Review of Kitchen Rush

Blurb from the publisher: 'A cooperative kitchen experience played in real time! The wide world of gastronomy awaits you!

Pay attention to the cooking times and prepare delicious meals!'

What you get: Your EUR 45 or equivalent will buy you Kitchen Rush, a cooperative, real-time, worker-placement game that accommodates from two to four players in around one hour.

The game was initially published by Artipia Games following a thoroughly successful kickstarter that collected seven times the requested amount. After the first print run got exhausted , Artipia publishers the English edition of the game along with Pegasus Spiele and PSC Games, at least in the old continent. To make things more complex, PSC Games' logo is not featured on the box itself. If you are wondering how is that of any interest, the answer is rather straightforward. I understand that there are changes between the initial kickstarter/first printing and the current Artipia/Pegasus Spiele/PSC Games edition; even the game's covers are different. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on them since I no longer have access to the game's initial edition. To make a long story short, the present review covers the 2020 edition.

In addition to the 20-page English rulebook that can be downloaded from the company's website free of charge, the game also contains the following: 111 cards (8 Friends Patrons, 22 Regular Patrons, 18 Challenging Patrons, 12 VIP Patrons, 8 Awards, 4 Plate Size Overviews, 4 Shopping Overviews, 4 Office, 2 Reserved Tables. 5 Missions, 24 Events), 108 wooden Ingredients (24 Meat, 24 Vegetable, 15 Salad, 15 Bread, 15 Cheese, 15 Pasta), 8 Game Board tiles, 4 Player boards, one Reputation board, 10 sand timers (2 per player colour, with a running time between 25 and 30 seconds each), one bag, 56 wooden Spices (12 Salt, 12 Pepper, 12 Herbs, 10 Curry, 10 Saffron), 35 Coins, 22 Plates (6 small, 6 medium, 6 large, 4 extra large), and 17 markers (one Shift, one Reputation, 5 Locked, 5 Malfunction, 5 Unavailable).

The most observant amongst us might remember that Kitchen Rush was the first game to use hourglasses as meeples, a mechanic later used in Rush M.D., a game also published by Artipia. Now that I have access to both games, I will compare the two designs to one another.

Gameplay: Congratulations on opening your new restaurant! It is spacious, isn't it, with its reception, the dining room, the two storage rooms, the stoves and the cupbards? The game can be played in 8 different configurations (or scenarios) with ascending difficulty. All games are timed. Depending on whether you want to play an easier or a harder game, you may opt between 4 and 5 minutes per shift. Objectives differ per scenario. In the first one, the one that is likely to introduce you to the game, each player has to cook for two patrons within the time limit. Every time you choose an action, you place your single hourglass worker on the relevant field. That worker cannot be picked up until he has executed his work, i.e. the sand in the hourglass has run out. In the first scenario you have four actions at your disposal: seat patrons, take an order, take ingredients from one storage room, and cook a meal. Actions are about picking a card (e.g. what the new patrons might want, which cook is now responsible for them), about transferring materials from point A to point B (e.g. picking the right materials for the dish, no more, no less), or about moving an indicator upon a counter (cooking the dish according to its designated cooking time).

Once your timer has run out, the shift is finished. Players check whether they fulfilled their orders as instructed. This refers to the size of the plate, the correct ingredients, as well as the cooking time. If you are successful, you may proceed to the next scenario. The more one progresses, the harder scenarios become.

In the second scenario players gain access to spices which must be collected from the greenhouse, and can now use two sand timers instead of just one each. The number of customers to be served is increased and tied to the number of players. It is no longer mandatory for a player to serve a fixed number of customers.

In the third scenario players start with dirty dishes which they will have to wash if they want to use them. They will also earn money when they seat their patrons, as well as when they serve them during the game. Players thus no longer play for finished orders, but for money. Depending on whether the patrons order cheap or expensive dishes, they might have more or less orders to fulfill. Cooking mistakes become harder to correct; any mistaken order must begin from the bottom up.

In the fourth scenario the storage rooms only come partially stocked; players will have to go shopping in order to get them filled. This is also the first scenario that plays itself in two shifts instead of one, with more demanding patrons than before.

