Barbecue

Barbecue released in full on Steam on June 18, 2026, from solo developer WMB, a chaotic co-op party game for one to four players who run a backyard cookout together, lighting grills, cooking meat, and serving guests while trying not to burn the whole yard down. Its 26-review English pool lands at Mostly Positive (20 up, 6 down, 77%), a score that reflects a game reviewers genuinely enjoy playing with friends but that arrives with real, specific rough edges around explanation and stability.

The chaotic co-op energy that clearly inspired the pitch does land for most of the pool. One reviewer put it simply: "really cool concept and pretty chill to play with friends," while another called it "cheap fun friend slop," specifically praising that it offers "more mechanics and meat than you'd probably expect for the price." A third reviewer, responding directly to more critical voices in the pool, pushed back: "a lot of people have been ragging on this game.. i disagree. it is very fun," while acknowledging the game is clearly unfinished in places. Several reviewers independently described genuine laughter and memorable group moments, the exact reaction a small, cheap party game is built to produce, and treated the rough edges as forgivable given both the price and the developer's evident solo effort.

Where the pool turns more critical is in how little the game explains about its own systems, and it's a complaint corroborated across multiple, independently written reviews rather than a single frustrated voice. One reviewer described finishing the tutorial and immediately asking "wait that was it? Now what?", unable to determine what to actually do with cooked food beyond dropping it for a small payout, and unsure whether food should be sold to a specific location or simply handed to passersby. A separate reviewer reported an almost identical gap, unsure "if currently the customers are unable to accept food" or whether they'd simply missed how that part of the loop worked. Both reviewers, and at least one more, independently hit the same wall trying to understand the game's revive mechanic, being told in-game to "use a Holy Sausage" with no further explanation, forcing them out to community forums mid-session just to keep playing.

Bugs are the pool's second major, well-corroborated thread. An out-of-bounds and stuck-character issue shows up in more than one detailed review: one player described being knocked into an unreachable area near a neighboring house with no jump, unstuck, or reset option, ultimately forcing their group to abandon a save and start an entirely new game, while a second reviewer independently reported a similar experience of getting stuck in random locations after being hit by a car, with no way to recover. A separate reviewer flagged a specific, repeatable bug where overlapping customer positions cause orders to be delivered to the wrong guest, resulting in food being given away without payment, "sucks when you're paying all that money to buy something like steak or ribs and the wrong customer gets it and leaves without paying." Others reported smaller but concrete issues: items disappearing or falling through the ground, inconsistent double-payment triggers when picking food up and dropping it again, and a save-reset bug that occasionally reverted long sessions back to the beginning of the game.

Multiplayer connectivity drew some conflicting reports, though the underlying picture is more reassuring than alarming. One reviewer initially reported multiplayer not working at all, then updated their review after identifying it as a Linux-to-Windows cross-platform issue rather than a fundamental flaw, and specifically praised the developer for responding "in a professions manner" and hearing out the complaint. Another reviewer confirmed multiplayer worked for their full group of four, with only one friend experiencing a connection issue they attributed to a local PC problem rather than the game itself.

Value is close to unanimous across the pool, even among its more critical reviewers. At under five dollars, multiple reviewers explicitly framed the asking price as more than fair for a chaotic few hours with friends, with one calling it simply "super cheap" while still submitting a long, constructive list of desired fixes and additions rather than a negative review. The volume and specificity of that community feedback, ranging from UI legibility requests to suggestions for new cooking equipment and decorations, points to a player base that wants the game to succeed and grow rather than one that's written it off.

The wishlist compiled by the game's own community is unusually detailed for a title this cheap, and worth touching on because it reflects genuine investment rather than dismissal. One long, constructive review catalogued a wide range of requested additions: expanding the map with purchasable housing, more grill types like smokers, additional food options sourced through an in-game shop, movable furniture and decorations, and a more involved sell loop that requires delivering food to a specific location rather than simply dropping it. That same reviewer explicitly acknowledged the scale of the ask relative to a one-person development team, writing "the game has big potential but i know that your a one person army," framing the game's current bugs as the only real obstacle standing between it and a much stronger release. Smaller, more focused requests echo throughout the rest of the pool too: a bigger, more visible crosshair, less transparent meat models that are easier to select, individually adjustable graphics settings instead of low/medium presets, and the ability to save and resume a session rather than losing progress by quitting mid-shift.

Taken together, Barbecue has real, functioning chaos-party-game DNA and a responsive developer behind it, but its current state asks players to learn its systems through trial, error, and outside forum searches, and to tolerate a specific, recurring set of bugs around getting stuck and misrouted orders. For its price, and especially with a full group of friends willing to laugh through the rough edges, it's a reasonable recommendation, with the clear expectation that it needs continued polish to reach its evident potential.