Innchanted review – An Aussie spin on the restaurant operating genre

There are a lot of games that allow players to run a business of their own, managing a variety of different aspects in the hopes of beating the odds to become a successful small business. Innchanted is the latest title to put players in charge of a fledgling inn, that’s actually more of a restaurant, and invite them to face a variety of challenges unique to this world inspired by traditional Indigenous Australian folklore.

It doesn’t seem like much at first glance, and honestly, it isn’t, but that’s not the negative some players might assume. There’s a certain arcade feeling DragonBear Studios accomplished that’s been lost in bigger titles and even some indies that Innchanted manages to be pretty good at. While it’s not the most amazing and innovative game in the world, it isn’t promising more than what it can give.

The gameplay is constantly evolving throughout the entire experience, keeping the game from feeling too repetitive to be any fun. It’s clearly meant to be a multiplayer or party game, even if it isn’t required thanks to a half-implementation of a great tool.

A magical inn, that’s not an inn, in the Outback

The basis for the game is pretty simple and never really the important part of these types of games, with the narrative largely just being a vehicle for restaurant management. Although Innchanted refers to it as an inn, you’re largely working as staff inside of a restaurant during several busy periods during any time of day. The room changes each shift, with all 48 of the game’s days being split into two shifts.

The duties are things we’ve seen in restaurant simulators before, like creating meals or drinks following an ever-growing complicated set of requirements. The rooms changing and growing in complexity is very reminiscent of Overcooked, although the rooms aren’t as wacky and the mechanics for cooking aren’t as good. Nothing looks more unappetizing than a steak with blue paint slapped on it.

This growing level of difficulty is actually really challenging, with many of the levels past the first five likely impossible to do by a single player. Fortunately, Innchanted does something really unique with the addition of an AI teammate that can help do a variety of useful tasks whether you’re playing by yourself or in multiplayer.

The AI isn’t the smartest and it can do only a few limited actions with most of them being much slower than you could while sprinting. Even still, it’s an evolution of games like Overcooked, which felt impossible to play by yourself. You can focus on defending your profits or refilling the tanks while your AI companion is filling the orders of the guests you just seated.

That being said, some of the later levels still feel like you’re hard-pressed to complete them with your AI companion, which makes this game feel all the more like it was intended for multiplayer. That is paired with the variety of options there are to play multiplayer, including Steam co-op, couch co-op, Steam Remote Play Together, or a combination of all three.

There are also unique modifiers that can work as either buffs or nerfs depending on your choice during a prompt. Each night before your next shift, you’ll need to select an activity that has something to do with the business, with you being presented with a prompt related to it after leaving the area. This actually works as a fun breakup to the gameplay and can give you some surprising results.

When playing with friends, it’s clear to see why it’s meant for it. Successfully completing a map quickly because you and your teammates work together is a great feeling. The levels usually have some kind of gimmick, and figuring those out is the key to success. With some of the levels having incredibly low benchmarks for the hidden fourth star, it would be a testament to see players accomplish it without help.

Controller or bust, mate

As far as what this game demands from your system, it will likely be able to run on the most simple hardware. It’s not a graphically intense game, instead resembling an evolved version of something that would have been released as a Flash game a decade ago. That’s not a dig at its quality, because the simple style and characters fit the unique mystical setting of the game.

As far as controls go, it’s probably better for everyone who can use a controller to do so. The game is much better optimized for a controller, with keyboard players having to use WASD to run around and no use of the mouse. There also may be issues with input errors. This will likely make it a great game to play on the Steam Deck, which may even allow some players an additional controller to give to a second player.

The game also plays pretty well, with few issues that involve the actual gameplay. Sometimes it feels like items won’t register to the right place when thrown or go flying off the map, but the ease to restart and complete a level makes it less of a problem than if the levels were long drawn-out processes. This will likely appeal to completionists who will want to restart a level at the slightest second wasted.

There could be a world where this game finds an audience among the same types of a crowd as Overcooked with the benefit of being much more multiplayer-friendly. This game’s ease of multiplayer could make it popular among families and groups of friends who are looking for a good activity to absent-mindedly play together.

That’s where the real value will come from and the game will likely be a great addition to many players’ collections if they can get it when it happens to be on sale. There are over ten hours of fun to be had and whether or not that’s worth the price will largely depend on your preferences and whatever friends you can rope in to play with you.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website!