My Playtime: 11.1h (100% achievement, played up to day 51)
Grindy Achievement(s): Yes (~4 achievements).
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (~30 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.

Bronzebeard's Tavern is a restaurant manager simulator where you run a tavern. It's a multiplayer game that can be played by up to 8 people with a lot of activities.

Pros:
- 3 difficulties, 2+ modes
- A lot of things to do
- Helpers that help you run your tavern

Cons:
- Progress is only saved in the host's save file
- The game becomes too easy after you get all upgrades

Specs
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT

It's a high-quality game considering its price (free). If you enjoy playing chaotic coop games, play this one.

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In Bronzebeard's Tavern, you play as a dwarf who is managing a tavern. As a multiplayer game, you can create a lobby or join an existing one, although playing solo is also an option.

If you haven't played the game before, it also offers a tutorial. You can choose whether to skip it or not, and if you want to revisit it, you can always find it in the menu that can be accessed when you want to play the game. However, since the game has a lot of things to do, it can be daunting to remember them all for the first time. I, for one, couldn't even remember anything until my partner told me how.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3406556308

Running a tavern revolves around many activities: taking customers to their table, taking their orders, cooking their orders, serving their orders, washing their plates, and burning coal to light the electricity. The game doesn't stop after you finish a day. Off-times like this are the chance for you to restock ingredients, prepare drinks, and/or even precook food to prepare for the tavern's hectic time. If you play solo, you must do all of them yourself, although if you play with other people, you can divide the tasks based on your preferences.

Even though you can play the game endlessly, the difficulty will increase bit by bit at the beginning, to the point that you might need a third person to give you a hand. The game also offers another helper in the form of staff members, who will focus on one of the tasks. I found the staffs help to mitigate the hectic days, although this eventually made the game very easy to finish. At the max level, your staff can do most of the job with you only have to help to cook and redirect people to their table.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3675907011

You can upgrade your tavern and staff. The tavern upgrades are more varied; you can increase the amount of stoves, storage, and even do an area expansion so you can get a bigger bonus. You need to have money to buy the upgrades, which can be obtained by playing the game. This money is also shared with the ingredients money, so you have to balance your resources between buying ingredients, paying your staff, and buying upgrades properly. Still, it shouldn't be hard to save enough money for the upgrades and staffs.

Cooperation is needed to finish the game. You need to divide the tasks between the people who play with you, although no extensive communication is needed. I only used the in-game text chat throughout my playthrough, and I could manage to finish the game just fine. It also offers a way to talk through voice chat, although I never used it.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3669157605

Length and Difficulty
I obtained all achievements in 11.1h at day 51. The game actually has most of the content unlocked at day ~30, although I played some more since I needed to unlock one achievement. The playtime can definitely be made quicker since I messed up and did most of the work for my staff, even though I should let him work some more for one achievement. I ended up having to play an extra ~20 days for it.

The game offers three difficulties. You can't switch the difficulty after you play. It also offers two modes: goblin takeover and standard mode. The standard mode is self-explanatory, although the goblin takeover mode will give you more work. You can give goblins a snack to get a currency that is exclusive to this mode, which can be used to buy costumes. After that, you just serve the customer normally like in the standard mode. For the record, I played in the normal difficulty in standard mode most of the time. And most importantly, the costumes are purely cosmetic.

Issues
The save file is only stored on the host's side. If you joined someone else's room, you won't be able to continue it unless you rejoin the host's room.

Bronzebeard's Tavern starts strong at first. It was confusing and chaotic at the same time. You definitely need time to get used to how the game works, and the difficulty increase just makes it tougher and tougher. However, the difficulty was going down after you unlock and max out the upgrades and staffs, allowing you to eventually slack off most of the time while still performing well. That being said, the game is still fun to play, especially until you unlock everything. Moreover, it's free, so I don't see any reason not to recommend this game. At this price, it's definitely a steal.

This is a fantastic co-op game that i recommend to every group of friends. You progress well if smart with money and have a good cook and runner along with a good host.

This is a fun wacky game to play with friends!! each day can be very different and chaotic, the more people you have to play with the more chaotic it'll be! food flies... customers get rowdy... its a good time over all! and don't forget to feed the hearth, those skeletons will steal all of your supply making things even more chaotic.