My favorite type of games on our Meta Quest 2 has been games that allow us to create. I have, for example, spent a lot of time in Job Simulator, creating different foods for customers who are waiting. It’s an easy, almost mindless game aimed at children. So, when we found Startenders, I was excited to play a game with a bit more challenge.
Startenders is a bartending game where you have been mistakenly abducted by aliens (something about the robot AI mistaking Earth with Arth and picking you up for training). This is apparently really bad, and if the aliens actually find out you are from Earth, they will likely kill you. So instead, you need to do your job well and make sure you don’t stand out too much so that nobody knows that you’re not from the right place.
This story comes and goes, with lots of campaign levels in between the interaction, to keep you busy. Startenders has a pretty large-sized bar and is a game that could be played sitting on your couch (which I appreciate!). You can lower and higher your counters by literally pulling them up, which is much better than picking between a few set heights, as you can make it perfect.
You’ll need to thumb up gesture to take their order, which is then displayed on a screen above their heads. This also, thankfully, shows the order in which you should do stuff. Often, there are a lot of steps for drinks. You’ll need to wash the cup, dip the brush into the water for next time, bring up machines, bring down different areas of liquids, add a variety of stuff to the cube, add garnishes, maybe even freeze them — it’s a lot to do. And a lot of the time, you are going to need to know where everything is, as you will get a bigger tip the faster you are. And if you are too slow in Startenders, you will find yourself losing.
Startenders is more than just the bartending campaign though, outside of the cockpit of the ship, there is actually a wider world to explore. You can teleport around, playing mini-games like anti-gravity basketball or darts, if you want. Occasionally, the stuff in your bar breaks, and you will need to create new models by welding in the welding station or pick up new items from your mail area that you have purchased or unlocked. If you want new ingredients, you can order them, though ordering a lot at once does make it much more challenging as a startender.
This menu area is quite big, and although it is easy to teleport around, I find it a bit confusing when it came to actually finding where to go. There are tons of seemingly pointless areas (like the shower) that don’t seem to actually be needed. These areas, when teleporting around, did tend to confuse me as everything looks quite similar and there was no tutorial introducing each section. I often found myself a bit lost, wondering where I should go next or how to get to the campaign.
Startenders also has an endless mode though; if you want to go until you make too many aliens mad. When in the game, there is often a lot of variety in the drinks ordered, which does keep you on your toes. There are also a lot of machines, which opens up a lot of options to cycle through. It does take a lot of space for a game that doesn’t see you moving much, but it is a fun game if you do have the area for it. It’s a fun, challenging game that feels really well paced for teens and adults who like a bit of putting drinks together.
Startenders is avaliable on Playstation, PC and Quest.
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