PC Game Review: Chocolatier: Decadence by Design

'Chocolatier' has been a long-time favorite among the casual-gaming crowd. Being a beginning casual gamer myself, I purchased 'Chocolatier' on a whim after trying the demo with my spouse. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised at what Big Splash Games had to offer with this title. The simulation is only part of what the gameplay is like. Unlike most simulations, this one has a great storyline behind it as well.

The object of the 'Chocolatier' game series is to manage a full-time chocolate empire to become the best chocolatier in the world. What makes this newest installment so unique compared to the previous two is that there is so much more that you can do with it. The game's story is set during World War II. Your boss, Alex, has been looking to find someone that can be the new CEO is her dwindling chocolate empire, Baumeister Confectioneries. The reason is that she is on a world-wide quest in the attempt to find her husband, Sean, who is a pilot that has been shot down during a dogfight and no word has been sent to whether he is dead or alive. Your mission is to keep everything running smoothly while she is gone. If you can succeed in bringing Baumeister back to the top of its game, she will gladly turn over the company to you as its newest CEO!

But, this will not be easy, as there will be many tasks that you have to perform before the company is yours. There are several Board members who will be expecting a great deal out of you before they will even consider your application. 'Chocolatier' is all about making chocolate, but that was the way it used to be in the early days. In this new era, people are asking for newer and better things. This is exactly what you will be providing to them as the game progresses. You will learn recipes for new chocolate bars, tasty coffees, chocolate bon-bons which are called 'Infusions', coffee blends and exotics. The whole object of the game is to make these items in order to sell to many chocolate shops and coffee houses around the world who will pay handsomely for your wares.

However, the main thing that can really be tricky is managing the many different factories that are located all over the globe. (There are a total of five or six). All of these factories make a different kind of product. For instance, if you have a factory in Tokyo that makes Wasabi Cashew Caramel Infusions, you have to make sure that they have all the necessary ingredients on hand to make the product in order for you to sell it. If they do not have everything they need, the factory shuts down until you can get the necessary ingredients needed for that product. This is only but one of your problems that you will face by playing 'Chocolatier:DBD'.

Some of the other things that you will face when playing is having to make all of the items yourself first. In each factory, there are machines that you have to pre-program to make as many cases of the product as possible. They will come in two forms: A cannon with rotating gears or a cannon with a conveyor belt. The gears are for making such items as chocolate bars, infusions, and exotics. When you reach these levels, you will be required to make the receipe in each gear correctly in order for a case to be made. This will require you to shoot the ingredients from a cannon into each gear as fast as you can and hope that you do not waste any. If you do, the machine slows down and you will make fewer cases than you may like. The same goes for the coffee. The conveyor belt will show symbols and you simply have to match up the symbols in order to make the appropriate cases. It works the same way as the candies that if you place one unlike symbol on top of another, that ingredient is considered wasted and the belt will slowed down. It may sound easy, but believe me, it isn't.

Now, about the ingredients: the ingredients are not all available in the same places. You will have to unlock ports in order to sometimes get the required item needed. For instance, you start the game in Zurich and your factory runs out of cacao bean and you need more to keep producing. Getting ingredients may require you to do a lot of travel. As with all business, travel costs money and every time you charter a plane to a new destination, it will eat into your bottom line. But, if you need extra cash, just about every port has a candy shop where you can sell any excess bars, coffees or whatever to gain extra cash for your travel needs. It is also very important to note that you will need to keep track of what recipes require what ingredients and where they can be found. The nice part is that you can check these things by simply taking your arrow and pointing it at a specific ingredient to find out where that ingredient was last seen. A nice helpful tip for when you are first getting started.

How to really make your empire flourish, though, is in the form of what are called 'Quests'. Quests are actions that you have to take in order to obtain certain needed items. Quests usually yield great things such as new recipes, the location of a needed ingredient, lower prices on certain items that you may need, and so on. Quests are what make the game progress further just like if you were playing an adventure game or role-playing game to advance the game forward to another interesting piece of information that you may not have known. This to me was one of the main reasons why I wanted to keep playing, which was to figure out what I had to do or get next or updates on Alex's quest for Sean.

The real icing on the cake for me came in the form of the 'Secret Test Kitchen' in Rekjavik, Iceland. The Test Kitchen is used for you to create culinary chocolate masterpieces of your own! Depending on what you want to make, there are a certain amount of bowls that are offered for different ingredients. After you place what items you want, you simply click a button marked 'Taste It'and you will receive what the local food scientist has to say. It may take a few times to get it right, but after making new items for a while it will be second nature to you. The main thing that you have to watch with this is if the food scientist does not like your product. If he doesn't, you simply take out ingredients and continue experimenting. This part is simply a matter of trial and error. (I never would have thought that I could sell a chocolate bar that contained lemon, peanuts, and chocolate for almost $2000 a case! I have also done lemon, mint and chocolate just to give you a few ideas). But, the Test Kitchen is not just for bars. Once you have earned the endorsement of the other members of the Board, they will add more slots to your Secret Kitchen inventory that will allow you to further experiment in the many other confections once the game progresses.

Out of all the 'Chocolatier' games that I have played, I have found that this one is the best out of the series. There are so many fun things to do and the ability to get creative all at the same time. The story that drives this is engaging, and every port you visit is different from the last making you fell like you have just taken a trip around the world. The music is fantastic and also gives you a feel of the culture in a small way as you play. Many would consider the graphics to be rather weak, as they are merely illustrations. In this source's opinion, sometimes graphics are not the only reason to play games. I do not know who their artists were, but the illustrations for this game were absolutely awesome!

I suddenly have this great desire to go find a Crunch bar. Before I do, I would highly recommend this game to anyone who likes to think on their feet. It's fast, furious and requires that you keep mental notes as you go, making it also for a great thinking person's game.

If you would like to know more, just hop on the Internet and type in Chocolatier 3 and there is a multitude of places for information that you can find about it. If you're looking to purchase the game and want it at a good price ($9.99 and no shipping cost), visit www.ifungames.com.

Enjoy!