The fifth scenario adds a third storage room, as well as a personal salary which must be paid from the income that you receive. Luckily, the scenario's demands when it comes to earned money have dropped.

Scenario six adds Reputation; challenging patrons will rate you positively if you serve them on the shift they walked in or negatively if you didn't. Players can also win tips for Service, if they manage to serve meals during a shift, as opposed to the end of the shift that was the case until now. Players can also decide to throw patrons out before fulfilling their order, and have new patrons come in. From this scenario onward, players must accumulate both money and reputation.

Scenario seven grants your restaurant its first star, with VIP patrons and what have you. These demanding patrons wish for a meal as well as a side-dish, and are only satisfied when they have eaten both. Thankfully, they increase your reputation by two instead of one. Reputation can lead to Awards, namely cards that grant bonuses during a shift. Examples include cleaning more plates with one action or have shifts last longer. Your sand timer workers can now go on strike if you don't pay them. That sounds like a bad thing, in effect however it is good. Previously, not paying your workers meant that you lost the game immediately. Now, you simply lose the services of that one worker for a limited amount of time. Just pay them during the next shift, and they will become available again. The game now lasts four shifts.

The eighth scenario adds temps to your worker pool. They work and get paid like everybody else, yet they belong to no played in particular; everyone can use them. Four new actions are offered: Call the Locksmith, Call the Technician, Hire One Temp and Buy New Plates. The first unlocks locked markers from the storage room, making them available to everyone. The second removes the Malfunction marker from the stove.

If you have successfully finished all the scenarios at their most demanding version (4 minutes, challenge mode), you can also try to tackle the five Missions. These use all the rules from the previous scenarios but impose even harder prerequisites. Equality is about serving at least 2 patrons per player per shift. Striking Workers will see you using Late Payment more often than not. Kitchen Rush has each player serve a total of nine patrons in four shifts, broken down in a specific configuration of regular, challenging and VIP patrons. Empty Storage rooms is self-explanatory, seeing how your start the game with nothing in your warehouses. Special Challenge on the other hand requires a high amount of coins and reputation to complete successfully.

If all this was not enough, you can add Events on either scenario eight or any of the missions. Something bad happens at the beginning of each shift. Your cheese and vegetables might have gone bad, or you might lose reputation just because. You asked to be challenged, didn't you?

The strong points: It is no secret that I like timed games. Artipia Games knows what it's doing since it was responsible for both Project: Elite as well as Rush M.D. Kitchen Rush has none of the dexterity elements of the latter game, opting for a more traditional boardgame approach. The game is more sequestered, seeing how only one player can take care of an order. You will shop or clean dishes together, when it comes to seating and serving the customers however players will mostly do their own thing, while still communicating frantically. Just like every other time-based coop out there, it cannot be sovled by committee. You can discuss between breaks, and even plan the first few minutes of your four-minute shift. From there on however, you are pretty much on your own, while still depending on everybody else to do their job in order for the team not to lose the game.

The hourglasses are only partially precise, and I consider this to be one of the game's strongest features. If you play the game often you will get accustomed to your copy's idiosyncracies, start picking a different colour than your usual one, and overall become partial to particular sand timers seeing how they perform faster. Are those gains enough to win or lose you the game? I don't think so. Yet, it's human psychology. Who wants to be the slow guy around?

I had commented on the Rush M.D. review that assuming that each cook can be moved from his spot after 28,5 seconds, and an observant and skilled player can move him within 1,5 seconds to his new position, this gives every worker and optimal eight actions per round. The more players reach that number, and the more these actions are logically interconnected and focused, the better the team will fare. Your group should aim for a flow that minimizes bottlenecks while maximizing the output of actions that can be beneficiary to everybody. This relates to the goods and spices you obtain, the types of dishes you make available etc. On the other hand, luck matters a bit as well when it comes to the card draw. You are likely to lose a game or two because you picked the wrong customer at the wrong time, and damn I don't have enough time to kick him out, this however is part of the experience.

