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Definatly a keeper....(Go buy it!!)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well, what can I say about Restraunt Empire? Bored one day, I picked it up after looking at pictures from the game. The pictures were definatly stunning, and the idea was awsome, original, and just sweet. Controls are easy to manuver with nice looking windows to navagate. Once you work through the tutorials on the story line, things are great. I especially love the "cook offs". Finally an Iron Chief type deal!! Great fun!! Two modes of play, Story or Sandbox (sandbox starts you from scratch to make your own restruant) it has potential for hours and hours of enjoyment. If you like Sim games, Please, pick this up, it is WELL worth it. Are your skills good enough to cook?? :)

Awesome!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Restaurant Empire is the management game where you design and manage your own restaurant.
You can design a restaurant from 5 main themes - seafood, steakhouse, French, Italian and music.

You have complete control over the look of your restaurant - you can choose the floor and wall styles, add interior items, new rooms and choose what your restaurant looks like from the outside.

You can choose from a wide variety of meals, drinks and deserts to add to your menu, and can even customize the look of your menu! (Font included).

Graphically, think the Sims only better! Where in the Sims you could only rotate four times and were limited to a few zooms, in Restaurant Empire, you can rotate 360 degrees, zoom in and out freely and tilt the camera!

The game comes with a sandbox mode (free game, build a restaurant from scratch) and mission based game with over a dozen scenarios.

Well worth buying.

A winner of a business sim

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Being a long ago fan of Enlight's Capitalism Plus from several years back and of Iron Chef, it didn't take much for this game to get my attention. Thankfully, it met the potential the concept and the company suggested.
Restaurant Empire starts you out with a single restaurant and gives you the chance to create a business empire from there. Overall, it's a business sim, but you get to focus on more than the core of the business sim -- prices, costs and profits. You are in charge of laying out your restaurants, something that affects the performance of your restaurant greatly. You also need to watch your restaurant(s) and keep and eye for where problems are appearing.
RE strikes a good balance in that at the beginning of the game there's a lot of micromanagement but that lessens as you get more to do. This works well as rarely do you have too little or too much to do.
The story mode includes easy to follow (too easy at times)turtorials that progress slowly, making learning the game a snap.
Restaurant Empire is another strong business sim from Enlight.

Very good sim -- but not perfect.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 164 / 169
Date: June 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Maybe not perfect, but I'd still buy it again.

Here are the pros:

* Campaign mode is not impossible to complete. With some other games like almost all the versions of SimCity, I find it almost impossible to successfully complete their demands, but with Restaurant Empire, it's much easier. In fact, it may be a little too easy. See "cons" below.

* Graphics are great. Not stunning, but great.

* Graphics *control* is fabulous. Best in any game I've ever played. You can rotate the game in a smooth, continuous motion. You can tilt your view from about 15 degrees above horizontal to straight overhead. You can zoom in and out effortlessly. I've never had so much control over my view in a game. Wonderful!

* Plot is cute. You're going to be the wonderboy of the culinary world, out to save the world from the evil OmniFood corporation, known for cheating in the food contests and genetically modifying their food.

Cons:

* Campaign may be a little too easy. In the beginning of the game, it sets goals that are very challenging. Having your fledgling restaurant make $40,000 in a month, for example, is incredibly difficult with the resources you have at that point. However, once you get past step 5 or 6 (in an 18-scenario campaign), it gets much easier. In fact, I started losing on purpose to build up cash for the next step - and on one or two occasions, I won anyway, without even meaning to. A little frustrating.

* There are a few annoying stereotypes to deal with. The mobster from Italy... well, he speaks-a in-a very annoying-a way-a, if you get my drift. But that's nothing compared to the black chef who is supposed to be from Louisiana, but speaks likes he's from South Central, "homey". And there's only one woman in the game, and she's demure and waffle-y, letting your character tell her to do whatever you want. She's only too happy to do what you tell her, but only if you promise you think she's capable. Not a huge con, but annoying enough to get me to save my game and quit every once in a while.

* There's not as much control as some people would like. I, for one, would have liked a recipe interface where I could add ingredients to certain recipes (or even create my own), or similarly tinker. As it stands, you can only change the quality of ingredients or decide whether or not to use optional ingredients. I understand there would be a lot more programming involved if one were able to create recipes, but I'm one who likes micromanagement. I also missed the ability to tailor my training program - the only thing you can do at this point is put a specific amount of money towards training in general. You can't target specific staff members (i.e., newly hired personnel).

