What is Cooking Simulator 2: Better Together?
Cooking Simulator 2: Better Together is the sequel to the original Cooking Simulator, putting you in charge of a restaurant kitchen where you prepare dishes step by step, manage supplies, upgrade appliances, and build your own recipes. The game launched on Steam at $24.99, with a 15% discount available at launch. Co-op multiplayer is the headline feature this time around, letting multiple players divide kitchen duties in real time. After spending significant time with the solo experience, the honest verdict is this: it's a game that works better with a friend than without one, and it works better in theory than in practice.
How does the cooking actually work?
The food preparation in Cooking Simulator 2 goes deeper than most restaurant sims. Chopping vegetables, seasoning meat, and managing heat levels are all tracked with enough precision that leaving a pan on the stove for a few seconds too long will ruin a dish. Searing a T-bone steak, for example, requires careful oil temperature management to avoid burning the pan before the meat is even cooked.
The recipe system is one of the more interesting additions. You can design your own menu rather than relying entirely on the game's built-in combinations, which is a genuine relief given that some of the default pairings are questionable at best. The game does include a lengthy tutorial that walks through many of the systems, though it spends a lot of time on obvious mechanics while leaving some genuinely confusing rules unexplained.
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The tutorial does not clearly explain that certain tasks can only be performed in specific locations. You can place a knife and lettuce on a counter, but chopping only works on a cutting board. Expect to discover this the hard way.
What changed from the original game?
Returning players will notice several mechanics from the first game are gone. Free-form knife cutting has been replaced with a minigame where you align the knife at specific angles to chop food. Dishes no longer shatter when dropped or thrown. The overall tone has shifted from chaotic and hectic to something more measured and straightforward, which will appeal to some players and frustrate others who came for the original's unpredictability.
How does co-op multiplayer work?
The co-op mode is the game's strongest selling point on paper. Up to multiple players can run a kitchen together, splitting responsibilities across prep, cooking, and plating in real time. One player handles ingredient preparation while another manages the stove, and a third focuses on plating and getting dishes out to customers. According to the launch trailer, when the team communicates well the kitchen runs smoothly. When it does not, things spiral fast.
Miscommunication and last-second recoveries are part of what makes co-op sessions memorable. The chaos that was designed out of the solo experience finds its way back naturally when multiple players are involved, which is probably why the game is titled Better Together.
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If you plan to play solo, consider buying a second copy for a friend. The game's bugs and design quirks are significantly less noticeable when there are two people laughing at them rather than one person grinding through them alone.
Is matchmaking worth trying?
Based on available community feedback at launch, finding a matchmade online game is difficult. The reviewer at Try Hard Guides was unable to find an online session during their entire review period, which suggests the player pool for public lobbies is thin. Playing with friends directly is the more reliable path.
What bugs and design issues should you know about?
The game launched with a number of issues that affect the experience in noticeable ways. The most frustrating involves plating: food floats roughly a foot above the plate after you pick it up rather than sitting where you intend to place it. Customers never actually eat the food on screen, so the visual result does not affect your score directly, but the broken physics make plating feel unrewarding.
Object placement on countertops is another consistent annoyance. Most surfaces have invisible blockages that prevent you from setting items down freely, forcing you to hunt for the specific spot on a wide-open counter where the game will accept the placement. This happens constantly and breaks the flow of service.
A few stranger bugs also appear. A metal spatula caught fire while flipping a steak that was otherwise cooking correctly. These feel like symptoms of a game that shipped before it was fully ready.
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When transferring items to the oven, note that objects picked up together appear on a baking sheet, but must then be moved to a separate baking sheet before the oven accepts them. The tutorial does not explain this clearly.
Should you buy Cooking Simulator 2: Better Together?
The game scored a 6 out of 10 from Try Hard Guides, which is probably the right number. The cooking mechanics are genuinely involved and the restaurant simulation has real depth when everything cooperates. Custom recipe creation gives you creative control the original lacked. The co-op foundation is solid in concept.
The problems are real, though. Bugs affect core mechanics. Design choices that remove fan-favorite features from the original feel like steps backward. The solo experience is noticeably weaker than co-op, and finding strangers to play with publicly is unreliable at launch. For players who have a friend to bring along, the experience improves considerably. For solo players, the flaws are harder to ignore.
You can check the Steam Community page for Cooking Simulator 2: Better Together to read current player reviews and see whether the community's sentiment has shifted since launch.
For players who want to push past the rougher edges, community-documented workarounds can help. Resources like the Cooking Simulator 2 walkthrough and tips at XModHub cover strategies for avoiding common frustrations, including how to handle the plating system and rush periods without losing your mind.
For more simulation game coverage and guides across all genres, browse the latest guides on GAMES.GG to find what to play next.