Void Crew [PlayStation 5] | REVIEW

When Void Crew works, it REALLY works. This co-op roguelite spaceship adventure thrives on communication, split-second decision-making, and the kind of teamwork that only comes from barely holding a starship together while everything is exploding around you… literally. After spending some time with it over the last week, I’ve come away impressed, if occasionally frustrated, by what it has to offer.

Check out some screenshots down below:

At its core, Void Crew is about learning how to run a spaceship through deadly scenarios under immense pressure. Every ship has a range of systems that need to be kept online: shields to manage, weapons to arm and reload, engines to power, and drives to charge for escape, and with so many cogs in place that are vital to your survival, there’s a lot of pressure to keep on top of them. On top of this, missions also require you to leave the ship, floating around your surroundings to salvage wrecks, collect resources, or even patch up hull breaches… yeah, there’s a lot going on, and the impetus is on the player to deal with it all. The game makes these tasks simple to perform individually, but layered together in the heat of battle and without any forgiving sense of automation, they become a frantic balancing act.

The core gameplay loop is structured around roguelite-style pilgrimages: essentially run-based missions that challenge you to survive, earn resources, and push further each time, with each embracing a roguelite structure. You and your crew drop into the void, choose objectives – ranging from gathering specific resources, powering beacons, defending allies, or simply destroying enemy ships – and work to complete them before reinforcements overwhelm you. And if you survive? You’ll unlock  a variety of rewards, experience points, and move on to the next phase of your pilgrimage. Dying, on the other hand, wipes most of your progress. It’s high stakes, baby.

Each mission throws curveballs that keep you scrambling, whether it’s repairing hull breaches, juggling power between shields and weapons, braving trips outside of the ship to patch up damage while enemies swarm, or dealing with the presence of a particularly vicious enemy (I absolutely HATE the bombers). The pressure rarely lets up, and that’s what makes even minor victories satisfying – we’ve had plenty of laughs even in failure, watching our best-laid plans unravel in chaos, but the most memorable moments come when we barely scrape through, our ship bruised and battered, yet somehow making it back with objectives complete. Those desperate, down-to-the-wire victories are what kept us coming back for more, and they REALLY showcase just how exhilarating and fun Void Crew can be.

The thing that stands out the most when playing Void Crew is just how essential teamwork is. The game doesn’t let anyone sit back and coast, and whether you’re piloting, manning the guns, repairing systems, or scavenging for materials, everyone has a job to do. The three of us tinkered with different roles, swapping when we felt like mixing things up and instructing each other in the heat of battle… or giving each other abuse when someone doesn’t do what their supposed to (all in the name of survival, of course). There’s a real buzz when everything clicks and your crew hums along like a machine, with Void Crew offering a co-op experience that’s both chaotic and deeply satisfying. During our most recent session, we really felt things clicking into place, and whilst we still died (a lot), it has made the experience all the more enjoyable.

“Void Crew is chaotic and punishing, but it’s also a rewarding co-op experience that shines brightest when teamwork holds it together.”

At the same time, getting to this point has not always been easy. The opening tutorial did little to ease us in… I mean… if anything, it felt overwhelming and put us off playing – we were bombarded with systems, controls, and mechanics, and for a while it seemed like too much to track. But once we got into the flow, Void Crew just started to make sense. The more time we spent, the more natural it became to balance power management, repairs, gunnery, and navigation, and what was intimidating at first began to feel like second nature with experience.

Make no mistake though, Void Crew is a tough game. If even one of us was off the ball, the punishment came QUICKLY. Plenty of times, things spiralled so quickly that it felt like there was nothing we could do to recover, whilst boss battles in particular were tough as nails, often forcing us to throw everything we had at them only to be met with constant failure. Or maybe we’re just bad players, who knows?

Crafting and progression add rewarding depth to Void Crew’s structure too. Blueprints earned from missions let you build new modules for your ship, and whether focusing on firepower, stronger shields, or scavenging tools, their use is vital to your continued progression. We often found we had to change things up on the fly, and with each of us having our own ideas how to handle a particular situation or where priorities should lie, it makes for some creative disagreements that could often be met with varying success. As you unlock more options, experimentation becomes part of the fun, whilst cosmetic rewards add to the multiplayer dynamic too. Every time one of us picked up a new suit or helmet, we’d gloat and show it off, turning progression into another source of laughs (and sulking when one player in particular didn’t seem to unlock any new helmets… boohoo, Callum).

With roughly 12 hours or so under our belts, it still feels like we’re only scratching the surface of what the game has to offer. Void Crew’s procedural missions and branching paths mean each run introduces new variables, enemies, or modifiers, and some routes through a pilgrimage escalate the difficulty significantly, forcing us to rethink strategies we thought we had nailed down. The deeper we went, the more confident we become in juggling our roles and pushing our luck, but it’s clear that there’s still a lot left to uncover. That sense of gradually growing into the game is a strong motivator to keep coming back, and with plenty of unlockables to offer, you constantly feel like you’re rewarded.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Visually, Void Crew is a mixed bag on the PlayStation 5. The overall presentation lacks polish, and at times the graphics feel plain and the edges all jagged. Lighting is flat in places, and some environments come off messy – particularly when moving through cloudy areas where it’s hard to make sense of what’s happening and visuals effects seemingly disappear around you. But then from nowhere, it’d surprise us, with explosions popping with satisfying intensity and the general sense of scale in combat bringing an exhilarating atmosphere that added some real spectacle to each showdown. The polish may not always be there, but the excitement of battling in space? It usually made up for it.

That being said, it is worth noting that Void Crew does have some imperfections. Movement feels slower and heavier than you might expect in a space game, which took some of the shine off piloting – the camera in particular could make life difficult too, especially when trying to track the sheer volume of ships and attacks across all directions. I noticed a couple of moments of slowdown during some particularly intense sequences, whilst there’d also be moments where we’d seemingly bug through the environment (most notably when one of our team was navigating around the outside of the ship and another was piloting it). I had a couple of crashes too, which was a bit of a pain seeing as it’d halt a run. It could’ve done with a bit more fine-tuning then, and whilst there’s nothing totally game-breaking, the blemishes could be frustrating.

Developer: Hutlihut Games
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, PC
Website: https://www.focus-entmt.com/en/games/void-crew