Void Crew is an exciting cooperative roguelite space adventure developed by Hutlihut Games and published by Focus Entertainment. Released on PC via Steam, Void Crew has quickly garnered a reputation for its unique approach to cooperative gameplay, where teamwork and strategy are essential. This review will explore the game’s features, mechanics, and overall experience in detail, providing insights into what makes Void Crew a standout title in the cooperative gaming genre.
Storyline and Setting
Void Crew places players in the distant future, where humanity faces existential threats from alien adversaries. As part of an elite crew of interstellar operatives, players must pilot and manage a spaceship while navigating treacherous space environments. The game’s narrative is compelling, offering a backdrop of survival and exploration that keeps players engaged. Missions often involve high-stakes scenarios such as retrieving valuable resources, defending against alien incursions, and investigating mysterious anomalies in space.
The storyline also introduces layers of mystery and intrigue, including ancient alien technologies and the remnants of lost civilizations. Players are driven not only by the immediate threats but also by the desire to uncover the secrets of the galaxy.
The setting is both expansive and immersive. Players are thrust into a beautifully designed galaxy filled with vibrant nebulae, asteroid fields, and enemy strongholds. The visuals and sound design work in tandem to create an atmosphere that is both thrilling and perilous, drawing players into the game’s universe. Every mission feels like a unique chapter in an unfolding space epic.
Gameplay Mechanics
The core of Void Crew’s gameplay lies in its cooperative mechanics. The game supports 1 to 4 players, allowing friends or strangers to form a team and pilot a spaceship together. Each player assumes specific roles, such as piloting, gunning, repairing, or managing resources, making teamwork essential for success.
Key Features of Gameplay:
Dynamic Roles: Players can switch roles on the fly, ensuring flexibility during missions. For example, a player managing repairs may need to jump onto the ship’s turrets during an enemy attack. This fluidity ensures that every mission feels dynamic and engaging.
Customization: Void Crew offers extensive customization options for both the ship and individual characters. Players can equip their ship with upgraded weapons, shields, and engines, tailoring it to their playstyle. Characters can also be personalized with unique gadgets, skill enhancements, and cosmetic upgrades, adding a layer of depth to progression.
Roguelite Elements: Missions are procedurally generated, ensuring no two runs feel the same. This design keeps the gameplay fresh and unpredictable, requiring players to adapt to ever-changing scenarios, from asteroid dodging to large-scale space battles.
Real-Time Strategy: The game’s mechanics require constant communication and strategic planning. For instance, balancing power distribution between shields and weapons during combat can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Players must also decide when to prioritize offense versus defense, adding another layer of strategy.
Resource Management: Beyond combat, players must manage resources such as fuel, ammunition, and repair supplies. Efficient resource use is critical, especially during extended missions where resupply opportunities are limited.
Visuals and Sound Design
Void Crew excels in its visual presentation. The game features:
Stunning Space Environments: The galaxy is rendered with breathtaking detail, including colorful nebulae, asteroid fields, and alien structures. The vastness of space is captured beautifully, making exploration a visual treat.
Detailed Spaceship Models: Each ship’s design feels unique and reflects the game’s futuristic aesthetic. The attention to detail extends to the interiors, where players can see functional workstations, crew quarters, and engine rooms.
Fluid Animations: From explosions to weapon fire, every action is visually satisfying. Enemy ships disintegrate in dazzling displays, and environmental hazards like solar flares are portrayed with stunning effects.
The sound design is equally impressive. The background score builds tension during intense battles, while sound effects such as laser fire, engine roars, and communication static add to the immersion. Voice lines and crew chatter further enhance the cooperative experience, making the crew feel alive and responsive.
Cooperative Gameplay Experience
Void Crew truly shines in its cooperative gameplay. The game’s design encourages players to communicate effectively and work together to overcome challenges. Missions often require split-second decisions and seamless coordination, fostering a sense of camaraderie among players.
Highlights of Cooperative Gameplay:
Shared Responsibilities: Players must divide tasks efficiently. For example, one player might pilot the ship while another operates the shields, and a third mans the weapons. This division of labor ensures that everyone has a vital role to play.
