Speed Crew is an Overcooked-style game that’s about repairing race cars instead of cooking dishes. It arguably has even less to do with how a car is actually repaired than Overcooked has to do with how kitchens are run, but it’s still nice to get a game that has a different setting than what’s normal for this genre. Even though you’re basically doing the same thing in most levels, it’s funnier to be run over by an exiting car than to start a dish on fire, and there might be some people who’d happily play this despite not being interested in other similar games.
Speed Crew‘s levels are divided into four seasons that each have 10 normal levels and 2 extras that are unlocked for doing well on the normal ones. The levels are ostensibly races, so your score is called laps and the scores that you’re competing against increase as time goes by, but it’s really no different from the score targets in Overcooked other than that you don’t know how many points you need in advance. You’ll earn points by repairing cars, which usually means scanning them with a computer to find out what’s wrong, then dashing around the level to get the parts and tools you need to fix all of those problems. You don’t have a queue of cars waiting for repair, unlike Overcooked, nor can you make unnecessary repairs, but you do lose your combo if you take too long to get a car fixed up.
Variety in Speed Crew comes more from the levels than the cars. Although you do get access to new tools and new forms of damage as the seasons progress, they’re still all mostly just pressing activate on something until a bar fills up. The levels, though, introduce all sorts of hazards, dynamic layouts, and even some crazy switch-controlled setups that really make you plan your approach well. That said, this isn’t a particularly difficult game, especially not compared to the rest of the genre. You definitely still need to coordinate well and will almost certainly need to retry some levels many times, but getting 1st place is still quite easy compared to getting three stars in Overcooked, and there’s no equivalent to that game’s hidden fourth stars. I didn’t mind the lower difficulty, personally, but it does mean that you’re unlikely to be able to play this for as long as some other games.
Overall, this is a good game that’s not likely to become anyone’s favorite in the genre. Other than its unique setting and funny cutscenes, it just doesn’t do enough to set itself apart from the competition, and its low difficulty limits how much replay value it has. I also think the list price is a little steep considering how much you get out of it and that you’ll need multiple copies to play online unless you’re using Remote Play. But, price and competition aside, it’s a fun time. Give it a chance on sale if you want a chaotic co-op experience that’s a bit less stressful.
Rating: 80%
Time to beat: Around 10 hours for 100%, including some grindy achievements
MSRP: $20
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For more reviews, see my Steam curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43219041