CSD2's biggest problem is that C4H has way too many levels

[Terotrous]

Just posting this here because I think this is a helpful and non-obvious relevation.

Mechanically, CSD2 is very solid, making some good improvements compared to the original, but there's been a general consensus that the original is more fun, and we know it also sold much better and such. The main reason is that the original has far better progression. The sequel has its moments, but it's generally a very repetitive and often forgettable experience, and the main culprit is C4H. Each C4H restaurant has like 10+ shifts, but they are all virtually identical. From one mission to the next, maybe one menu item will swap out and the buzz will go up 5%, which makes almost no difference and causes the mode to feel very repetitive. Because of the massive number of shifts, they all have the same boring goal, "achieve a perfect day", which further increases the monotony (particularly since this often forces you to restart stages!). Having a smaller number of shifts that felt distinct from each other would result in a vastly more interesting campaign.

Interestingly, I was working on a game myself that had the exact same problem, I also had the idea "I'll make the campaign have like 300 levels!", but the game mechanics weren't really complex enough for it so they felt samey and repetitive and after a while even I was getitng bored of playing it. I wonder if the dev actually 100%ed C4H himself? It's so repetitive I can hardly imagine anyone doing it, and if you're getting bored playing your own game that's a good indicator there's a big problem. I think a lot of people think more content is always better, but it's definitely not, excessive repetition can easily diminish the experience of playing a game.

I doubt this will really be changed or improved for CSD2, but hopefully if there's a CSD3 or something this could be something to keep in mind.

[Manic Infidel]

Couldn't agree more. Sometimes less is more.

[T-Bone Biggins]

I personally think CSD2 is a much better game overall. I can play the original on my phone but that is a slightly painful experience on an S6 screen, CSD2 got much better once I started using the keyboard instead of trying to imitate touch controls with the mouse.

[John]

Your complaining about too much content lmao

[Terotrous]

Yep. It initially seems non-intuitive that you can ever have too much content, but when the demands of producing so much content causes the content to be samey and repetitive, it actually does start to hurt the game.

[gummyonion]

I agree. I'm working my way through C4H currently, and even though I've played 60 some hours of exclusively C4H, I'm only about halfway through. But a part of that is also because I'm trying to get all golds.

I think it's awesome there are so many dishes but like OP said, a lot of the shifts are just swapping out a couple of menu items. I mean, it does help you master the menu items for the later shifts but I think I would much more enjoy having a wider variety through each shift and replaying lower shifts to master menu items, if I have to.

I'm also not enjoying how shifts require you to reach a certain level to unlock. For example, I'm working my way through Sushi Nest and I'm able to complete every shift except the last one due to being locked, so even though I feel like I have a good grasp of all the menu items now and I would be able to knock out the last shift no problem, I'm not anywhere near unlocking it and by the time I am, I'll probably have to relearn the menu items again. It just feels like a waste of time. Maybe it was poor planning on my part for trying to complete a restaurant that wasn't fully unlocked but then again I didn't entirely understand how the shift unlocking process worked. I thought maybe when you complete the previous shifts, it would unlocked the later ones.

[Terotrous]

Originally posted by notonion:

I'm also not enjoying how shifts require you to reach a certain level to unlock.

This is also something I've brought up before. I feel that in addition to unlocking as you beat each shift, there should also be an ending blurb similar to the closing blurb that details your exploits there, though the issue in the first post is by far the biggest one, the others are just gravy.