arts // no. &

‘Overcooked 2’ picks up where the

original left off...and then some

> Like the first game, but stronger

Katie Czenczek
Staff Writer

Ww" was arguably the best couch
co-op game to come out in recent
years, Overcooked 2 lives up to the high
expectations set by the first game.
The sequel manages to build on the
first game while still using the same
ingredients cooked up in the original.
Overcooked 2 is available on
Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows
PC, and Xbox One and might be just the
game to pull out when you have friends
over and it comes to the point in the
night when everyone starts checking
their phones. However, you can now
even play co-op online, which makes
the game all the more accessible.
The game is still set in the Onion

 

Kingdom—and still failing to explain
why the Onion King is perfectly fine
with chefs chopping up other onions and
throwing them in stews—only there is a
new monster in town called the Unbread.
Massive hordes of these creatures are
eating up all of the food in the kingdom,
so it is up to the chefs to save the day

by cooking up a ton of recipes via food
truck. That’s about as far as the sequel’s
storyline goes because this isn’t a game
people flock to for the plot. As you
traverse throughout the world, you can
cook on a spaceship, a hot air balloon,

in a boat floating down the bayou, and
many other locations and venues.

The reason this game should make it
onto your shelf is for the utterly hilarious
chaos that is trying to run a kitchen.

Be warned, this game isn’t for your
less-developed relationships, as within

minutes you'll find yourself screaming at
your friends, partners, and grandmothers
to grab the damn soup before it sets
on fire. This game is designed to stress
you out. Some of the designs set up
by the first game to make you break a
sweat include the beeping timer that
indicates your food is about to catch
aflame or the shaking order that warns
that youre about to lose a customer.
The sequel builds onto this feature by
adding levels where things randomly
catch on fire without a fire extinguisher
handy, along with many other twists and
turns that will keep you on your toes.
While you drive to the next story
level in the hub world, there are hidden
levels that you can discover along the
way. For these levels, you sharpen
your knives and ready a little snack
for Kevin, the Onion King’s dog. At

Finding new meaning and
artistic life in old material

> Art gallery reopens with innovative sculptures and installations

Caroline Ho
Arts Editor

 

Ihe Amelia Douglas Gallery’s

newest show brings together two
ocean-themed exhibits that speak to
the power of repurposed materials.
“Landlocked?” and “Flotsam Fixation”
feature installations and sculptures
created by Tiki Mulvihill, an artist
currently based in Vancouver. The
exhibits, which are part of the annual
New West Cultural Craw] art festival,
opened in the Gallery on August 2, with
a reception on August 11 where visitors
also had the opportunity to participate in
a collage workshop guided by the artist.
“Landlocked” is comprised of a 6’5”
crafted wooden boat hanging from a
large wooden frame, in addition to six
30” by 4o” drawings. The exhibit tells the
narrative of a man who starts building
a boat in his shed. As he progresses
through life, through ups and downs

 

in his family and career, he continues
crafting his vessel, devoting more and
more obsessive attention to it—but

he never finishes the construction.
Mulvihill’s model is made of parts
from an actual full-size boat, the artist
said to the Other Press at the opening
reception. The components on the
inside of the vessel consist of various
objects and items she’s collected and are
purposely meant to look incomplete,
keeping with the narrative. She based
the exhibit’s drawings partly on photos
found in her family’s collections.
Mulvihill doesn’t have one specific
source of inspiration for the story
behind “Landlocked?”, rather, the

idea developed throughout the
process of building the boat.

“Tjust started, and then I came up
with an idea,” Mulvihill said. “That’s
the way I was with installations

[...] ’d come up with a notion or an
idea, and I would create things.”
While many of the works she’s done

previously have been installations,
“Flotsam Fixation” is instead a series
of sculptures made from driftwood
and repurposed materials, hanging

on the walls outside the Gallery in
groups of two or three on smooth
wooden mounts. Some of the pieces
appear organic and animal-like, such
as Cervidae, shaped to resemble a deer
head; others like Transact Belt-Built are
more inorganic and abstract, yet all are
full of whimsical, individual character.
The driftwood is collected from the
shores of Vancouver Island, while the
repurposed materials are household
objects, tools, and other various bits
and pieces accumulated and bought
second-hand over the years. Some of
the sculptures are assembled out of
similar materials such as metals or
items with related purposes, while
many more have been pieced together
on the driftwood based on colour,
form, and what seemed to fit.

“A lot of them, it’s the colour, but those

theotherpress.ca

times they can be more challenging
than the main story levels.

The newest and coolest new
mechanic, however, is the throwing
feature. Now you can toss raw ingredients
across the kitchen to your fellow chefs in
a way that is absolutely not food-safe. The
mechanic works nicely with the levels,
where at times you'll be forced to throw
ingredients in order to complete orders
based on the level design. This feature
can be game-changing or disastrous
depending on how players use it.

The sequel is just as fun as the
original, and if I were to pick between
the two, I would choose Overcooked 2
just due to it being a more finely-crafted
game. It hits all of the points that make
the first game great but has a ton of
added features that take it up a notch.

things were not connected or close to
each other,” she said of the sculptures’
repurposed components. “It would
evolve over time. It was fun because

I would just sort of make things.”

The combination of driftwood and found
objects, according to Mulvihill’s exhibit
text, is meant to “evoke inquisitiveness
about the objects’ users and usage, and
to fuse the past and the present within
the cross-cultural lens of Canada.”
Mulvihill said the next project

she’s currently working on is an
installation called “East Past to West
Present,” which will walk viewers
through the history of Canada in

a series of sculptures representing

the provinces, moving through each
province both geographically—from
east to west—and chronologically.
“Landlocked?” and “Flotsam Fixation”
will be on display in the Amelia
Douglas Gallery until September 8,
with a closing reception and artist's talk
held in the Gallery on September 7.

Photos by Analyn Cuarto