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[Kagus]

So, there was a movement started by one of the developers of We Need To Go Deeper, wherein they wanted to define a better search/organizational term for the specific subgenre that the game fell into (because, let's be honest, Steam's "Online Co-op" list is a complete mess). To do this, he encouraged all interested parties to label similar games with the tag "Crew Sim".

A Crew Sim is a game, like WNTGD, where a number of players work together at doing specific tasks as part of a greater unit. Things like Blackwake and Guns of Icarus, where individuals play the part of captain or pilot while other players work on repairing and maintaining the necessary subsystems, or aiming, firing and reloading the weapons. Other examples include Pulsar: Lost Colony, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Barotrauma, Airmen, "shipless" games like Overcooked or No Heroes Here, and of course Star Trek Bridge Crew for VR.


Personally, I'm a huge fan of games like this. I even thoroughly enjoyed my time as a powder monkey on the claustrophobic gundeck of a galleon in Blackwake, scurrying around madly while never seeing more of the battle than the stray cannonball blasting its way through the hull and into my face. I love teamwork-heavy games that rely on actual cohesion between players in order to keep things working smoothly (or at all).

The Crew Sim tag has yet to be properly adopted by Steam's algorithms, but with a few more people suggesting it here and there it should catch on and help define the genre, and possibly give these games a bit more recognition (even if only to those who are already fans of similar games).

I figured I'd make a thread to mention the movement, and also to talk about games like this and share experiences and recommendations.

[Ozyton]

Crew Sim is a pretty good description for this genre, and I've always wanted more like it (that my friends actually play). I've never used the steam tagging function before but I might if it helps get these sorts of games their own categorization.

There's a 'game' called Steel Beasts that I've never really seen in action myself, but have heard about. A game like that would be really cool to me, if it weren't for the ridiculous price. Something like Pulsar: Lost Colony but with a land vehicle.

Games that have multiple crew-served vehicles at a time would be really cool though. I believe Artemis: Bridge Simulator sort of tried doing that but I have no idea how well it was implemented.

Here's a list of known crew simulators taken from their steam discussion post:

Spoiler: List of Crew Sims (click to show/hide)

- We Need To Go Deeper
- Guns of Icarus Online/Alliance
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
- Barotrauma
- Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator
- Blackwake
- Sea of Thieves
- Star Trek Bridge Crew
- PULSAR: Lost Colony
- Elite Dangerous (via Multicrew ships)
- Airmen
- Iron Armada
- Castastronauts
- Affordable Space Adventures
- Abyss Crew
- S.U.B.
- Undercrewed
- Spaceteam
- Regular Human Basketball

[~Neri]

Space Station 13.

[jocan2003]

My first crew sim was starquest online now dead, then puzzle pirate and after that a couple moree i love that genre to and the tag fits the bill.

[KittyTac]

Barotrauma.

[IWishIWereSarah]

I didn't find some 2-3 of the list, but added the tag to most.

I also wonder if Worlds Adrift should be on the list : half the game is a crew sim, the other half is "gather resources and build the ship".


About these games, which one would you recommend to my group of friends :
 - we're usually between 3 and 5 online at the same time.
 - most of the players are really casual (as such, we'd prefer a game that you can understand and enjoy within the first hours, and that you can play without having to stay 2 consecutive hours).
 - we wouldn't want to spend  too much on the game (20€/$ per person is the max)
 - either in PvE with something to do other than "go there", or PvP but without big differences between casual crews and hardcore ones.

[Retropunch]

I have to say this is a difficult one - it would be my favourite genre, but I've yet to play a game that actually manages to 'do it'.

Most games in this genre are a bit arcade-y, and the ones that aren't are super rough round the edges and very early access-y.

The best time with one of these games I've had was with Artemis Bridge Simulator, but it's more of a sort of 'proof of concept' than an actual game. It's like 60% of the way to being an awesome star trek sim, and it works and it's fun, but it doesn't feel like it really has enough 'game' behind it yet so you have to sort of make your own adventure with it. Pulsar: Lost Colony is similar - it's good fun, but really rough round the edges and feels very much early access-y. 

Overall, I think this genre won't really be realised till we have more multi-crewing in Elite, and when/if Star Citizen releases properly. 

[Retropunch]

About these games, which one would you recommend to my group of friends :
 - we're usually between 3 and 5 online at the same time.
 - most of the players are really casual (as such, we'd prefer a game that you can understand and enjoy within the first hours, and that you can play without having to stay 2 consecutive hours).
 - we wouldn't want to spend  too much on the game (20€/$ per person is the max)
 - either in PvE with something to do other than "go there", or PvP but without big differences between casual crews and hardcore ones.

Probably the best would be Sea of Thieves - it's the most 'cohesive' one which would be fun for casual players and has fun PvE and PvP. Don't expect anything too deep though - it's very arcadey.

[IWishIWereSarah]

Sea of Thieves

My friends tried it when it came out, and though that there was not much variety in the things you could do, and I couldn't try it because I don't have windows 10...

