Is SpeedRunners 2 Worth Buying? An Honest Look at the Reviews

The honest version of “is it worth it” for SpeedRunners 2 has to hold two facts at once: the game launched to a Mixed Steam rating (57% positive in its first days) — and the thing it actually is, an eight-player competitive platformer at $9.99 with a committed update cadence, is genuinely good at its core. This page separates the criticism from the value question, so you can decide based on what you play games for.

What Players Consistently Praise

• The core racing. Even critical reviews describe the competitive platforming as excellent — the run/jump/slide/grapple loop, the elimination tension, the pick-up duels. The beginner guide covers exactly this layer.
• The visual glow-up. The HD rebuild of the retrofuturistic superhero world is the most-cited positive after the gameplay.
• Multiplayer breadth. Eight-player online races, crossplay across Steam/PS5/Xbox (Switch delayed — status here), couch play, LAN, Remote Play, 64-player tournaments. Few $10 games ship this many ways to play.

What Players Consistently Criticize

• The campaign is short. The most repeated complaint. The story mode added during Early Access is thin relative to expectations — treat it as an extended tutorial, not a reason to buy (the campaign guide sets expectations honestly).
• Visual clarity. In eight-runner races with effects flying, tracking your own runner is harder than it should be — a real competitive concern, and one patch notes may address.
• QoL regressions versus the original. Players report features the 2016 game had that the sequel currently lacks. Fair criticisms, fixable by patches — the update cadence is one to two months.
• The queue system. Launch-week matchmaking complaints, the kind that early patches most directly address.

The Verdict by Player Type

Buy now if: you have friends to race. The group experience — couch or online — is the strongest version of the game and the price of admission is one movie ticket. Start with the friends guide.

Buy now (cheaper) if: you have Game Pass. The game is on the service day one — the try-before-buy math is done for you.

Wait if: you wanted a substantial single-player campaign. That is the loudest criticism and the least patchable one in the short term.

Consider the original if: you are a solo/story-first player on a budget. SpeedRunners (2016) remains Very Positive with ~10,000 reviews, its servers are confirmed to stay online, and it regularly sells for pocket change. The comparison page breaks down every difference.

Launch Window or Later?

Arguments for now: the game is feature-complete, cheap, the community is forming, and the content pipeline is committed. Arguments for later: the QoL and clarity complaints are precisely the things monthly patches fix cheapest, and a polished 1.1 build may land within weeks. Either answer is defensible — the only clearly wrong move is expecting the full campaign the reviews say isn’t there.

Related Pages

• SpeedRunners 2 vs the original — every confirmed difference
• System requirements — can your PC run it
• Game modes — what there is to actually play
• Beginner guide — if you have already decided