The Crew is a bizarre franchise. The primary sport was targeted on a narrative involving automotive gangs and criminals. The second sport saved the map from the primary—a scaled-down recreation of the US—however ditched the narrative and targeted on exploration and including extra kinds of autos to function. Now the third sport, The Crew Motorfest, has excised all that to turn out to be a Forza Horizon-like open-world racer with its personal massive pageant situated on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. And whereas Motorfest is a beautiful automotive sport that presents a wackier and wilder tackle Horizon’s open world, its odd development hampers a number of the liberty and attainable enjoyable.
It’s inconceivable to speak about The Crew Motorfest, out now on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, with out speaking about Forza Horizon. The brand new open-world driving sport from Ubisoft Ivory Tower shares a lot DNA with Xbox’s widespread franchise that it’s arduous to think about The Crew Motorfest present with out Horizon.
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Motorfest opens with flashy and spectacular introduction sequence, very Horizon-like, that has you quickly hopping into varied vehicles in the midst of totally different occasions, offering fast tastes of what to anticipate. As soon as that’s over, you meet some unbearable individuals who discuss how the Motorfest pageant might be a lot enjoyable and the way they’re so pumped that you simply’re right here to expertise all of it. Additionally they promise that, when you drive effectively sufficient, you may find yourself successful the entire thing, though it doesn’t actually look like a contest. Then you definitely set off throughout the open world of Oahu competing in varied occasions that function colourful decorations, loud music, and over-the-top moments. If it didn’t say “Motorfest” on the entrance of the field, I would assume Microsoft had stealth-released a brand new Forza Horizon and slipped it onto my Xbox Sequence X whereas I slept.
As soon as previous the intro, I rapidly found how The Crew Motorfest is totally different from Horizon, for higher and for worse.
Planes, boats, and vehicles
Let’s begin with the great things! Motorfest’s big selection of autos spans extra than simply vehicles and vehicles, letting you drive boats, planes, dirtbikes, road bikes, and even ATVs. These automobile varieties all deal with fully in a different way, every with their very own quirks, reminiscent of having to handle how out of the water your boat is or isn’t.
Even higher, and in an indication of how Ubisoft’s sport is keen to be extra wacky than Forza, you’ll be able to change between your present automotive, airplane, and boat at any level. And I imply at any level. I used to be flying in my airplane and determined to modify to my automotive, simply to see if the sport would let me. It did, and I used to be in a position to crash-land my automotive and drive away with no problem. This rapidly grew to become my journey technique of selection once I wished to avoid wasting time. I’d fly towards my vacation spot after which swap out the airplane for a automotive and crash into the realm like a Ford torpedo. It by no means obtained outdated.
Sadly, not less than within the sport’s first dozen hours, the planes and boats really feel like foolish distractions and never totally developed components of the sport. Most occasions early on don’t use them, and I discovered my speedboat obtained little use because the map doesn’t really feel designed for it. Nonetheless, it’s rad that I can simply fly up into the skies above Hawai’i, flip into a ship, and slam down on high of a soccer subject or race monitor and the sport doesn’t punish me in any respect.
Whereas Motorfest allows you to go wild in its open world, dropping automotive bombs and browsing mountains with boats, the sport’s precise occasions and development are the precise reverse.
So many vehicles, so few choices
The Crew Motorfest is full of varied playlists containing themed occasions that function about seven or so races or different driving segments. These playlists usually function various kinds of gameplay and have hosts that discuss to you throughout the races. You may do an ordinary lap-based race, then a drag race with its personal controls and mechanics. After that, you is perhaps challenged with some drifting and even driving a truck that has no brakes by an impediment course. Plenty of the playlists are a blast, providing up inventive and fascinating occasions.
I used to be shocked by simply how a lot selection is packed in Motorfest. Each playlist feels distinctive, and the sport is continually throwing new concepts at you. At one level I used to be driving F1 vehicles and managing my tires and when to pit, then later I used to be cruising across the coast of Hawai’i in a Nineteen Fifties convertible utilizing pictures, not a contemporary GPS, to assist information me to my location. And but later I used to be collaborating in a Japanese-themed underground racing circuit full with a crew of racers who heckled and praised me as I drifted round neon-drenched streets and alleys.
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Nonetheless, each single one among these playlists—I’ve performed by the primary seven up to now—forces you to drive a particular automotive that you could’t customise or improve. This makes the vehicles you unlock and improve within the open world really feel much less helpful, and makes it arduous to develop any type of reference to them. And whereas it’s true that Forza Horizon typically has fixed-car occasions, it additionally options loads of races and different actions that permit gamers select their very own vehicles and develop favorites that they improve over time.
That’s not likely how The Crew Motorfest operates, which is extraordinarily complicated and irritating. I saved questioning why I even had all these vehicles in my storage if the sport not often let me use them in occasions.
When you full a playlist, you unlock the flexibility to replay its occasions with any automotive you need, which is good. However I’m unsure why seemingly each single race on this sport must be so locked down. Moreover, when you end a playlist, you unlock challenges linked to it and its theme. Weirdly, lots of the challenges ask you to carry out particular feats within the occasions you simply accomplished utilizing vehicles from the identical playlist.
Positive, you’ll be able to ignore the challenges, however you then received’t progress by each’s battle pass-like reward system, lacking out on credit, vehicles, and new automobile components. All of it simply feels very unusual, like the sport desires you to do every little thing twice in a small collection of autos. This development system feels fully at odds with the sillier open-world motion that occurs between the playlists.
Forza Horizon: Irritating Version
Different little annoyances additionally begin to grind after some time, like being unable to fast-travel to massive sections of the island till finishing a particular variety of playlists, or what number of challenges ask you to do sure issues in particular places, however don’t let you know the place these locations are or information you to them through a GPS marker.
You additionally begin each session of Motorfest on foot in a bizarre hub space that’s largely empty except for different gamers and their parked vehicles. You may stroll round and vote on vehicles you suppose look cool, and uh…not a lot else. This odd purgatory doesn’t add something to the expertise past an additional layer between me and the implausible really feel of driving vehicles at very excessive speeds or dropping Ford Mustangs on mountains.
The Crew Motorfest jogs my memory of an outdated, badass muscle automotive that wants some work. It may be enjoyable to drive, it seems cool as hell, and with some persistence, it should get you the place it’s essential to go. However it additionally has a nasty gearbox, stalls at cease lights, and isn’t dependable sufficient to plan your week round. You must combat it to get pleasure from it.
And to be clear: There’s a lot to get pleasure from in Motorfest, like its beautiful open world or the way in which it allows you to combine vehicles, planes, and bikes in foolish methods. And a few people may desire the sport’s tightly managed and targeted method to development. I additionally assume PlayStation gamers may get pleasure from having a Forza Horizon-like sport on their PS5 or PS4.
Nonetheless, I feel Xbox gamers and people who desire extra freedom of their open-world racing video games may simply return to Forza itself as a substitute of placing up with Motorfest’s odd annoyances and shortcomings.
Purchase The Crew Motorfest: Amazon | Greatest Purchase | GameStop
