[Review] The Crew 2

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The Crew 2 is an open world racing video game developed by Ivory Tower and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is the sequel to 2014's The Crew 2. It features a persistent open world environment for free-roaming across a scaled-down recreation of the United States. The game allows players to control a variety of vehicles including cars, motorcycles, boats, and airplanes. The game was released on June 29, 2018.

The Crew was an acquired taste. If you put in the time to max out your favorite cars with the best gear and you stuck around long enough for the updates and expansions, it was a gem of a game. Real comfort food. But, most people I know never made it that far. They understandably bounced off.

In a lot of ways, The Crew 2 feels less like a sequel and more like a do-over. There are still loads of cars and traditional street races, and you can still head out on a coast-to-cast road trip across Ubisoft's greatest-hits rendition of the United States of America. But now, you're less restricted. At the simple click of a thumbstick, your car can seamlessly transform into a boat or a plane, opening up some ridiculous opportunities to goof off with friends and strangers in the shared open world.

As much as I appreciate Ubisoft taking another crack at this concept, The Crew 2's broad scope leaves it feeling unfocused and unrefined at times. It's not quite the clear-cut improvement I hoped it'd be.

The game features a nonlinear story, that follows the unnamed player character as they go to become a racing icon in the United States by winning in all racing disciplines available in the game. There are four disciplines: Street Racing, Off Road, Freestyle and Pro Racing. In Street Racing, the player is assisted by Latrell. In Off Road, the player is assisted by Tucker "Tuck" Morgan. In Freestyle, the player is assisted by Sofia and her father. In Pro Racing, the player is assisted by Alexis.

The original game's overly serious revenge tale has been ditched in favor of something far more easygoing. The Crew 2 adopts a much friendlier tone and splits itself up into four distinct families, each with their own progression path and loosely themed activities. That means if you don't want to muck around with boats or planes, for the most part, you don't have to. You play as an anonymous racer dreaming of fame and fortune, so instead of earning XP for pulling off cool tricks or winning races, you earn followers. The bigger your following, the more events you'll unlock with all four families.

Here's a quick rundown. The Street squad includes standard street races, drift challenges, drag racing, and the tense-as-hell hypercar events that'll have you soaring across state lines in 20-minute-plus tests of endurance. The Offroad family plays fast and loose, a style that lends itself well to the open-ended map. They've got rally raid, motocross, and rally cross. The Freestyle folks host trick-centric events like aerobatics, jet sprint, and monster trucks, the latter of which is a true highlight. You get to do flips, spins, and loops in a gigantic skate park. It's the best! Finally, there's Pro Racing. This family rounds out the pack with disciplines like powerboat, touring car, air race, and alpha grand prix.

As for the story, it's little more than cookie-cutter fluff. I felt zero attachment to any of the characters in any of the families, and if you're anything like me, you'll want to hammer your way through the cutscenes that pop up from time to time. The game is perfectly happy to let you skip them. Like its predecessor, The Crew 2 is about making your own fun. This is a driving sandbox, plain and simple. So even if the story is totally forgettable, I can't say I mind. I'm just glad it doesn't get in the way.

Game Development

The Crew 2 was developed by Ivory Tower, a subsidiary of publisher Ubisoft. Parts of the development was based on the feedback they received on the previous installment. One major critique was that players did not have enough freedom to explore the world and do missions. To solve the problem, Ubisoft overhauled the game's progression system and decided not to focus much on the game's narrative, which would require players to complete missions in a very specific order, and instead divided the game into several hub worlds, with each representing a unique driving style. Players can stay in these hubs to play the missions that interest them and do not need to force themselves to visit other hubs to play through missions that do not interest them. The Crew's downloadable content, Wild Run, which was positively reviewed by players, also prompted the studio to focus more on developing content regarding offroad racing.

As the game features a variety of vehicles, Ivory Tower also needed to improve the game's graphics. According to the game's producer, Stephane Jankowski, these new types of vehicles allow players to explore the open world with new perspectives. For instance, flying a plane means that players can see objects that are very far away. As a result, the engine had to be modified to significantly improve the game's draw distance. The engine was also updated to include other enhancements, such as atmospheric clouds and realistic vegetation. The game's control was designed to be accessible but "hard to master".

The game was announced in May 2017 during Ubisoft's earning's call. It was revealed at E3 2017 accompanied with a cinematic trailer and gameplay demonstrations. The game was originally set to be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 16, 2018, however, in early December 2017 Ubisoft announced that the game was postponed towards mid- or late-2018, in order to give developers more time to deliver a quality product. A closed alpha for PC was held from 14 to 19 of March 2018 and a closed beta was held from 31 of May to 4 of June of the same year. The game was released worldwide on June 29, 2018.

To entice players of its predecessor to return for The Crew 2, Ubisoft implemented a reward program, which allowed users to unlock up to 18 cars, if they had achieved certain milestones in The Crew  before its successor was released. Furthermore, all players of The Crew  automatically receive the 2014 Ferrari 458 Speciale upon the game's release. Also, the publisher announced the touring car version of the 2017 Mercedes-AMG C 63 and the 2017 Harley-Davidson Iron 883 as pre-order bonus, whereas players ordering the Deluxe or Gold edition will receive further vehicles, with the gold edition also including the season pass. In addition to the reward system, Ubisoft also held a closed beta for players who signed up, as well as an open beta that occurred on June 21 until June 24. Those who participated in the open beta received a gold helmet in the full version of the game. Ubisoft also plans to have a "King of the Road Trip" competition, where po[CENSORED]r YouTubers and streamers will get a chance to compete in a competition, where the players race against other players that are in the same region as them.

