Cook or Be Cooked Review (PC)

Forget dog eat dog; it’s witch eat human, apparently. In Cook or Be Cooked, animalistic tendencies carry over into cannibalistic rituals and grotesque cultural norms, morbid curiosities and flesh-addled fine dining. Yet, beneath these disturbingly unorthodox practices stands just the one wayward spirit—a young witch who, unlike their cannibal kin, launders a moral compass that knows right from wrong. It’s with this young conflicted saint where we begin our journey into a morally ambiguous world in which family ties manipulate the status quo, and the blood of ilk runs much thicker than water.

Cook or Be Cooked takes us into the barbaric depths of a morally twisted society—a culture in which teens feed the bellies of sadistic witches, and a fledgling son yearns to emerge from the bloody shackles of their parents’ dismal obsession to feed another curiosity. What, say, would happen if a meal was passed up? If a teen—a rather relatable teen, at that—wound up on the serving plate one evening, would it be possible to resist the temptation to cook a few limbs? Would doing so abolish your parents’ trust? Questions, with oh-so-many answers—answers that you, of all people, are required to unearth, even if it stains your moral code.

The game itself plays out like a traditional 2D visual novel, with dialogue and choices acting as two formal crutches for the narrative and gameplay mechanics. Embedded within all of this idles an odd yet instantly recognizable moral and relatable coming-of-age tale. What is life without love? What is love without a few brutal murders?

Cooking With Morality

Cook or Be Cooked slumps us into the shoes of a teen who, in an effort to sever the ties between his parents and his own moral values, decides to embark on a somewhat noble journey to bend the boundaries of his own personal beliefs. With a young teen’s mortality hanging in the balance, the divisive protagonist begins to raise all the right questions, all whilst maintaining his traditional identity as a cannibal-in-training. A new dawn yearns for change, but only one unlikely hero wants to move with the tide.

A visual novel at heart, Cook or Be Cooked unfolds in a similar fashion as a lot of choice-driven stories. In addition to having to choose between dialogue options and character arcs, the game also invites you to dip your cursor into various mini-games and, well, morbid cooking challenges. But that’s a small part in an otherwise protein-loaded narrative. Alas, the mini-games aren’t what drive this experience; it’s the art of defiance and self discovery, star-crossed romance and dated family values.

Cook or Be Cooked isn’t with the gift of longevity or the breadth of a visually intoxicating diorama, though it does come clean with plenty of fantastic elements, including a sombre atmosphere and a good sense of entry-level creepiness. It also makes a commendable effort to flesh out its relatively short lifespan with a solid bouquet of ultimatums and deadly climaxes, tailorable endings and moral-driven dilemmas. Granted, it doesn’t always get everything right, but it does make it so that the avenues you take and the life or death penalties you enact bear some form of moral consequence. And I think, after all due consideration, Cook or Be Cooked finds a good balance with all of this in its casket.

To Eat or Not to Eat

The world itself doesn’t come with a huge amount of landmarks to explore, though it does offer something of a thematically apt manor that houses a plethora of rooms and curious characters for you to discover. To add, it stuffs a surprisingly large chunk of challenges into its world, with cooking and witchcraft being two pivotal gameplay aspects that make up a fairly large portion of the journey and extracurricular pastimes. To be clear, it doesn’t capture anything particularly new or unique, though it does provide some workable features that fit the context rather nicely. That’s a good thing, truly.

With all of the above said, I’d say that Cook or Be Cooked is a genuinely striking visual novel that brings a lot of great ideas to the meat grinder. I can’t bring myself to say that it’s a perfect game, or even that it has the potential to stand out as a benchmark setter for the genre. Yet, beneath all of its minor flaws and lack of originality, Cook or Be Cooked has a little something special that ought to be celebrated. It’s cute, albeit somewhat grizzly, yet a surprisingly good time all around, weirdly. Maybe that’s enough.

Verdict

Cook or Be Cooked makes for a compelling visual novel of woe and wonder, acceptance and rebellious love, all whilst conveying a powerful message to entice you to ponder the big questions. Is life worth living if it’s to appease your parents’ darkest traditions? Can you stand on your own two feet without slandering the family crest? Is one living soul more important than a hereditary pastime? Suffice it to say that, for a rather small visual novel with a lot of missing teeth, Cook or Be Cooked brings about some provoking crossroads, and thankfully, goes as far as to back them up with all sorts of choices and narrative-altering moments to keep you questioning your moral compass.

While Cook or Be Cooked does have a couple of loose screws here and there, the game itself does indeed conjure an enjoyable choice-driven experience that waxes some great elements and touches on some familiar themes and ultimatums. My only gripe, really, is that it doesn’t accommodate a useful save feature that allows you the flexibility to return to critical points to alter your ending. It’s a small thing, yet a burden all the same.

Having said all of the above, Cook or Be Cooked is a great palate cleanser that will no doubt put you in the mood for some seasonal festivities. It won’t fill your stomach, but it’ll certainly make you think twice about the “treats” that you mindlessly shovel into your gullet.