Recenzja Crashout Crew (Xbox Series X|S i PC)

Aggro Crab lives up to its reputation as a studio that knows all too well how to get your fingers twitching and your forklift license well and truly provoked for the foreseeable future. With Crashout Crew, the devil is in the details: competence is out, and full-blown chaos is in. There are no rules for warehouse workers — only quotas to fill, and boxes of chickens to cram into small spaces. And as for everything else, well, let’s just say that it doesn’t matter if you’re skilled in the field or not. If you can just about operate a forklift, then you can make ends meet. Well, if only just.

Think of Crashout Crew as the illegitimate child of Overcooked. Similar in design, the game tasks up to four local players to bolt around a toy box world and gather items to dispatch in a swift and efficient manner. Here, though, you aren’t preparing meals for hungry guests, but wrangling all sorts of weird items to place on neatly stacked shelves and in other spaces. You have a forklift, a vague sense of what you’re looking to accomplish, and an irritating itch that craves a little extra chaos. But, you get the idea. It’s a warehouse simulation game that adds an extra layer of stupidity to the equation. Icy floors, for example, or crates of explosives that might just go boom if you accidentally accelerate at full speed into an inanimate object.

The point of the game is straightforward: complete orders, prevent items from being damaged, and earn cash to make small but seemingly useful upgrades to your forklift. Alas, you have no major rogue-like element to juggle, and you have no opportunity to spend your in-game currency outside of the contract. Rather, you have a brief window to splurge your hard-earned cash, and a collection of upgrades to unlock to further fuel your violent tendencies, like speed boosters, slip-proof wheels, or vacuums that allow you to remove unnecessary crates, for example. Once the contact ends, you return to the warehouse to wipe the slate clean and, well, do it all over again, only with different orders to collect and additional synergies to fool around with.

Of course, wreaking a little havoc and “crashing out” is the norm here. In addition to filling quotas and completing all sorts of bizarre warehouse deliveries, you also have the task of managing your stress levels and avoiding others forklift drivers. Not that this is an easy task, mind you, given that every stage is made to feel unnecessarily difficult. For example, in certain levels you have cargo that requires a more hands-on approach to collect. A primate, for example. In other cases you have a room that is simply full of slippery floors, hazardous materials, and volatile packages that can cause your work ethic to falter. But frankly, that’s all part of the experience. Don’t expect a professional outlook on forklift certification here, folks, because you won’t find it.

With all of the above said, Crashout Crew is a game that knows how to giggle at its own stupidity. Given that it isn’t a serious game, you can definitely expect to see your fair share or wackiness and a general lack of fluidity here. The gameplay, for example, isn’t what you would naturally refer to as slick, nor is it as tight as it could be. But again, that’s precisely what it aims to bring to the table: a soapbox-like party game with a forklift twist. It might not present itself as an ironclad simulation, though it does compensate for its lack of technical prowess with a simple and, more generally, charming multiplayer experience that can be picked up and played by players of all ages and skill levels.

To add to the above, Crashout Crew is an incredibly easy game to learn on the fly. Given that nobody truly understands how to operate a forklift, and that the world has a nasty habit of presenting each squad with the same curveballs, at no point are you ever made to feel like you’re the dead weight on the end of the fork. In fact, it gives you the chance to flaunt your lack of competence as a collective, meaning, you never really need to master the fundamentals to succeed in your perilous endeavors. You just, well, learn to roll with the punches and adapt as best you can.

Of course, while I wouldn’t say no to a second helping of warehouses to mindlessly scoot around in or an online multiplayer mode, I have to admit that, for a budget indie that makes a habit out of knuckling in on a niche concept, there is a lot of joy to be found here. With a quirky physics-based control system that makes simple chores ridiculously difficult and a good balance of humor and skill to ferry its chaotic nature, it clearly makes for a silly little flick. A flawless flick? No. But a good way to scratch an itch for an hour or two between mechanically taxing gigs, yes.

Verdict

Crashout Crew leans into its inner kookiness as a quick, erratic, and oddly entertaining forklift sort ‘em up that just about has the oily facets of a good co-op game — perhaps even enough to sit alongside the likes of Overcooked and Do You Even Forklift? While it still harbors a gimmick that only lasts as long as the miles you’re willing to shove it, it does make for a good alternative to your typical multiplayer game. At no point does it ever take itself too seriously, either — and that’s always a breath of fresh air. A novelty, yes — but also a lot of fun to pluck away at for a short while as and when the mood strikes.

While I personally wouldn’t turn my nose up at a few additional crates, stages, and otherworldly creations, I can safely say that, for what it does offer in its current form, Crashout Crew is likely to keep you thoroughly engaged for the short term. Could it be better? Sure. Is it still worth your time, despite having a few missing teeth and a lack of technical prowess? Absolutely.