Speed Crew is a local co-op game that focuses on repairing cars before the timer runs out. It’s best described as Overcooked with cars and less precise controls. Is this your new favorite co-op game? Let’s jump in!
Over….automobiled?
Let’s address the elephant in the room first, yes Speed Crew looks and plays a lot like Overcooked. It’s basically Overcooked with cars and different handlings but the core idea is identical. In Speed Crew, you’ll need to fix cars as fast as possible to score some points. If the time runs out before you fix a car, you’ll get a penalty. It starts extremely easy with you learning the ropes and strategies of fixing one car at a time. The more you advance, the more chaotic it all becomes. After a couple of minutes, you’ll have to change tires, add gasoline and knock out dents of multiple cars at once. It’s the same chaotic gameplay of Overcooked and this genre but it works in Speed Crew as well. The flow of your repairs is crucial and once you get it down, it’s fun to play but never did I get the feeling I was playing something innovative or really fun. Sadly, there are a couple of hiccups that keep Speed Crew away from becoming the next best thing for the genre.
The co-op experience
Since Speed Crew is one of those games that’s best in local co-op, I played this mode the most for the sake of the review. What I like about local co-op mode is the fact that you can play everything in co-op, even the campaign mode so you don’t have to replay that all by yourself. In local co-op communication is everything, you’ll have to divide the tasks and cars and constantly communicate about your actions and what you need from the other player. It’s a fun chaotic experience that sadly gets a bit overshadowed by some technical issues. Take the controls for example, compared to Overcooked, the controls aren’t as snappy and accurate, making me have to push the button to pick up an object multiple times before my character finally picked it up. You never lose that much time doing so but in the heat of the moment, every second counts. It’s a shame the controls aren’t as accurate as you would expect them to be in a fast-paced co-op game like this.
Besides this, there are also a couple of visual hiccups. It’s not always that easy to see where your characters are in the environment, the colors match the background too much at certain times, making you search for your character. The same goes for the cars, although it’s indicated what you need to fix, it’s not always clear on what side of the car the issue is located. None of the issues are game-breaking and it’s still fun to play but those minor annoyances do take away some of the fun.
Conclusion:
If you’re a die-hard fan of the genre, Speed Crew is a fun chaotic co-op game. It’s a shame it suffers from some annoyances to make it really good. Fun but nothing more.
