I really don't like puzzles.
After spending all day using up most of my mental energy simply getting through ordinary life, the last thing I want to do in my free time is make my brain work even harder.
And although I never mentioned this in my Steam curator review, Creature Kitchen is, more or less, one long chain of puzzles from beginning to end.
To get new keys, you need to photograph your animal friends and serve them food suited to their individual tastes.
To find new ingredients and recipes, you need to solve all sorts of puzzles or use those keys to open locks.
Then you do it again.
Even working out what somebody actually wants to eat could probably be considered a puzzle in itself.
It's rather like spending every evening wondering what to feed a boyfriend with very refined tastes.
Thankfully, cooking for the creatures here is much less stressful.
And somehow, despite all of that, I played Creature Kitchen all the way to the ending without ever developing much of an aversion to it.
A small warning before we go any further: I will mention the final scene later in this review. It isn't an enormous spoiler, but if you'd rather know absolutely nothing about the ending, consider yourself warned.
Perhaps the puzzles worked for me because there is very little pressure attached to them.
This may be a campsite in the middle of the woods, but failing to solve a puzzle quickly enough isn't going to cost you your chance to escape before Jason Voorhees caves your head in.
You're simply playing house with a collection of harmless animal friends.
There is no need to hurry.
And these cute, gentle creatures even seemed remarkably forgiving when my cooking wasn't quite right.
The reward structure helps too.
Solve one small puzzle and you usually get something new almost immediately.
A new ingredient.
A new recipe.
A new key.
Something else to investigate.
It's a simple rhythm, but a satisfying one.
Occasionally, the logic behind receiving an item is ridiculous enough to make me laugh, which certainly doesn't hurt either.
And perhaps cooking itself makes the whole thing easier to tolerate.
At its heart, cooking is a warm sort of activity.
You make something because you want someone else to have something nice to eat.
When that's the reason behind the next puzzle, it becomes much easier to think, "Fine. One more puzzle."
It also helps that the creatures wandering around everywhere are adorable.
Raccoon.
Dog.
Pants.
Especially Pants.
Although, to be fair, all of them are cute.
The game also shows some thoughtful attention to accessibility.
When Sass Foot appears, every step causes the screen to shake.
That could become unpleasant rather quickly for anyone prone to motion sickness.
Fortunately, the Options menu includes a Screenshake Scale setting.
Set it to 0 and the shaking disappears.
Simple.
Useful.
Much appreciated.
And then there is the ending.
Everyone gathers together in the woods around a campfire to roast marshmallows.
I can sit beside Pants.
Raccoon even hands me a marshmallow on a stick.
How much warmer does a game need to make my heart?
That ending probably sums up Creature Kitchen better than anything else.
Strictly speaking, I wouldn't really call it a horror game.
A cooking puzzle game seems more accurate.
The official description itself calls it a "creepy-cozy cooking simulator", built around befriending wildlife, cooking for them, exploring a strange house and forest, and taking photographs. Its most prominent Steam tags also include Cooking, Puzzle, Cozy, Creature Collector and Cute.
It certainly borrows creatures and imagery from horror and cryptid culture, so the horror influence is there.
But there is very little actual fear.
As I mentioned earlier, nobody is going to eat you because you served them the wrong meal.
There isn't much psychological pressure either.
It feels less like visiting a stranger's house on Halloween to frighten them, and more like a group of people in slightly ridiculous costumes getting together for a tea party.
With cheese crackers.
And honestly, that's perfectly fine.
Sometimes spending your free time obsessing over fear, blood and whatever else is hiding in the dark gets a bit tiring.
Sometimes you need a game that lets a mind already battered by everyday life sit somewhere quiet for a while and warm itself back up.
Creature Kitchen does that rather well.
If you haven't taken your summer holiday yet, perhaps you could spend the end of summer in this creepy little forest.
Don't worry.
There are no killers.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3097300/Creature_Kitchen/?curator_clanid=46578905