* Lastly, there's only one campaign! Sure, it's long. Sure, you can change the way you play and either draw it out (and make loads of cash) or see how fast you can complete it. But in the long run, it's still the same things you have to acheive to finish, and that could get boring really fast.

All in all, this is a very good game. Much better than my previous restaurant sim, Fast Food Tycoon 2. And here are two gameplay hints for those of you who decide to purchase it:

1. There's a website for the game...Go there and download a patch for the game - it'll fix some of the minor problems and improve some aspects that needed tweaking. However, you have to follow this order: Install game from cd. Input cd code from back of jewel case. *Then* install the patch. Otherwise, your cd code won't work, and you'll have to start over.

2. Close any programs you may have running in the background, such as AIM or another messenger program. I had a few problems with the game freezing up on me, and only if I had all my background programs stopped was I guaranteed a problem-free game.

Enjoy!

FUN!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 16
Date: July 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I can't emphasize enough how much sheer FUN this game is. Yes, the graphics aren't the greatest and the storyline is a bit clunky. I am disappointed by the almost total lack of female chefs (kind of unrealistic in this day and age). The objects you place in your restaurant are limited and difficult to maneuver, and you can't shape and control your characters like you can in The Sims.

But the game is a lot less expensive and a lot more FUN than anything else I've played in years. I don't have a particular interest in restaurants, and I don't play tons of sim games, but this one has plenty of elements to keep any gamer interested. It's fast moving, not terribly difficult, with lots of things to watch (your cooks cooking, diners dining, etc.) and lots of ways to tinker with your restaurants to improve them.

Before you play, install the patch and make sure to turn off all other programs, including your firewall if you have one. After I did this, no more crashes. Very stable game. This is a great game; get it.

Very Solid Game - Hours of fun and addictive gameplay

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Enlight Software did a fine job with this title. The game is very fun and rather addictive at first. It's also a game that you will be able to finish within a period of time that is acceptable to an adult that might not have all that much free time. I vasilated on purchasing the game at first, but now it ranks right up there. Enjoy.

Bad

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 23
Date: July 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It looks like it was made for an older people, however older people usualy don't play these kinds of games. I think it should be designed for teens or kids because those are the people who will buy this game.

A better-than-average management simulation

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 23 / 25
Date: July 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

While some software companies seem to be generating cheap, poorly designed management simulations with little lasting appeal, Enlight Interactive has done a good job creating Restaurant Empire. The game has two modes: a sandbox mode for freeform play, and a campaign mode that consists of a set of scenarios with predefined goals. In both modes, the goal is to design and run a profitable restaurant or series of restaurants while satisfying the customers. Users can lay out rooms and furniture, hire staff, and design menus. While the game's graphics are not aestheitically appealing, the gameplay is fairly good. The user interface is straightforward for the most part, although it can be troublesome when moving furniture and rooms. New options become available as progress is made through the campaign, so the user is presented with stimulating new challenges and creative opportunities in every scenario. The goals for the campaign mode may be a little too easy, but only a little. The storyline for the campaign mode, however, is very entertaining; this was the first computer game I had played that featured a character with a prostate condition. The major drawbacks, aside from the blander-than-average graphics, are that the menu requires too much micromanagement and the staff cannot be managed well to imrpove efficiency, even with a patch that introduces some new options. Nonetheless, the game's positive values outweigh the game's drawbacks, making this a good game for people interested in nonviolent games and management simulations.

Great game but serious bugs

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: August 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I downloaded the demo for this game and was hooked! Some of the best graphics I've ever seen for a game. I couldn't wait to go out and buy it. I got the game home and could not install it. I checked all the system requirements. It took some time for Tech Support to call me. After about a week, I found out the copy protection program is not compatiable with my computer. Since that time, I've found that MANY other people are having the same problems and our only options are to mail the game to the company in HONG KONG to receive the disk that will work as the stores will not refund our money for an opened game. The game itself is GREAT and one of the best simulation games I've seen...however, it's got some serious bugs. It may or may not work on your computer. You'll just have to take a chance!

Great for playing when you're SUPPOSED to be doing your H.W.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: August 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

***REVIEW BASED ON DEMO***

Here's why I think it's great for playing when you have homework to do - you have to let it run a lot! Set it, forget it, and do your homework. The contests are fun. The waiting is not.

Graphics: 2/5. They aren't slow-computer-friendly.

Sound: 1/5. Not much there.

Gameplay: Varies. Can go from 1/5 during the waiting to 10/5 during the heat of a contest.

Overall: Varies. Can go from 2/5 during the waiting to 11/5 during the heat of a contest.

It's a very volatile game. You win some contests, you lose some.

This is PSDuckie, signing out.

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