Emergent Gameplay: Unpredictable events, such as surprise alien attacks or system malfunctions, keep the experience fresh and engaging. These moments test the team’s adaptability and quick thinking.
Team-Based Progression: Upgrades and achievements are shared among the team, ensuring everyone feels invested in the group’s success. Players can collectively decide on upgrade priorities, fostering collaboration.
Social Interaction: The game’s reliance on communication makes it a great choice for groups of friends or online communities. Even strangers can quickly bond over the shared goal of surviving a harrowing mission.
Advanced Features and Strategies
For players seeking to master Void Crew, there are several advanced mechanics and strategies to explore:
Power Management: Players can reroute power between different systems, such as engines, shields, and weapons, depending on the situation. Knowing when to prioritize speed over firepower can be a game-changer.
Specialized Loadouts: Experimenting with different ship loadouts and character builds allows for unique strategies. For example, a heavily armored ship might excel in defense-focused missions, while a faster, lighter ship is ideal for hit-and-run tactics.
Crew Synergy: Developing a team strategy that leverages each player’s strengths can significantly enhance mission performance. For instance, pairing a skilled pilot with a sharpshooting gunner creates a formidable duo.
Exploration Rewards: Beyond combat, players can discover hidden treasures, ancient artifacts, and rare resources during exploration. These discoveries often lead to significant upgrades or story developments.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Engaging Cooperative Mechanics: The game’s emphasis on teamwork creates a rewarding experience.
High Replay Value: Procedurally generated missions and extensive customization keep the gameplay fresh.
Stunning Visuals and Sound: The immersive environment enhances the overall experience.
Flexible Roles: Players can adapt their roles mid-mission, ensuring dynamic gameplay.
Roguelite Thrill: The risk-and-reward system adds excitement to each mission.
Advanced Strategies: Depth in mechanics ensures long-term engagement for dedicated players.
Cons:
Steep Learning Curve: New players may find the mechanics overwhelming at first. A more detailed tutorial or onboarding process could alleviate this.
Limited Solo Play Appeal: The game is best enjoyed with a full team, making solo play less engaging. While AI teammates are functional, they lack the dynamism of human players.
Occasional Bugs: Minor technical issues, such as clipping and connection drops, can disrupt the experience. These are likely to improve with post-launch updates.
Resource Scarcity: Some players may find the resource management system too punishing, especially in early runs.
Comparison with Similar Games
Void Crew draws comparisons to titles like FTL: Faster Than Light and Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, but it sets itself apart with its emphasis on real-time cooperation and 3D space combat. Unlike FTL, which leans heavily on strategic planning, Void Crew demands active participation from each player during missions. Similarly, while Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime features cooperative gameplay, Void Crew’s more realistic and intense tone caters to a different audience.
Final Thoughts
Void Crew is a standout title in the cooperative gaming genre, offering a thrilling blend of teamwork, strategy, and action. Its immersive visuals, dynamic roles, and procedurally generated missions ensure hours of engaging gameplay. While it may have a steep learning curve and occasional bugs, the overall experience is immensely rewarding for players who enjoy working together to overcome challenges.
The game’s replayability and depth make it an excellent choice for gamers seeking long-term engagement. Whether you’re battling alien swarms or exploring the mysteries of the galaxy, Void Crew offers an unforgettable cooperative adventure.
After just a few hours of gameplay, I can sufficiently say that this game is a lot of fun. It's hard, but not impossible. I don't see the lack of content that others are complaining about. If you're on the fence, I was too before I bought it and I'm very glad that I did.
A surprisingly good cooperative game – we played it with two people and had a blast, even more fun than we initially expected.Addictive gameplay, good mechanics, absolutely worth checking out.The game has huge potential – it could be more and better, and I have tons of ideas for how this project could evolve.
A pretty intense, and satisfying successor to the ship-crew style of games that I've toyed around with since Artemis back in college. This has a lot more polish, and covers more ideas. It's a fun title to figure out with friends, and figure out how a run's gonna' go.