It was a fun game (I watched and talked with them while they streamed for me) for a few hours, but it did not last after a week or two...
I wouldn't mind something a bit more "deep", as you say, too, since there is not much to do while traveling, and that traveling is nearly half the time of play ...

[Retropunch]

Sea of Thieves

My friends tried it when it came out, and though that there was not much variety in the things you could do, and I couldn't try it because I don't have windows 10...

It was a fun game (I watched and talked with them while they streamed for me) for a few hours, but it did not last after a week or two...
I wouldn't mind something a bit more "deep", as you say, too, since there is not much to do while traveling, and that traveling is nearly half the time of play ...

Unfortunately so many of the games in this genre are a bit shallow. Pulsar is a bit deeper, but you'd need your friends to be up for a few good length sessions to get into it. I'd also *strongly* recommend that everyone reads the online manual and wiki for their role thoroughly first - nothing is explained in game at all, and you'll just end up getting blown up and not realising why.

I've also heard good things about Blackwake but I believe it's somewhat arcade-y from what I've watched. 

[Kagus]

Blackwake can be a bit arcade-y to some extent, but I think you'd need to really define what "arcade-y" means to you in order to say how much Blackwake is/isn't like that. Public matches can be extremely hit and miss, and you're almost guaranteed to run into at least one S.S. Hitler or The Good Ship Coonfucker, but every now and then you get a good communicative captain and a crew that actually listens to said captain.

The game's primarily split between cannon bombardment where you have to pack, load, ram and aim the cannons for a long-range blasting while also repairing hull breaches and manning the pump (the least interactive role, but one of the most important ones when there's a breach); and the boarding/raiding portion where ships collide and a few salty seamen eject themselves onto the enemy boat, at which point it's a lot like any other FPS in that the hitboxes never really make sense and you're always reloading at the most inopportune times. Chaotic, fast-paced fun, learning to be a decent crewman takes a pretty short time since it's mostly just "do what your captain tells you to do", but learning to be a decent captain is a whole other scenario.


There's also Barotrauma. Can't beat the price at $FREE, but the objectives usually are just "go there". But in order to "go there", you need to pilot a nuclear submarine through a frozen alien ocean that's teeming with life. The basics don't take much time at all to pick up, and are horribly explained in the tutorial. There are a lot of advanced things you can do once you learn how stuff like wiring and atomic fission work, but you can die perfectly well having never learned how to do those things properly. Each game generally takes between 0-30 minutes, all depending on how crash-happy either the pilot or the game happens to be feeling. Note: The autopilot function is out to kill you.


Guns of Icarus will eat you alive if you're not willing to put in the time and effort to learn the meta and get better at performing your role's specific tasks. Alliance might be a bit calmer when doing PvE, but I've never tried that part of it so I wouldn't know.


Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime seems like a more "casual" fit in that it's easier to pick up and play and is also reasonably inexpensive, but it's local co-op only... And from what little I've heard, it can sometimes be just a bit too easy/repetitive at times. Regular Human Basketball is perfectly normal and standard basketball for ordinary bipedal humans that enjoy common human pastimes such as Entertainment, Smiling, and Ball. Quite cheap, but the scope of the game is somewhat limited and may run dry for those who aren't driven to become the greatest b-ballers to ever b-ball.


Also, a note regarding the list of games mentioned earlier: "Castastronauts" is actually Catastronauts, and is basically "Overcooked, but FTL". Unfortunately, like Overcooked before it, it's local co-op only (curses!). There are also a couple games that aren't on Steam, such as Affordable Space Adventures (for the WiiU) and Spaceteam (a local phone/card game).

[IWishIWereSarah]

Thanks for the little reviews of all these games

Looking up Blackwake (to see how it compares to Sea of thieves), I found out that there are basically no players left... Average player number worldwide is less than 100, in the last 30 days...

I think we're going to try Barotrauma once we've go some free time, since it's free and weird

[Kagus]

Blackwake's playerbase kinda goes in waves (hah), with the development cycle leading to sharp rises and then dropoffs. Generally also goes on sale when numbers are low, to try and help stimulate the base.

[Kagus]

Necroing with a double post, but it is the holiday season after all...

I've been looking a bit more at Airmen, and judging from the promo stuff and some of the reviews, this seems to be like a kind of... I dunno, like a cross between Guns of Icarus and From the Depths. Or possibly more Blackwake with the boarding mechanics and FPS weapons.

It... Certainly seems interesting. One of those titles where you wonder "So... What's the catch? Nobody actually makes games that are as fun as this sounds, do they?", and I'm curious if anyone's tried it out.

There's apparently a free demo that I've gone ahead and downloaded, but I'd like to actually finish off my Hellsign LP before I get myself caught up in another game. No idea what the demo actually covers anyways.

[Ai Shizuka]

Multi-crew ships were one of the features that pulled me onto the Star Citizen hype train several years ago. I was thrilled thinking about flying a Constellation with real people manning the gun stations.
Then I realized it was going nowhere and sold my packages for a couple hundred € profit.