Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC

Publisher

Ultimate Games S.A., Gaming Factory

Developer

Live Motion Games

Genre

Action, Simulation

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

3.9 GB

Release Date (NA)

May 3, 2022

Purchase From

eShop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Steam

Bakery Simulator, a game from Warsaw-based Gaming Factory, is indeed about baking and running your own bakery business. It’s a neat concept, but its flaws can hinder your baking success.

Let Them Bake

The game starts you off with your own bakery building where the baking happens. There’s no debt to pay off, so players can begin making cash right away by completing orders from local bakery shops. Before getting to your first order, the game gives you a tutorial on how to play. It’s confusing at first, but you’ll pick up the pace after a couple orders. However, don’t expect to be a pro just yet.

Each order tasks you with making a bakery item in a specific quantity. The game then automatically gives you the receipt to fulfill the order and the time limit to complete and deliver it. To start, you will need to mix the right ingredients based on the order’s recipe. If you make a mistake, you have the option to undo the last ingredient you placed, but some ingredients, such as eggs, can’t be undone. When this happens, you’ll have to dump the mixture in the trash and start again.

Once you have the ingredients ready, they’ll need to be mixed for a certain amount of time. The game displays a timer that’s required to reach 100% mixture. Any more or less can lower the baking order’s score, which means less money and your relationship with the local bakery companies won’t increase.

After mixing, you’ll need to work on the dough. For example, when creating bread, you’ll need to cut parts of the dough and roll it. This is done by completing a mini game to help shape the dough. If not done correctly, you can risk lowering your score or having to recreate the dough.

Once you’re done with shaping the dough, you’ll place the pieces on a baking tray and then place them in the oven. Like the mixture, if the pieces are in too long or taken out too soon, you’ll risk ruining the order. Pull the trays out, deposit them in the delivery box, place the box next to the door, and exit the building.

You’ll be prompted to either have a service deliver the order for you or do it yourself. If you are in a time crunch, use the service, but there’s a catch. Delivery services are not always reliable and can cause a delay in delivery, which can cost you in income and bakery relationships. It’s a gamble, but at times, it can pay off.

Delivering the order yourself switches the gameplay style entirely. You will drive a vehicle through the city in order to reach the destination spot before time expires. This mode feels like playing Grand Theft Auto 3, but you don’t have to worry about cop chases or car damage, even if you flip a car over. There are road closures, though, so be prepared to make detours. Still, you are saving money this way, and the chance of the delivery being made on time is high.

Once the order is complete, you’ll earn cash, improve your business relationships, and gain experience points. Getting cash helps you purchase new machines, restock ingredients, and change the decor for your bakery. Better relationships with your town’s bakery shops will unlock features like the ability to increase your walking speed in your shop, delivery discounts, and decor items that can be purchased. Leveling up with experience points gives players the opportunity to unlock new features in their machines, such as turbo modes and more. The more orders you complete, the more shops will order from you.

Orders become larger and more complex as you play. The game doesn’t offer simpler orders like in the early stages of your business, which is not ideal. Sometimes, players may want to take it easy before going to another large order.

Prepare Your Setup

Depending on the order, you’ll need other equipment for your business, for example, a machine that can create shapes from dough. Luckily, orders that require specific baking equipment won’t come through until you purchase them. When you have enough funds, you can purchase these baking machines, and these new tools become available right away. If you purchase a new, bigger bakery workshop, some of the new equipment becomes available where you can do batches of large orders, but those orders don’t come in till later in the game.

You can only process one order at a time in the beginning, but that will grow to multiple ones later on. If you run out of ingredients, you can purchase them before starting a new order to prevent extra delivery costs. Ordering during an order can eat up your time limit unless you pay an additional cost for fast delivery. The game will eventually offer spices to add to your mixture, but it’s free-range what you do. Recipes do not require it, but you can add additional flavor that can potentially increase your relationship level with other shops.

Move Away Please

The work done in the bakery itself is done from a first-person perspective, which brings you right into the baking action. However, you will run into design and/or technical issues while baking, which can hinder your time. For example, when trying to grab a muffin tray, you can easily grab a muffin instead. To get around this, you will have to move your cursor, which is centered on the screen, so that it’s focused precisely on the tray itself. This need for precision gets annoying because if you accidentally grab said muffin, you have to try and put it back. Similar issues arise when trying to place items in the oven or on the cooking tray itself. The game wants you to be at a precise angle, which can be quite frustrating.

The floating box that appears above a baking item doesn’t help matters either. The information inside, such as baking and mixing times, is meant to help you, but the box itself  will get in your way when you’re trying to read and select items around it. It’s too bad the information isn’t provided in a less intrusive way.

Ordering ingredients can be a chore, too. While playing on the PlayStation 4 version of the game, eggs cannot be selected from the ingredients list. To get around this oddity, you have to add all the items in the list for purchase, and then go to the cart list and remove each item, except for the eggs. It’s bizarre. Another technical issue: At times, if you try to use the mixture’s turbo mode, the colored bar, which indicates when to stop the turbo before it forces a cooldown, is missing, even though the effects are still there.

Moreover, when the completion breakdown shows after you’ve delivered an order, if you leave the game and come back, the numbers on your completion breakdown disappear. In addition, you get stuck on that screen. To escape, you’ll have to open the driving menu screen to reposition the car. Once you do, either drive back to your bakery or the destination spot to end the delivery.

Visually, the game is pleasant, but don’t expect anything glamorous like you would see in large titles like Final Fantasy or Skyrim. While adding ingredients like milk or olive oil to your mixture bowl, splatter visuals do appear to give it some definition. On the other hand, items in the oven will sometimes look burnt, but when pulled out, they are fine. The game has a soundtrack, but it plays inconsistently. Sometimes, you have a harmonic tune playing while at your bakery, and at other times, it’s silent. At least doing your delivery plays a different tune, which is more energetic. You’re better off listening to your own separate baking playlist.

The Final Delivery

Bakery Simulator feels like a beefed-up mini game you’d find in another mid-tier title. While there are fun elements, some gameplay mechanics and technical issues indicate that the recipe needs to be adjusted. In the meantime, think carefully before opening up shop.

A PlayStation 4 code provided for this review.