The original Chocolatier was a delightful business simulation/micromanagement game revolving around chocolate. The sequel slightly improved the formula by adding some extra features, and a third installment of the series is now available. How does it hold up compared to the existing Chocolatier titles?
Chocolatier: Decadence by Design is essentially the same business simulation. You begin by managing one factory, controlling its production, buying ingredients, selling products and fulfilling requests from chocolate lovers all over the world.
The recipe book has vastly increased, containing not only recipes for chocolate bars, but for coffees, infusions, truffles, coffee blends, exotics (rare recipes that use expensive ingredients) and your own creations. Of course, you unlock recipes as you progress and are awarded slots in the Creations menu for your own tasty combinations.
To create a recipe, you must go to the Secret Test Kitchen and experiment with flavors until you and the researchers are happy with it. Then, you can customize the look of your product in the Marketing tab with elements such as colors, sprinkles, filing on chocolates, amount of cream on coffee, name your creation and save it to the recipe book. The only flaw with this system is that once you have saved it you can’t get rid of it to replace the recipe with a new one.
The markets have a haggle option, but the result depends on how you talk to the merchants and their mood. You may get a good deal, you may get charged more, or maybe nothing will happen. Either way, it adds an extra element to play with.
Purchasing items and finding the best deals is not as hard anymore. When I played the original Chocolatier, I used to take notes to remember where to buy what at the best price. Now, mousing over an ingredient will tell you where it was seen last and at what price. Quite handy!
Most of the recipes are created by playing the spinning mini-game in the production line. You aim the ingredients at the spinning discs, filling them with the right combination to produce a case. Match the color to produce extra cases. This at times becomes quite complicated, especially with more expensive recipes, and made me dizzy on several occasions.
When I moved on to coffee production, I was presented with a “match three” type of game. There are ingredients scattered on a conveyor belt, and you must throw the ones given to you and make groups of three or more to clear them. The more you clear, the higher your production rate.
But there are also a couple of games that have nothing to do with production and are just there for fun. The casino in Havana has a slot machine where you can test your luck, and another game where you open boxes and earn the amount shown in them… except if you open a joker, then you lose instantly. It helps break the pace of the micromanagement for a little while.
Your goal is to eventually take over all the factories available in the world, which will keep you extremely busy hunting for deals, purchasing ingredients and keeping all factories running and producing whatever is needed for your current quests, as well as making profit to be able to afford all that traveling.
In the end, I enjoyed the third Chocolatier. I can easily get lost in the micromanagement gameplay, and forget about the world. The best feature is definitely being able to create your own recipes and have them become part of the story, but unfortunately we aren’t able to share or exchange them with other players. And although it is essentially the same as it was before with a few new additions, Decadence by Design ends up being a great successor in the Chocolatier series.
Special thanks to Gene Miguel and Playfirst for providing a copy of this title.
Download Chocolatier 3 on Steam.
