Review — The Crew 2
Explore the United States of America by car, bike, boat or plane and try to become one of the most iconic racers in The Crew 2.
In 2014, Ubisoft launched its ambitious racing game The Crew. The game’s selling point was its enormous map that was a scaled-down representation of the entire United States of America. Aside from that the game placed great emphasis on its multiplayer and featured a campaign where you infiltrated criminal groups while seeking vengeance for your murdered brother.
Go Extreme
With Wild Run and Calling All Cops, it became clear that the story of the game would not be a key factor in the game’s future. With the release of The Crew 2, the focus shifted almost entirely to racing and competitions. There is some light story about how you try to become an icon on a television show about racing. In order to reach this, you’ll become part of crews in different racing and freestyle disciplines. A big change compared to the first The Crew, is that you’ll also partake in event in the air and on water.
That’s right, aside from various racing disciplines by car and motorcycle, like street racing, rallycross, touring, MX, drifting etc, you’ll also race with speed boats and airplanes. The culmination of this mixture of events, is the Live Extreme series. These events are a bit like a triathlon, where the race consists of three consecutive disciplines and they’re like the cherry on the cake of the television show. As you slowly work your way up the ladder, you’ll unlock new disciplines, more events and more of the Live Extreme Series episodes. Becoming an Icon is the ultimate goal, but to reach that, you’ll have a lot of work ahead of you.
Born in the USA
While the developers made a 180° turn with the story in the franchise, The Crew 2 still features the massive map that represents the United States. The career mode will take you all over the USA and it’s fun to also explore the world by plane or boat this time. I initially was put off by the inclusion of these, and even after playing they feel a bit off in the career mode. But in free roam mode, they certainly are a great addition. Honestly, the free roam mode is where I actually had most fun in this game, as I was cruising through the streets of Los Angeles, flying over Mount Rockwell or sailing past the statue of Liberty.
While you’ll also visit iconic landscapes during races, it is in the free-roam mode that you can really soak up the environment and all the work and effort the team has put into this. What I also loved, is how easy you can go from one place to the next. A simple press of the button, opens up a map that features a schematic representation on which you can zoom to street level detail in 3D and just select nearly any place to drop onto. On a technical level, the game looks amazing, even if there are occasionally some minor hiccups. Even the graphics look pretty decent, albeit not amazing. But given how utterly huge the map is, it sure was in line with my expectations.
As the game features a persistent online mode, you’ll also encounter other players when free-roaming. and obviously you can undertake events with them. A later update will also include competitive racing, but it’s still weird this wasn’t included when the game released and I can image a lot of gamers will be frustrated with this decision. For now you’ll have to do with other player occasionally popping up near you or completing events in co-op mode.
The flip side of the coin
The lack of a competitive online multiplayer is a temporary problem, but the game has some other issues that prevent it from truly great. First off, it suffers badly from rubber-banding which can make racing against the A.I. an excruciating experience. You can literally wait for 20 seconds at the starting line after the race started and still catch up with ease, or vice-versa when you’ve taken a good lead on your opponents. This kind of A.I. behavior is really off-putting this day and age.
A second problem is with the variety of disciplines the game offers. There are so many different disciplines, that the game feels more like a taster for what it could have been. Take for example the Touring car discipline. There are only 4 events in that category and if this is a discipline you love, well, bad luck. Others, like street racing, have much more events, and this imbalance between events doesn’t really do the game any favors. I’m personally also not convinced that the RPG-ification of this game really works here. As it feels weird to collect green, blue and purple items to improve your car when you’re so-called taking part in professional racing.
Then again, this is a pure arcade game, though not necessarily with the best arcade controls I’ve seen, that puts the emphasis on fun and exploration. If you take the game for what it is, you’ll certainly have a good time, especially if you find enjoyment in just relaxing a bit and drive around in the free-roam mode. You know, I once read a message on Facebook about a father who’s kid wanted to play a game where he could ride a car and fly and sail. To great annoyance of his wife, he let his kid play Grand Theft Auto 5. But now, with The Crew 2, I think he might have had the perfect game.
3,5/5
Reviewed for Xbox One
