Freshly Frosted | Xbox Review
Have you ever wanted to work in a factory that seems to have an almost never ending supply of chaos-inducing moments? Well, now you can with Freshly Frosted! An interesting little puzzle game from the developers over at The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild, which I might add is one of the best company names ever. So, strap on your aprons and let’s take a look at why this could be a game for you.
Beginning With The Recipe
Freshly Frosted is a puzzle game in the style of Pipe Dreams, but ramped up to new heights. The concept is simple, as the head of this fever dream of a factory your job is simple: make some pastries. However, to do this is a logistical nightmare. You have to construct a conveyor belt section by section that moves through all the machines in the process for the ultimate goal of beautiful automation. With each new area of the game, the area of play grows and also throws new twists at you.
Increasing Demand
Some of the new mechanics are simple like adding a new type of pastry to be delivered to the end of the line. Yet, some are maddening in the sense of making sure to deliver the pastries in a specific order. In the beginning, it’s not too hard and the difficulty curve is great. Teaching you new ways to layout your factory and how to utilize the space perfectly for efficiency. Some of my favorite parts are floor sections that force the conveyor belt to only move in one direction, forcing a chess-like mentality. Leaving you with the only option of looking 5-10 moves down the line to make sure you don’t have a failure in your line. Later levels seem almost insurmountable, but once you have your conveyor course laid out the feeling of satisfaction is insane.
Occasional Burnt One
While Freshly Frosted isn’t the prettiest game to look at, there are many players, myself included, who will find a sense of comfort watching the screen. Once you finish each level the machines turn on and you can sit back and watch. The cadence of doughnuts and tarts as they travel along the screen is sometimes mesmerizing in its own right. Also the background music is soothing, and at times almost lulls you into a sense of false security. One of the worst feelings this game creates is when you test your layout and you have a failure at the last second, causing you to step back and rethink it all over again.
Taking It Out of the Oven
For every player that likes games like Freshly Frosted, there is bound to be a player that does not. This style of game is definitely not for everyone. I would also recommend not just tossing someone in the middle of a game section. I watched first hand as a friend of mine stared at the screen in horror, trying to figure out how to survive. If a player did not start from the beginning and isn’t familiar with this style of gameplay, they will become lost quickly and frustrated. At a few points, I had to walk away and relax due to the difficulty of some of the later levels.
Final Touches
Freshly Frosted is a game that scratches an itch for spatial puzzle enthusiasts. Personally, I love this style of game and know full well it’s not for everyone. While the difficulty curve does have a great pace, a few levels did seem to be out of place and overly difficult. Yet, despite this I did come back and keep working at each level till I was able to figure it out. Freshly Frosted is overall a fun game and there are a lot of levels to keep a player busy for sometime. If you want to try a puzzle game and are new to the genre it’s a good starting point, just know going in you will be challenged at times.
To hear me talk more about Freshly Frosted, be sure to listen to Episode 400 of The Gaming Outsider podcast around the 01:36:50 time stamp.
This review is based on an Xbox copy of Freshly Frosted provided by Quantum Astrophysicists Guild for coverage purposes. It is also available on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.
Freshly Frosted
$9.99
Pros
- Great Puzzles
- Mesmerizing at Times
Cons
- Can Be Harder Than Anticipated at Times
- So Many Doughnuts
