Are you ready for a race? Well then fasten your seat belts for this high-octane, cooperative party game like no other where you experience the world of racing and those who keep the racers racing in Speed Crew! Assemble your team of 1-4 players, and take on the role of an elite pit crew tasked with fixing cars and beating the clock to secure victory in this fun and chaotic adventure. With an engaging storyline featuring the antihero Dominion Torrento, a nod to the popular main protagonist in the blockbuster movie franchise Fast and Furious, Dominic Toretto. You will need to work together with your team through four racing championships across four decades, from the 70s to the 00s, to teach him a lesson he won’t forget. This is Speed Crew!
Gameplay and Accessibility
When it comes to playing Wild Fields newest time management cooperative experience it notably has a similar gameplay style to the Overcooked and Moving Out games except in those games you manage food and furniture and not cars. The main objective of Speed Crew is to repair vehicles in the pit lane while your team races. Your role as a pit crew member is carrying out the repair tasks in the quickest time possible to rank up on the race position. Pit stopping faster will help you gain higher positions throughout the race. You do this by running around collecting objects such as car jacks, wrenches, changing tyres, replacing fuel and hammering out body dents and many more different tasks to help get your driver back in the race. I like the way the game gives you a variety of different jobs to do, making it unique and a game any petrol head or anyone who loves cars that little taste of how it would feel to be part of something this important when it comes to racing. Remember guys “Teamwork makes the dream work” this game although can be played with a friend features a single player mode that lets you enjoy the experience alone. But be warned this can be made very difficult has the game is entirely built in the eyes of working together causing this game to push you into playing with more than one player. Speed Crew features a variety of different events and obstacles that are there to make you slow down and this is merely things like shifting floors, lava, weather and many other things to make sure you have a hard time get your racer back on the track. You will see many different scenarios based on locations and decades, so not every level will be straight forward and you will see this as you playthrough. When it comes to games nowadays a lot will includes ways to let everyone enjoy the game using accessibility but Speed Crew lacks this feature but due to the type of game this is I didn’t really feel it was needed as the game can be played easily enough. For reasons I currently only game using one hand and due to this I found it easy enough as it was without the need of adding any features to make it easier or accessible to play.
Online Multiplayer/ Local Multiplayer
Speed Crew has two types of multiplayer this includes online and local. I gave local multiplayer a go by connecting up my second controller. In multiplayer it gets quite frantic as more cars need to be repaired at the same time while competing against the clock similar to single player but a lot more fun with two people. This also makes the game more intense as time and cars where pilling up meaning I had to rely completely on my team. This however, can get slightly confusing as there’s two of you running around but after sometime you soon get used to this. Speed Crew allows up to 4 players. Communication will be key as you will be tested on how quick you are and how good you are as a team. The problem with this and having so many players is the frustration of running into each other whilst in a hurry to finish the job.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically the game is stunning with a colourful 3D art style and smooth animations from start to finish, this also includes no slowdown meaning your game will continue to run smooth as you play. Speed Crew has also been optimized for the Series X/S and taking advantage of the settings. Even in local multiplayer there’s no frame rate issues or lagging, just a smooth ride to race in. Speed Crew’s game audio is quite relaxing with nice sound effects whilst performing pit stop repairs. Refuelling cars and picking up objects sound crisp and this happened all with a old school soundtrack playing in the background whilst performing tasks. Although the timer is counting down it gives you a sense of urgency knowing you haven’t got time to waste and must hurry to finish the level as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Overall Thoughts
SPEED CREW is a nice little gem that doesn’t take itself to seriously but at the same time can become quite competitive against the clock and making it an enjoyable experience. Speed Crew comes with lots of different gameplay to be had here especially with local CO-OP. I really enjoyed the game and cant wait to see what new features they have coming to the game such as planned downloadable content and updates. One way to say this we are in for a ride.
Speed Crew is available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Steam and Nintendo Switch
GAMERHUB RATING: FOUR (out of FIVE) JOYSTICKS
(Thank you to the team at Wild Fields and Keymailer for providing a code for this review)