This is probably the greatest space adventure games I've ever played. it's right up there for me with the likes of No Man's Sky, as far as how incredibly small and powerless one feels when meeting huge fleets of hulking crafts on foot, contrasted by how good piloting the ship you choose feels. it really is hard to capture that space in games, but this game is great for playing alone for the vibes, and it's entertaining with friends, too.
This game looks great and seems like it would be fun, but my only ISP option will periodically drop upstream packets for 1-5s at random intervals. This is enough to cause a server disconnect and cancel any mission without warning and with no ability to resume. I really want to be able to play it, but the *constant uninterrupted* online requirement for *solo* play makes it impossible to do anything without a group and someone else being the host. I have never experienced a game with such low tolerance for issues beyond my controlAs far as the gameplay it's a lot like Sea of Thieves meets FTL, which is really appealing. The Rogue-like combined with the extensive upgrade system seems like it would be fun to explore... If I could actually make it through a single mission
Simple coop fun!
Solid Gameplay
Polished
Feels round with the mechanics
Nothing for endless grinds, makes many things very good. You get worse AAA-Titel for more money.
Ship management feels a bit like FTL in that you are slotting weapons into fixed points on the ship, and sending crew to do repairs, but you do that all in first person like Guns of Icarus. Definitely a bit of a singleplager/co-op Guns of Icarus in space-ish.I've only played a little so far and was mostly a pilot, so I didn't interact as much with ship repairs, upgrades, and craftong mechanics, so I can't speak to how much depth those have.I am however disappointed by the flight mechanics. Like Guns of Icarus, this is a 2D+Vertical flight model, meaning all your steering, forward/reverse flying, and strafing is done in a 2D plane, and then you have the ability to move your plane of flight up and down, but you cannot pitch or roll, so no matter how much you go up or down, your 2D flight plane always has a fixed up and down.That movement model makes sense in Guns of Icarus, because it is airships, but it makes a lot less sense in space. I get that this is meant to be more arcadish, so the flight model is simplified, however you do sometimes encounter points of interest or targets that are far above or below the elevation that you start at, and the ship is frustratingly slow at going up and down. I just want to pitch up and fly up using my main engines!I also find the default flight control scheme confusing. W and S are forward and backward movement, but A and D are yaw, not strafe. And you have to hold forward/reverse to keep moving, unlike Guns of Icarus which had a "throttle" which stayed where you put it, meaning you cout walk away from the helm when steering wasn't required. This game has a "cruise mode" which keeps you moving, but slowly. I'd much rather have a "set it and forget it" throttle for forward/reverse, so I can focus on steering. Instead I keep finding myself accidentally holding reverse when I want to go up, because that's "pitch up" in other games I play. I'll have to experiment with alternate control mappings if I play more, to see if I can find something more intuitive to me. Probably something like W/S for "pitch down/up" with throttle on space so I can just hold it down with my thumb.I don't think this level of oversimplification is really necessary to be approachable. Games like Battlefront II had full Yaw/Pitch/Roll in space while still being arcade level approachable.The other thing I don't like here is the game's lore. In my opinion, it's just kind of depressing. Some people will like it I'm sure, but the vibe is a sort of technologically stagnant religious cult land, in a post apocalyptic future. Not sure who its for, maybe if you like 40k, but its not for me. To me it feel baked into the setting that you're never really accomplishing anything, nobody is really rebuilding from the apocalypse, its just endless low-level fighting between three weak factions, in the ruins of a once-great civilization, with no real hope that things will ever be better or different. Every mission ends with the robots sending in super powerful ship called a "reclaimer" which you're just supposed to run away from, like the rats you are. With a name like reclaimer, I kind of assume it just rebuilds the bots you kill, perpetuating the war forever. How inspiring. What a great sense of accomplishment I can feel from victory :(This feeling is not helped by the voice acting. It's fairly dry and serious, and overally tone and such adds to the feeling that nothing you're doing matters that much to the overall universe. Sure the VO lines from you're commanders may *say* that what you're doing is important and helping push back the robots, but the way they say it tells a different story. Despite the somewhat interesting initial vibe I get from the worldbuilding with its religious aspects, after playing for a bit, it just feels kind of flat and dead. A mildly interesting wallpaper in an otherwise plain room. You could replace "Metam" with "High Command" and "blessed" with "improved", etc., and I do not think it would feel much different because I don't think any of the religious elements or worldbuilding actually informs the gameplay much if at all, and I don't think there's enough "character" to any of the voice lines to really notice a change.
a nice game to play, played it during its early stages and performed a full 3-mission game solo as a pacifistOnly thing i dislike is how fidgety the physics feel when switching between ship and outside..
i'm off to a game that doesn't have this hardstuck issue
The game is very well polished and optimized.
