When comparing Sundered vs Overcooked 2, the Slant community recommends Overcooked 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best local co-op PC games?” Overcooked 2 is ranked 50th while Sundered is ranked 79th. The most important reason people chose Overcooked 2 is:
Whether you played the first Overcooked or not, Overcooked 2 is easy to figure out right from the get-go. The recipes for each dish are familiar even if you're not much of a chef, so you can remember which raw ingredients you need as you make your way around the kitchen and work with your co-op partner(s). Once you play a few rounds, you should have a good handle on things, helping you focus on getting everything done as quickly as possible from there on out.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro The bosses
If you like massive, seeming impenetrable bosses, then this game is for you. Seeing them for the first time is extremely fun, and just the prospect of getting to fight and conquer another one of these beasts feels like a real accomplishment.
Pro The graphics
If you have watched any video of this game, this is probably no shock, but the graphics are amazing. They are hand drawn, detailed, and beautiful. They give a surreal, almost unsettling feel without becoming overbearing or overwhelming.
Pro The approach to levels is original for the genre.
While this game has some rogue-lite elements in that you restart at a central hub when you die and the level design shuffles, it is a Metroidvania at heart as you gain new powerups which unlock new areas and combat techniques. What makes this game feel fresh is that the room layouts change which each death. They are not truly random in that there is a limited range of layouts, so you will start to memorize the potential layouts from rooms you die in a lot. However, this also means you do not have to get sick of fighting through (and dying in) the exact same generic hallway for the umpteenth time.
Pro Combat is fair
As mentioned in my con, the combat can be a serious challenge. You will have to develop different strategies with the array of tools in your arsenal to succeed. That said, it is also incredibly fair. While you will frequently feel overwhelmed (especially early on) if you invest some time into learning the combat and purchase more upgrades, you will soon find yourself overcoming hordes of enemies that were previously unstoppable. Furthermore, there's no area that ever becomes too easy. Even the first area will require that you stay alert when you return.
Pro Simple to pick up and learn
Whether you played the first Overcooked or not, Overcooked 2 is easy to figure out right from the get-go. The recipes for each dish are familiar even if you're not much of a chef, so you can remember which raw ingredients you need as you make your way around the kitchen and work with your co-op partner(s). Once you play a few rounds, you should have a good handle on things, helping you focus on getting everything done as quickly as possible from there on out.
Pro Hilariously fun couch and online co-op for up to four players
Playing Overcooked 2 with friends is the best. There's so much going on at once in the kitchen, with barriers moving in your way, hazards popping up like cars in the middle of the road separating the two halves of your area, and ingredients, dishes, and half-prepared dishes to move from one place to another. Working together and communicating with your friends through couch co-op or online play is a constant stream of laughter and excited shouting as you mess up, learn, and hopefully get things done. If you don't have anyone to play with, then you can hop online for matchmaking instead.
Pro Fast and frantic cooking action
Overcooked 2 is really fast-paced and keeps you on your toes. You play as a chef in a crazy kitchen with a ton of things going on all at once, with you mixing, preparing, and cooking in between the chaos of moving platforms and environmental obstacles. There's a time limit constantly ticking down at the bottom of the screen; finishing your tasks on time or ahead of schedule earns you a better score in the end. Tossing ingredients to your teammates across the kitchen, or across the moving platforms or obstacles like bodies of water, is a fresh new addition in this game that wasn't in the first Overcooked, making things even faster this time around. It's such a manic yet well-done mix of many different genres and ideas that all come together in the best ways.
Cons
Con Too few bosses
As mentioned in the pros, the bosses are amazingly fun and well drawn. However, there's only 4 total (ok technically 6, but the 2 extra require multiple playthroughs). They are the highlight of this game, and I found myself wanting more by the end.
Con You will die, probably a lot
If you're looking for a casual exploration game or one where you can switch into autopilot after a while, this is probably not for you. Combat takes the form of enemy swarms where dozens of enemies will descend upon you in each room. They are not unbeatable by any means, but this does mean you will have some frustrating deaths where it seems impossible to progress.
Con There's very little in terms of story
There's a frame of a story there, but it mostly progresses around boss battles, meaning that they significant chunks of time that you spend exploring, killing enemies, and grinding for powerups in between the handful of bosses feels very disconnected from any real narrative.
Con Can be incredibly frustrating
Trying to work at such a fast pace with so many obstacles and general mayhem going on at once can wear on you after a while. There's a lot to keep track of at once, and it's easy for things to spiral out of control as your mistakes pile up. If your group isn't doing well and you're running out of time, you might find yourself losing your patience with your team and yelling at them. This might not be the game for you if you don't have a team that's willing to be patient and cooperative with each other, even when you're not doing so well during a particular round.
Con Single-player isn't as fun as co-op
If you only want to play alone, then Overcooked 2 might not be the best game to pick. All the fast-paced fun from co-op mostly comes from communicating with your team and trying to pull off your task together before the time runs out. You control two characters at once while playing alone, but this still lacks the team-based chaos that makes the game so addicting. You could instead go online for matchmaking, though you might get paired with people who don't want to talk or work as an actual team.
Con The controls are a bit sluggish
There's something about the controls that feels heavy and deliberate, and not necessarily in a good way. The feeling goes against the fast-paced nature of the gameplay that demands you in one place and then the next. If you played the first Overcooked, you may notice the difference right away. This change shouldn't be too much of a hassle, though it's still noticeable.
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