A few years or at least what feels like a few years I played Overcooked. A game centered around creating and delivering food orders as fast as possible to get the best score possible. It was an enjoyable yet simple concept, but its fun factor was amplified by the chaotic element of trying to function well as a team with other players. In fact, I’m convinced that Overcooked has led to more than a few divorces.
Regardless Overcooked found success enough to spark a sequel and inspire other party-centric co-op games. The latest game is Speed Crew by the Studio Wild Fields. Instead of operating a restaurant, you are a pit crew in the world of racing. A cool twist, but is this an expert that you should check out?
Let’s dive into it.
The Narrative:
Speed Crew has a campaign where you are a pit crew that is trying to help your team place well in each race during the racing season. It’s a shallow narrative that just sets the scene, but it is better than nothing. Let’s be real here you aren’t playing this type of game to experience a story.
The Gameplay:
In Speed Crew, the gameplay consists of a race car coming into your pit. You go to the computer to scan and diagnose the car then you set out to fix the problems to get the car back onto the track as soon as possible. The controls are very similar to Overcooked. You have to pick up an item and go to the right location to use it and you have a quick dash. You use these simple controls to jack up cars, change or repair tires, knock out dents, and other tasks to get your team of cars back on the race track quickly. When the time runs out the number of cars that you repaired leads to a score for the round.
Additional Pros:
The wacky and cartoon-like artsyle is perfect for this type of game. Each item is well illustrated which is needed considering that there are quite a few tools that you end up strewn all around the map as your repairing cars.
An aspect that deserves a shout-out, is the escalation of difficulty as you progress in the campaign. Just when I was getting the hang of most of the activities we were introduced to new innovative gameplay mechanics. These new actions or often tools add new obstacles in getting the cars out of the pit as soon as possible. As the difficulty increased more often than not so did the fun. That is a tricky balancing act to pull off.
Cons/Flaws:
One of the minor criticisms that I had with the game is that the colors feel a bit muted. It’s not the end of the world, but some of the items look flat and dull. There are some cool environments/levels that would have felt more vibrant colors. Sometimes it is hard to discern between the items on the ground to pick them up. Often when I tired to pick up one item, I ended up picking up another one.
While you can play this game solo it is best as a multiplayer experience. You can have a decent experience playing this game by yourself, but it’s gets old fast. I played through the campaign and found my attention slipping from time to time.
I didn’t enjoy the game’s soundtrack. While the quality of the sounds wasn’t bad, It felt repetitive due to the small number of songs. There are quite a few cool and inventive tracks that you see in the campaign, but only a few songs that repeat again and again. After a while, I preferred to play the game on mute.
Overall/Should you Play Speed Crew:
This is an easy recommendation for those who are fans of the games, Moving Out or Overcooked. If you haven’t played either of those games then let me tell you this. Speed Crew is a dope co-op game that will provide you and your friends and family with a good time. You’ll likely be beefing a bit during and after the experience, but it’s fun.
If you are looking for your next great single-player experience then this isn’t it. It’s an enjoyable game if you want to play a Switch/Steam Deck game while watching TV. Now if you have a group of people or want a game to play with your significant other then you should check out Speed Crew. This chaos can make for a memorable time, even if you are arguing about the best order to do a task.
Where Should Speed Crew fit in your video game backlog:
Here at the ProNerd Report and on the Single Player Experience Podcast, we practice the 10 games backlog rule. In this practice, you log down 10 games, those games are gonna be your video game backlog. To be as productive as you possibly can be, we recommend that you only play three games at one time. One single player narrative game, one game that’s gonna be your chill and relaxed game, and another game that’s going to be your palate cleanser game, which is a game that you play when you’re not in the mood for your other narrative. When you complete or get tired of one game, it leaves the backlog list. Then you decide which new game is added to the list, and which game on the list advances to your active three games.
Speed Crew – Speed Crew is a good pick-up and play chill and relax game. It is also an enjoyable party game. If you liked Overcooked and want something similar then you should check out Speed Crew.
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Reviewed on PC/Steam Deck
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