If you're looking for a coop 3D FTL game, you'll be severely disappointed, as long as you don't mind the appalling lack of weapons and interactions.
It definitely delivers everything it offers, even though most of it is riddled with ups and downs of % boosts. If you scratch that out, there is nothing meaningful to play with.Additionally, there is no way to play offline as the game is always online, and there is not exactly a P2P hosting. Your host will ALWAYS go through a middleman server, and this will cause lag. It doesn't matter much in this game as there is 0 precision combat, which is limited to ship vs ship, but I have to point that out. Again, ALWAYS ONLINE.I recommend it, but with a huge BUYERS BEWARE tag.
This really is a very fun game. It's somewhat unique in that it's entirely built around first-person multi-crew spaceship gameplay and supports up to 6 players in PVE co-op (god forbid anyone have more than 4 friends...). I really like that it's a roguelite because this gives it some good potential for replayability while also reducing the amount of commitment needed to play it when compared to long-form multiplayer sandbox/survival games. It also supports saving after a mission if you want to end early, and supports players coming and going mid mission for added scheduling flexibility. It's an intense, non-competitive, friendly multiplayer game where everyone has a role, and you get to crew a space ship together!I wish I could leave it there but I do have to address some of the issues with it. It's quite expensive for the amount of content in the game. It doesn't take long to reach max level (~25 hours), and it takes even less time to experience all the mission content the game has to offer (~15 hours). There's very few mission types, very few viable builds for longer runs (looking at you energy gatling), and after a certain point you're pretty much guaranteed to die if your ship takes a single hit even with maxed out shields. Additionally the game gets VERY laggy the longer a run goes on, I assume due to the increased enemy spawns.It doesn't appear that the developers are completely done with this game, they had a pretty substantial update in April 2025, but the game does need more content for longevity. It needs rebalancing of weapons and builds so that energy weapons aren't so dominant, new mission types and bosses, and perhaps a bit more lore & story content to promote player investment. Adding some more scavenger class content would also be nice. All in all, I have some high hopes for the future of the game and will continue to play it with my friends. Metem Preserve You!
We almost completed a mission when I blew all of us out of an airlock and the ship exploded.
10/10 would open an airlock with the safety disabled again.There is a solo configuration ship, but I found it to be quite difficult to operate successfully at this early playtime amount. With several friends on normal it's just enough chaos to be highly enjoyable.
I really wanted to like this game. The core of the game is fun, but there are serious issues it needs to address.Variety: There NEEDS to be more variety in order to really embrace the rouge-like aspect that makes it interesting. There should be more options for weapons, more abilities, more unique relics that change how the ship works. There aren't enough interesting options for each class to feel unique and really shine.Loot boxes: As nice as it is to be able to customize your character, no one wants loot boxes for cosmetics. An in-game currency that you collect by completing missions, and can spend in a store at the hub would have been a better fit.Skill trees: It's nice having levels where you can feel some progression but without real build variety I'm not sure of the point. And even when you do fully complete a skill tree, a lot of the progress feels wasted.Dead game time: There's always dead time for at least one player (and usually more) on the ship. If you pick the "engineer" skill tree you spend time repairing the ship when its damaged, but doing the small repairs on the ship gets tedious and there's no tangible reward. Fixing internal malfunctions doesn't heal the ship or improve ship abilities like damage/attack speed/shield recovery > if you want to heal the ship you have to attach hull repair plates outside of the ship but while it's moving you just get launched around space. So instead, you have to stand around, wait for the thrusters to cool down, and do a helldivers-esque arrow mini game. Way too much time just waiting around, making your "class" feel pointless.Bugs: There are so so many game breaking and frustrating bugs. Some examples of known issues:
When warping, the life support breaks and your ship will constantly overheat and kill your whole crew unless you build extra life support (if you're lucky enough to have enough space and supplies).
