Coffee Rush 2 Time Management Game Review

Atom Entertainment (formerly AtomShockwave)

December 25th, 2011

Arwen Taylor

Rating:

I had the opportunity to play Coffee Rush 2 and immediately regretted turning on the game because it was so addictive to play. Coffee Rush 2 is a time management/match-3 hybrid casual game. The game play is fast paced but interesting, and the built-in achievement system guarantees you will play this game a second time just to see if you can unlock more trophies.

Coffee Rush 2 Storyline

The Coffee Rush 2 time management game is the sequel to Coffee Rush 1. The story line is exactly the same as the first game. An evil corporation called Smokestack Coffee has built a chain of coffee shops that sell low-quality, high-priced coffee. They’ve destoyed competition, so the residents of the city have to buy coffee from Smokestack.

You decide to take a stand against this polluting and greedy mega corporation by building your own coffee chain. You have two helpers who guild you through the game and provide tips on how to maximize your earnings.

I was really surprised that Coffee Rush 2 revisited the same storyline as the first game in the series. Somehow Smokestack resurrected itself after being desecrated in Coffee Rush 1. I felt this was a cop-out on the part of the developers. The least they could have done was come up with a plausible explanation as to why all of your hard work in the first game went to waste.

Coffee Rush 2 Game Play

The primary game of Coffee Rush 2 is the match 3 game. Your goal is to fill the customer’s coffee orders by matching the ingredients on the board. The amount of money you make from each customer depends on how long it takes you to get all of the ingredients together.

The game is timed in two ways. First, the store is open for a set number of hours, during which you have to help as many people as you possibly can. Second, the customer loses a certain amount of “patience” for each second he or she has to wait or the order. The longer the wait time, the less money you receive for the order. To be successful at this game, you must have quick eyes and a fast finger.

You can increase the amount of the order by adding a sandwich, salad, or both to the customer’s order. Additionally, you can increase the customer’s level of patience (and the amount of money they give you) by feeding the person a donut or a cupcake.

In between the match 3 games, there are cut scenes, mini match 3 games, and puzzles. However, all of the mini games were pretty much the same and became very repetitive after awhile.

In this iteration of Coffee Rush, there is a trophy room where your actions in the game unlock achievements. Although it didn’t affect the game play in anyway, I liked this a lot because it provided something concrete to strive for. Without the trophy room Coffee Rush 2 is just an aimless match 3 game.

Coffee Rush 2

In the beginning I didn’t have any trouble playing Coffee Rush 2. Towards the end, though, the game started to lag quite a bit which affected game play. A few times the game wouldn’t respond to my clicks. It also started to take a long time to send the orders out and collect the money. It became frustrating to play. However, my computer is a few years old and filled with lots of other computer games, so YMMV.

Overall Impression of Coffee Rush 2

I’m not a big fan of timed games. In fact, I don’t like deadlines of any kind. I prefer RPGs and hidden object adventure games where I can play at my leisure. Time management games are new to me, so I found Coffee Rush 2 to be challenging mainly because I’m not used to this type of game play. I will say, though, that playing the game has helped alleviate some of the anxiety I usually feel about timed tasks.

It’s obvious to me, though, that Coffee Rush 2 does not present any type of challenge to veterans of the genre. Additionally, there is nothing “new” about this game besides the trophy room. If you have played the original Coffee Rush game, then you have pretty much played Coffee Rush 2.

Despite its flaws, I found Coffee Rush 2 to be a strangely addictive game. It could have been the rush of excitement I felt when I managed to hit the goals and unlock trophies that kept me clicking through level after level. Although time management veterans will probably find the game monotonous to play, I think Coffee Rush 2 is a great introductory game for newbies like me. I find it provides the right amount of excitement and incentive to play.

However, because of the game’s flaws, I can only give it 2 out of 5 stars.