If I’m over at someone’s place with a bunch of people and they say, “Let’s play Overcooked!” I will always visibly recoil. The game is bad for my blood pressure and for the solidity of my friendships. So, I am terrified by the prospect of Speed Crew, an Overcooked-like set in racing pit stops as opposed to kitchens. I gave it a whirl and it has promise! Even if I now need a big lie down. I am not cut out for jobs involving manual labour, nor games where I play as someone who needs to perform manual labour.
Speed Crew – Release Date Trailer (Steam, PlayStation, Xbox)
Much like Overcooked, Speed Crew can be played locally or online with up to four pals, or on your lonesome. The online mode has one of you create a lobby, then send the lobby’s code over to your pals so they can join your pit crew. The aim of the game is to repair as many cars as possible within the time limit, with the speediest repairs rewarded with higher ratings and the ‘privilege’ of being pit stoppers for more prestigious races.
I gave the demo a quick whirl as a solo pit stopper, and found its demands to be pretty polished. For an Overcooked-like, it’s got a nice visual style, with smooth movement and most importantly, clear demands. Cars would roll in and I fell quite nicely into a rhythm – dare I say, a meditative state – of scanning the cars for their faults, winching them up, wrenching off their tyres, recycling them, and wrenching on some fresh rubber.
But my time was spent in the little leagues of the smallest race car championships. Success means ascending the ladder and becoming pit stoppers for venues with shifting platforms and actual roundabouts where you’ll get crushed by race cars doing doughnuts. I imagine it’s here where friendships will crumble.
The game’s out today and you can find it over on Steam here. I’m unsure whether the demo will stay live once it’s released, so if you’re interested it might be worth getting on it quick!