Enemies shoot through objects/walls regularly but there are some enemies (electromorphs) that continuously do damage and drain the ship of power. Occasionally after you kill the electromorph their weapons don't despawn and they continue to shoot and drain your power. There's nothing you can do about it because the enemy is dead but their lasers follow the ship.It just feels like this is still in early beta and it's incredibly frustrating spending 1-2 hours on a run only to lose to something not your fault.
152 Hours In: Definitely RecommendAfter sinking 152 hours into the game and unlocking all the achievements, I can confidently say it’s worth recommending. The game runs smoothly, with only a few minor bugs (nothing game-breaking or too annoying). One thing worth noting is that the game ran perfectly fine on my gaming laptop, which is over a decade old. I didn’t have to drop all the settings to the lowest levels, which was a pleasant surprise.I’ve primarily played with anywhere from 1 to 5 friends, but I’ve also had a few solo sessions. The gameplay is straightforward once you grasp the mechanics, yet it remains fun and, depending on your role, challenging for the group. Everyone tends to have a preferred role, but we make an effort to cycle through them so everyone gets a chance to experience different playstyles.I’m hoping the developers add more missions, boss types, additional ship variants, weapon options, ship mods, and so on, to boost replayability and depth. As it stands, the Pilot role is by far the most crucial (and, ironically, the least popular among my friends), followed by the Engineer. A good Gunner can make a huge difference, but isn’t essential, and the Scavenger role is more of a situational need.Once you’ve taken down the bosses and faced a few interdictions, the difficulty ramps up dramatically. Even the smallest enemy fighters will strip 10 points of hull with a single hit, leading to moments where bad luck can cost you your ship. Our best run so far is around 30 consecutive missions before our fully maxed-out ship became a “wet tissue” after an unfortunate malfunction surge stalled us, turning our ship into space junk.All in all, if you’re looking for a co-op game to enjoy with a decent-sized group of friends—where players can join or leave mid-mission at their leisure—this game is a solid pick. The price point is very reasonable compared to most games, and if more content is added, it will definitely be a steal.
Bought this game before I knew it was using Generative AI, by the time I found out, I couldn't get a refund. If they ever get rid of the AI assets, I'll consider playing the game and changing my review.
I wanted my money back within an hour of buying the game but since all my friends seemed to be having fun I decided to suck it up and keep playing it. We only played for a few hours though and we haven't played for weeks, so I guess now's as good a time as any to write a review.Objectively: there is not enough for any one person to do. It's about 1-2 person's worth of gameplay split up between 5-6 people.Subjectively: They don't seem to know what they want their world-feel and atmosphere to be? It's sort of half-hearted marvel/gearbox snark, weirdly interspersed with WAY TOO INTENSE sci-fi jargon that kinda clashes with the overarching attitude of goofy "Hey Guys We're Having a Meme Time" 'face customization' and in-world voice lines.Finally: I know they said using genAI was an 'artistic decision' but it absolutely was NOT. It doesn't sound bad enough to be quirky/retro or good enough to be convincingly futuristic (They would've had to hire a voice actor for that.) It sounds like just a stock "phone tech support" voice clone that they used without almost any post-processing, all because they didn't want to pay a real actor. It really does not feel any more artistic than, for example, a Starbucks latte.
Game itself sounds fun.
Idea is fun.
Game costs to much to talk my friends into buying it.
Game does not have save states so you are expected to play the whole session (2h) in one go.TLDR:
The game expects you to find up to 6 players(I believe this is the most fun) to buy this game for 25 euros each, find a time slot where everyone can play for 2.5 hours.Buy this game if you know you have a friend group that has the time that students have with the money that students don't have.This game will probably be refunded for now.
If I manage to make a birthday Lan party or something where the gift would be buying this game for themselves or something, I will come back.
too expensive for what little content it offers. needs more content but all you get are pointless dev plays streams and crossplay when the game is so empty.
