Review: Space Crew |

A few years ago, developer Runner Duck released Bomber Crew, a game that received very good scores from the community. We are here to talk about the next game in line. Space Crew is the brand new sequel to acclaimed strategic survival simulation game Bomber Crew. It’s basically the same idea, but in space. You’ll immediately be reminded of Star Trek, which I enjoyed very much. However, living up to a previously released successful game isn’t easy. And that’s something Runner Duck will learn with Space Crew.

What we liked!

How to play: There is a lot to learn in this game. The ‘how to play’ menu came in so handy. Everything is divided into categories, like ‘Athena station’, ‘in mission’, and ‘ship systems’. Everything you need to know is explained using text and pictures, so if you forget something, you can easily go here and look up what you need to know.
Customization: I had the most fun with customizing my crew. You can change their appearance and even their name! Of course, there’s also customizable equipment and load-outs. The same goes for your ship, which you can update with weapons and armor of your choice, as well as customize the engines, etc.
Chaotic: Once you’re on a mission, there are tons of things to do. You have to fight off enemies, so you’ll need to have crew members operating the weapons. But the damage to your ship has to be repaired as well, meaning you’ll have to send someone away from their post since you start with six crew members and a lot more posts on your spaceship. Keep in mind though that some members are better at dealing with, for example repairing a part of the ship, than others are. You’ll figure out quite quickly who does what best, because your characters are captains, engineers, security officers, etc. It’s quite important to keep your little characters alive as well, of course (however, I did not even feel that bad when someone died because I never reached a level of feeling emotionally attached to them). Safe to say things felt chaotic at times because my crew members had to run around so often.

Somewhere between

Missions: Missions are divided into three categories: low, medium, and high risk ones. Sometimes you’ll have to pick something up, other times you’ll have to clear the space and kill all enemy ships. I honestly didn’t always agree with these, because low risk missions got me killed quite a few times. I got bored pretty quickly because the missions felt repetitive, and even though you can choose different routes (the safe or fast one), I just didn’t enjoy the game for a long time. I do want to add here that this could be just me because this isn’t my type of game, and if you’re a Bomber Crew fan, this might feel totally different for you.

What we disliked

Combat: Attacking enemies is pretty straightforward in this game. You point your guns at the enemies, and you’ll start shooting at it. However, I often found that my guns were way off or didn’t attack the enemies I wanted to target. When attacking, my ship targeted a different location as well, so my course was off again, without meaning to. It all got me to the point of frustration.

Conclusion

Space Crew is not a bad game, but it’s not a particulary good one either. The customization and helpful ‘how to play’ menu are nice, but other than that, the game doesn’t offer that much. The missions feel repetitive quite fast and they’re also very chaotic (which you’ll either love or hate). Combat didn’t feel enjoyable at all, unfortunately. For veterans, this could be a nice sequel, but if you’re new and you want to try out one of Runner Duck’s games, I suggest you try Bomber Crew, rather than Space Crew.