Before judging Abra-Cooking-Dabra from afar, dismissing it through its seemingly complex Mahjong-like gameplay or bland choice of cuisine (British), how about you download the demo on Steam and try it for yourself? Damn you and your early assessments – you’re worse than the cat!
There’s an alluring vibe projected by this top-down strategy game from Door 407 that’s comparable to Overcooked, not just because of the cooking themes, but also due to the elements of plate spinning, a.k.a. time management in an urgent setting.
Abra-Cooking-Dabra takes place in a restaurant in London, and you act as the chef serving Johnny Public. However, instead of pacing the kitchen tiles and mixing dishes to slap in front of the punters without slipping on spillages, you instead play your… hand… with a deck of cards. I’m essentially doing the same thing, but this works very well.
Abra-Cooking-Dabra Preview
Overlooking a casino-like table, customers enter the restaurant to the left of the table and indicate the dish they would like to order. The owner of the restaurant, a cat, lollops to the right with its judgmental eye, occasionally issuing new cards should you decide to sell any excess ones or need the money.
To create the required dish, you must mix various cards to achieve the desired effect, each with a mini-countdown that eats into the customer’s wait time. Cards can be ingredients, sauces and dressings, equipment and utensils, as well as plants that need to be grown before sourcing seasoning once they’re ripe.
Starting with a tomato, you either drag the tomato card onto the knife or drag the knife onto the tomato card. After a short time, the tomatoes are sliced, and you can then combine them with the sliced cucumbers, place them on a plate, and then serve them to the customer. Once that’s done, you’re washing the plate to serve another punter.
Secret Sauce
Abra-Cooking-Dabra is way more intuitive than it looks. I took a chance on it, as I typically dislike conventional card games but enjoy deck builders. This is more of the latter, utilising Solitaire layouts, although not overly complicated or gimmicky. Despite its usability, Abra-Cooking-Dabra naturally gets challenging in a good way.
More customers enter the establishment and ask for new dishes. Unaware of how to make these, when hovering over the dish, an indication of its preparation is displayed. Art replicates life; you simply have to experiment and try new methods, and inevitably, you will run out of ingredients or not have the inventory. This is where money comes into play.
For each successful dish, the customer will pay (duh!), and you can also sell unwanted cards. This allows you to purchase the desired deck, although note that cards can be randomly selected, so you may not receive what you were after. Welcome to squeaky bum time, as customers are now getting frustrated while you grow your own and chop everything with one knife.
Dessert?
Fortunately, at the end of stages, you can use some of that money to buy new gear and also carry over a limited number of ingredients via the restaurant’s fridge. Just don’t expect to get any praise from your boss. They’re hard to please.
Abra-Cooking-Dabra does get hairy, even in this early build, and that’s no play on words about the clientele – it’s pretty stressful, though intentional, as it’s the nature of the game. The only reservation? It’s a demo, and I could easily have kept going – it’s the best new restaurant in town. Visit it now before the waiting list makes it impossible to get a seat.