Needless to say, The Crew 2 has a lot going on. There are also quick skill challenges like slalom and escape, special Live Xtrem Series races with mid-match vehicle swaps, and photo hunts that send you all around the map to snap pictures of wildlife or landmarks. It seems Ubisoft wanted something for everyone, but it didn't necessarily devote the same amount of time and energy into every facet.

At first glance, The Crew 2's scrunched United States map looks similar to the first game's, but it's not an exact replication. The up-close details have changed, partially to account for players' ability to travel by air and sea. Some cities like Las Vegas are just spectacular with the new lighting effects. Others feel less lively and lived-in than they should. They've lost a touch of their personality. While the sequel does look better overall, rural areas are still much too sparse in a generic-open-world sort of way. I could overlook those flaws in The Crew, but it's harder to let them slide a second time. There are also semi-regular issues with trees and vegetation popping in. For me, it's a mild distraction.

Aside from bad signposting in offroad challenges and occasional wonkiness with tricks not registering, I enjoyed most of the events (at least when the AI wasn't back on its rubber-banding bullshit). It's tough to put a microscope up to every type of vehicle, but I'll at least cover the basics.

The car handling, in general, feels like an immediate step up from the first game. It sits in this middle ground between arcade and sim racing, with some nitty-gritty customization options that let you lean a bit more in the latter direction if you prefer. As you earn loot drops for your vehicles and kit them out with incrementally better parts, things only improve from there. On that note, the process of swapping in new equipment has been greatly streamlined. It now only takes a matter of seconds.

Boats and planes control more or less like you'd expect. Some handle better than others, but they all feel generally consistent when placed alongside The Crew 2's car physics. The bigger boats have a nice weight to them, and I like that you have to account for waves. Planes, on the other hand, tend to be more hit or miss. The ones designed specifically for aerial tricks are nimble yet nuanced enough to be satisfying; the ones built for speed lack maneuverability and often leave me frustrated.

After a few days with The Crew 2, I'm still trying to wrap up two of the storylines and slowly but surely max out my first of many vehicles. Not that I'm in a rush. The game is most fun when I don't have a particular goal in mind. I like to pick a random spot on the map and take the long and winding scenic route. If something crazy happens along the way, I'll go from there. I might enter an impromptu freeway race with a random player that ends horribly. Or maybe I'll see a formation of planes dropping a trail of smoke overhead and try to get in on that action. There was also that time I tried to get another player to boost with me under the moonlight for a photo challenge. I may have come across like a stalker.

Gameplay

Similar to its predecessor, The Crew 2 is a racing game. In the game, players assume control of a racer, who is trying to work their way to become successful in multiple disciplines. It features a persistent open world environment for racing and free-roaming across a scaled-down recreation of the contiguous United States. In addition to cars, players can control other kinds of vehicles including airplanes, motorcycles, and powerboats. Each vehicle has its own control physics, meaning that game play is different when players are controlling different types of vehicles. Players can switch between controlling air, land and sea vehicles instantly. The game features four different hub worlds, with each having their own theme and playstyle. These themes include off-road, street racing, pro racing, and freestyle. Both vehicle and character customization will be featured in the game. Similar to the first game, it will place a huge emphasis on multiplayer. It also features a cooperative multiplayer mode, which allows players to join different rally raid events together. This mode can also be played solo with artificial intelligence. The Crew 2 requires a constant internet connection to play.

Once you earn enough followers, you'll reach icon status, and from there, you're in the endgame. Along with bonus loot drops and special vehicles, leveling up further will award you points that can unlock passive benefits. You can invest in higher-quality loot, earning more currency, decreasing the effect of offroad bumps, and more. There's a long list of perks to pour points into and they're a nice incentive to keep playing. It never ends. That said, proper PvP is sorely missed; it's not coming until winter.

Ubisoft has already laid out its early post-release plans, and while I'm happy knowing free content updates are on the way, The Crew 2 isn't as big of an upgrade as I would've liked. I already have the sense that much like the original game, it'll take months if not years for the sequel to truly come into its own. What's here at launch is a good starting point, but it's a little underwhelming in depth and polish.

I think the developers made the right call by branching out with planes and boats and going for a more approachable play-what-you-like format. They just spread themselves too thin trying to cram it all in.

 

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Requirements

Minimum:

OS: Win 7 64
Processor: Intel Core i5-2400S 2.5GHz / AMD FX-6100
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7870 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
VRAM: 2GB
System Memory: 8 GB RAM
Storage: 55 GB Hard drive space
DirectX: 11 Compatible Graphics Card 

Recommended:

OS: Win 10 64
Processor: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz / AMD Ryzen R5 1600
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 470 MSI Gaming X 8GB or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
VRAM: 6GB
System Memory: 8 GB RAM
Storage: 55 GB Hard drive space

 

 

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