Everything in its Place, Including the Gamerscore
Fit and Fry: Mise en Place is the third game in the Fit and Fry series that is produced and published by Afil Games. These are casual puzzle games that task the player with arranging a variety of food items into a haphazard grid, until every single spot is filled.
Quick fun fact, Mise en Place is a French culinary expression that means everything in its place, which can also be understood as ‘putting in place’. Which is the most on the nose name I have seen for a game in a while.
The first two games in this little series (the original Fit and Fry, and then the follow-up, Fit and Fry: Organized Chef) are essentially identical games. In the first two games each level is laid out with a grid for food to be placed within. Around that grid, the different food objects are placed randomly and every single piece of food needs to be placed into the grid to complete the level.
These first two games also have the option to request a hint for placing the next piece of food, as well as an option to reset the level to clear all placed items.
Cleaning Up the Culinary UI
For the most part, Fit and Fry: Mise en Place follows the same formula once again, but there is one noticeable change. In Mise en Place, instead of the food being placed randomly around the board, there is a hot bar across the bottom of the screen. All the food objects are placed in that hot bar, consolidating each like piece into one box with a quantity listed.
This isn’t a major change compared to the first two games, but it does clean up the screen quite a bit during gameplay. It also helps prevent pieces of food getting lost in the background. It wasn’t a big issue in the first game, but some of the food items that were a single block were small and easy to miss depending on where the game placed them on the screen. This hot bar avoids that issue.
Multiple Solutions for a Simpler Service
Overall this would be seen as a net positive to the game. However, the other change made to the formula in Mise en Place is a small challenge that is introduced in each level. These challenges are called ‘Custom Orders’, which is simply a request to use a specific amount, or more, of an ingredient. For example, one level may have three cucumbers as items that can be placed, and the challenge may be to use at least two of those items to complete the level. Using three is also acceptable, but you wouldn’t get the bonus star unless at least two are used.
This means there are multiple solutions to the puzzle, and there are other items that may be easier to place in the level. This results in making the entire game easier than the first two in the series; even though those two were already super easy completions. Completing these custom orders doesn’t increase the difficulty of most levels by much.
So while the improved user interface is a good thing, the challenges effectively make the game even easier, when the overall difficulty was already low.
This is where the differences end between Mise en Place and the first two Fit and Fry games. Beyond that, the options to use hints and restart the level are still present and the icons are still the same as they were.
The music and graphics feel the same, and the experience closely follows that of everything we have played before.
6000G in Two Hours: The Achievement Hunter’s Triptych
One other positive though is that Mise en Place continues the theme of offering 2000 Gamerscore for less than 30 minutes work, boosting things by a respectable amount. If played with the first two games, players can add 6000GS to their profile in under two hours. Of course, that means sitting through three nearly identical puzzle games, which even at an hour and a half of time feels like it’s dragging on.
Part of the issue with these achievements, which I think show the issue of the game as a whole, is that each game features achievements that require the player to use the restart feature a number of times. One achievement for using it 10 times, another for using it 20 times, and this feels counterintuitive to what an achievement in a game should be. Achievements are supposed to be challenges, and restarting levels is the exact opposite of beating a challenge. It’s a reward for struggling at the game, and for most players these restarts won’t occur organically.
Other achievements require the player to beat levels in under a minute, which makes more sense; it’s actually a challenge and shows a level of player skill. More achievements like this, or more difficult levels, even as optional ones, would help improve the game so it doesn’t feel as tedious.
Identical Ingredients for a Quick Completion
This is something every entry in the series faces. I struggle to see this being overly difficult for even the youngest gamer, let alone anyone else. And even in instances where it is slightly more difficult, the hint feature removes that challenge entirely.
Like the first two games in the series, Fit and Fry: Mise en Place feels like a purchase for achievement hunters, more than anyone else.
Important Links
Buy, Optimised for Xbox Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/fit-and-fry-mise-en-place-xbox-series/9nktxw3c45sw
Grab the Xbox One edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/fit-and-fry-mise-en-place-xbox-one/9MZQSF0JFTKJ/0010
Or enjoy a Bundle – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/fit-and-fry-mise-en-place-to-farm-lands-bundle/9PPBN9K4DQ6B/0010/9TWVND63KKH3