I am very satisfied by the game's variety and modularity; both aspects have an immediate impact on its replayability. Kitchen Rush can be easily played with younger audiences by using the earlier scenarios and the more generous time requirements. Its rules are extremely easy to explain, even though the rulebook could have been better written; keep reading about that. If you want to tighten the screw and play with professional blitz chess players, knock yourself out. Hardcore gamers are likely to be satisfied from scenario eight onwards, when all the rules are in play.

Game components and overall production values: nice! The spices might be blunt as cubes, the ingredients however are extremely evocative. They actually look like meat/cheese/vegetables/what have you. The main board is printed in thick, sturdy cardboard. Unfortunately that is not the case with the other boards. The discrepancy is striking when you have the game fully set in front of you.

The weak points: The game is easy to learn and teach, this doesn't however mean that the rulebook is optimally written. Presenting the rules in batches, embedded within example scenarios, sounds like a good idea (and I do remember Starship Troopers from the Avalon Hill of yore doing exactly that). When however you are accustomed to the game and you want to teach all the previous rules to a player starting, say, from scenario six, finding the rules and parameters of your chosen scenario is more difficult than it ought to be. Easy example: how many shifts will you play in scenario six? The answer is two, as per scenario four. Is that immediately visible somewhere? No, it is only insinuated upon. I shouldn't be searching in previous scenarios in order to find what works in the current one. Each scenario should have had a short executive summary about its basics, including duration and applicable rules. Even more so, the game needed an index of where rules can be found. Let's say you play scenario eight, but do not remember the details of the rule about throwing patrons out. You can find them on scenario six, yet why would you know that you needed to look in scenario six anyway, and how long would it take you to actually locate them? It feels as if the rulebook is designed to teach you the game the first few times, but not refresh your memory once you really become good at it.

Then there's convoluted instructions like this one: 'From now on, each of you gains 3 Coins per Sand Timer at the end of every Shift as a salary. This means that after all earned revenue has been collected and all free drinks have been paid at the end of a shift, you must return 6 Coins per player to the supply. This represents your salary, which is sadly only make believe'. Indeed, you are collectively losing money, that's how the game is supposed to be played. Yet, why phrase it as counterintuitively and create pointless ambiguity and confusion about the players earning make believe money? The typos here and there don't make things any better. This rulebook needed a lot more TLC than what it got.

The game can be mathy between shifts. There are things you control and things that you don't, thus by definition the most successful groups will be the ones that map out their four minutes more efficiently. This can only happen to a certain extent, of course; you don't know what the new customers are going to ask for. Yet, to the extent that you know what to do, it is always preferable to plan than not to plan. Unavoidably, this will lead to analyses between shifts that might be longer than what some players expect from this game. Shifts are unlikely to go on a fully frantic mode, exactly because they have been partially planned in advance. If you are looking for total chaos, you will find it here even though Lady Luck can make things easier or harder for you.

I don't understand why the minimum player count stops at two. The game can be played with one player, even though it will not be a work in the park. Depending on how good you are and how confident you feel, you can emulate playing any configuration from two to four players simultaneously. Fair warning: it is a stressful experience. You are more likely to make mistakes that in a multiplayer game, without the benefit of having someone there to correct you.

I can imagine casual gamers meeting in order to play Kitchen Rush, that is however unlikely to apply to hardcore gamers. If you meet with the same people, and you all know the game, scenario eight and the missions are the only things you will touch after a point. That having been said, this is a very good warm up for the evening's main event, or, a wake-up call if you wish. I wish there were suggestions for mini-games (like 'play only one shift of scenario eight') that is not however a deal breaker.

I am not happy with the game's plastic insert. If you decide to sleeve the cards, the components barely fit. Should an expansion come out for this edition, you will have to throw the insert out in order for the new components to fit in the box of the base game as well.

Conclusion: Kitchen Rush is a little gem of a timed game. A cleaner, more traditional experience than Rush M.D., it provides all the entertainment of the latter without including a dexterity aspect. It is also more family friendly, not only theme-wise but also because of its modularity. Be it as a gift to yourself or to others, this is one of the most particular side-dishes you can buy.

For more info on Kitchen Rush, Artipia Games, Pegasus Spiele, and PSC Games, visit them respectively at http://www.artipiagames.com, https://pegasus.de and https://www.pscgames.co.uk.

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