Disclaimer
I was sent a free copy of Best Served Cold to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review.
Shameless Self-Promotions
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What is Best Served Cold?
Best Served Cold is a detective mystery novel out now on Steam.
You are a skilled barkeep in one of the city’s illegal speakeasy’s. There is a general danger around your line of work during prohibition. One that is amplified by the pretense of a serial killer. Someone is hunting down patrons of these establishments, and the race is on to find out who. You have been contracted to help in this investigation. Use your position, charm, and skill as a barkeep to interrogate the patrons and find leads. What mysteries will your investigation uncover? Can you find the killer before its too late?
Gameplay
The loop in Best Served Cold is an interesting twist on the genre. Players will talk to patrons during their shift, and try to find the right combination of answers and questions to unlock the appropriate clues. The twist are the mechanics tied to the bartender position. Players will have to figure out the perfect drink to serve each patron, and mix it perfectly. The mixing mini game is simple. Players trace a pattern thematic to the drink before time runs out. Choosing the perfect drink and making it perfect makes the clients more inclined to talk. There are questions in this game that will only get answers if the customer is drunk enough. This is such a flavorful mechanic, and one that adds a bit of strategy to break up all the reading. Not the reading is bad by any means.
Review
If you are looking for something new to play, check out Best Served Cold. Best Served Cold is a well written visual novel with fantastic characters and a solid mystery. People who read a lot of the genre can figure out the mystery, but it is still worth the read. I had a lot of fun meeting each unique character, figuring out their favorite drink, and the mixing minigame was relaxing. The game also has a fantastic sound track for an unmatched cozy vibe.
My only complaint is that the game is unplayable on the Steam Deck. I might have been doing something wrong, but I couldn’t get the pin-up board to work. Trying to connect everything with yarn felt like more work than it was worth, at least the few times I actually got it work. This isn’t a deal breaker because it works great on PC, but I want to be able to read my mystery visual novels from the comfort of my bed.
Better Served Cold is a great story with amazing flavor that you need to play through once. There is a lot of reading, but the reading is fine and it comes in English, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I think you will too.
You can pick up Better Served Cold on Steam for