REVIEW : Shakes on a Plane (PC)
Shakes on a Plane is a multiplayer arcade game developed by Huu Games and published by Assemble Entertainment. For a long time, I’ve been looking for a game different from the usual combat versions of the same battlegrounds. The gaming industry needed a break from the usual ones. Recently, there has been a rise in games that offer day to day experience with an online platform.
Shakes on a plane place you in a lavish flight with you being one of the flight attendants. You will be controlled by aliens with a motto of winning the universal version of MasterChef and are on the lookout for humans and their culinary skills. You will face a lot of chaos while serving the demanding passengers with their huge orders. Also, there’s turbulence, snakes, and dangerous trolleys to contend with for some additional tasks.
In Shakes on a Plane, you can choose among four characters when you first start the game. You can play in a group of four in co-op mode using a single joy-con apiece or a controller. You can even play this alone by switching among the players using the shoulder buttons. It is advised to play this in a team rather than going solo. As a flight attendant, your role is to serve food in more dangerous and explosive settings.
As we all know, the food available in an aeroplane is merely a disappointment; it makes the audience question the setting and tasks. You will be in a different plane on each level with different seat configurations and settings. There will be a kitchen set-up where all the food is kept. Initially, these orders will be somewhat simple, with the passengers just ordering water and coffee. Still, new mechanics are added with each level, requiring players to adapt and learn new skills and proficiencies while mastering those learned in previous levels. Shakes on a Plane isn’t extremely inventive, so you’ll be familiar with it if you’ve played a similar food-themed game before.
Each level’s objective is to fill as many passenger requests as possible before the timer runs out. You only have a certain amount of time to execute each order, so keeping passengers pleased is critical to achieving that three-star rating. You will be bombarded with varied orders, confusing and new seat arrangements and challenging hazards. You will even clean the aeroplanes once the plane is empty. The tutorials are long and boring for even the easy mechanics, and you can skip them entirely. You can even revisit something in case you forget.
The game provides little impressive tasks like you must match passengers and bags before parachuting them out in a natural hazard. Every character has the same responsibilities, but each has a unique skill that can be employed to help them complete their goal. An extraterrestrial character’s Speed ability can be activated, allowing him to do chores faster. A character with devilish looks can frighten passengers into returning to their seats. The pilot captain can throw objects. A robotic character can change into a protective block, keeping them from being disabled by the numerous perils encountered during the trip.
All these tasks are fun and fascinating, but in succeeding levels, you will be thrown with similar stuff, making you confused about what to do. This can be annoying and exasperating. Sometimes you will be expected to do tasks that are almost impossible to be performed within that time frame. You cannot restart the game, and that is weird. The game asks you stupid questions several times. And one thing which seemed odd to me is that there is no warning regarding the timer, and it does not remind you of how much time is left, and if you do not complete the roles, then the screen fades. The player is not given any indication of how orders are scored in the game.
These irritating elements and mechanics appeared to mount up, resulting in a frustrating experience in which we were ranting about the issues with the game rather than enjoying it. Difficulties and obstacles are vital in any game, but there should be a balance that was missing in this one. The scoring system was unknown to us, making it impossible for us to learn from our mistakes or know where we were going wrong. The risk to reward ratio was absent and did not satisfy as much.
The visuals are pretty great, and the planes are designed like the actual ones. Though all the seats are very distant, it seems like it is following some social distancing protocol. The walkway is tapered, and the customers will sometimes get in your way. At times of turbulence, you might completely fall and get captivated. The cartoon style setting looks appealing. Even the dishes and drinks are well designed. So, in my opinion, proceed towards this plane with extreme caution as there is a very extreme lack of content, and it needs improvisation. The gameplay is exceedingly simplistic outside of the basic campaign mode, with very little variation.
