guessed it…another debt.

Cusineer is fun, while the fun lasts

That said, I do like that other side quests allow you collect recipes, and you can cook stuff that's very local, such as Roti Prata, or Ice Kachang.

Combat is also slightly clunky until you get a feel of it.

I found it really confusing to play as the game doesn't actually tell you what the effects that your weapons do, and had to pop by the Steam Community forums to find out.

There's also very little information about stuff in the game to help you explain what's going on, like how your restaurant decorations affect who visits.

Even after 10 hours in the game, I still have no idea how it works. It was at this point I decided I was done with the game, until the developers patch it to make it more interesting.

But luckily, the developers have already made a week one patch to tweak a couple of things, such as buffing weapon effects, as well as the aforesaid inventory change.

At S$22, Cusineer is a great casual pickup, but it needs just a bit more in my opinion. It's still fun, while it lasts.

Here's hoping upcoming patches will give it a bit more depth. Get it from Steam.

Aloysius Low is an ex-CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He's really into cats and is currently reviewing products at canbuyornot.com

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