Bronzebeard's Tavern Review
Serve, cook, manage and brawl your way through the busiest of dwarven diners in this free multiplayer co-op experience!
last updated Dec 30, 2023
If you can muster the friends, Bronzebeard's Tavern will serve you a hearty helping of cooperation, fun, and maybe a food fight or two.
A Recipe for Mayhem
Dive into the dwarven dining drama with Bronzebeard’s Tavern, where free doesn’t mean short on fun. Simulating the adrenaline-pumping chaos of restaurant management, this game is like Overcooked on steroids and has players scrambling across various roles, from cooking up a storm to tangling with unruly patrons. While minor quibbles over item handling - like a clunky storage box interaction - are a dash of frustration, the frenzied pleasure of co-operative gameplay sticks the landing. It channels the Overcooked formula, but sprinkles extra spice with elements like brawling skeletons and multiplayer shenanigans for up to eight players, demanding communication, coordination, and a sprinkle of crisis management.
Echoes and Odes of the Tavern
The audio experience in Bronzebeard's Tavern is a well-blended cocktail of medieval merriment and clamorous kitchen sounds. The riffs and hearty tavern tunes set the perfect tone for a bustling fantasy eatery, while the clangs and chaos of culinary endeavors provide an immersive ambiance. Though there's an occasional silent moment where action feels strangely muted, for the most part, the soundscape is an aural feast that enriches the hectic gameplay. The attention to audio detail, like the distinct hails of goblin customers, adds a layer of personality to the game - though sometimes one might wish for a jukebox function to give recruits the right to DJ as they deep fry.
Visual Flair but Mind Your Performance
Graphics have a charm as if they've been marinated in whimsy and seasoned with a touch of fantasy. The restaurant radiates warmth with its inviting design and the diverse customer base is a delightful caricature of a fantasy alehouse. Performance, however, has been seen hiccupping like a drunken dwarf at times - with glitches that temporarily turn your character into a possession-defying statue facing one direction. Visual clutter can also become an issue when the establishment brims with hustling patrons, making it tough to see who ordered that dragon-wing stew.
Multiplayer Merriment with Some Solo Salt
Bronzebeard's Tavern is a place best filled with a robust crowd of friends, thriving on cooperative play that gets the ale flowing and the laughs rolling. Solo players may find themselves in a troublesome tangle as the game's designed chaos can feel like a one-man-band trying to play a symphony; a few more slices of solo content or scaling could help here. Those who crave challenge might see the tavern's management as a golden opportunity to test relationships: The potential for cooperation - or spectacular disaster - is vast, especially when tackling special customers or power outages.
Of Bugs and Balance
It's free, but that doesn't excuse the frequent crash-induced headaches or the occasional in-game bug that sends a dwarf into a fit of inaction. Player wishes for bubbles showing customer orders makes it clear that finding a patron for their pickled troll toes can sometimes resort to eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Also, while the current progression system is satisfying, seasoned veterans can find themselves with more gold than a dragon’s hoard and nothing to spend it on, suggesting a need for future content to keep the figurative kitchen fires burning.
A fellowship of fries and fights
In a well-spiced camaraderie concoction, it’s not all about the food, but the fights and follies along the way. Being crowned employee of the day may cost you a friend or two, especially after a heated kitchen brawl, but isn't that what memories are made of? While attention to mechanisms for two players or minor quality of life improvements could elevate the perfect brew, the foundation is set for a fantastic frolic through dwarven hospitality.
STEAM RATING
Developer & Publisher
The Mermaid MenZ
Release Date
November 30, 2023
The Final Bill
Bronzebeard's Tavern is a delightful mix up of frantic fantasy fare, bringing out the camaraderie of a chaotic kitchen and the charm of magical clientele. Slight glitches and the need for more content are merely minor detractions in an otherwise free, engaging, and addictive tavern turmoil that punches well above its weight. If you can muster the friends, Bronzebeard's Tavern will serve you a hearty helping of cooperation, fun, and maybe a food fight or two. If cooking up chaos with companions is your idea of a good time, this tavern’s doors are wide open.
