Ubisoft’s premier racing franchise, The Crew, typically will get a nasty rap. Developer Ivory Tower had very sturdy ambitions proper from the beginning grid, offering drivers with an open world approximating your entire United States of America. It is an ideal concept; roam your entire nation from coast to coast along with your friends, taking over challenges and constructing a diversified assortment of automobiles. The Crew 2 doubled down, even offering new methods to get round with boats and planes. For us, nevertheless, the execution was by no means actually adequate, with a vapid open world and lacklustre driving. The Crew Motorfest is a unique story.
The third entry within the sequence is well our favorite, addressing our two largest gripes with earlier entries. For as commendable as it’s to present gamers a lot acreage to discover, all that area was by no means full of something memorable. Motorfest takes the reverse strategy, shrinking the map right down to Hawaii’s predominant island, O’ahu, and packing it with character. Although it is nonetheless a sizeable open world, it is so far more fascinating to drive by means of — lovely coastal roads lead into verdant forests, volcanic seashores, winding mountain trails, and Honolulu’s metropolis streets. It is a implausible setting that serves as a picturesque backdrop to the motion.
Talking of motion, the dealing with mannequin is a large enchancment on The Crew 2. Undoubtedly leaning in the direction of the arcade half of the spectrum, Motorfest strikes a pleasant stability; it is lots of enjoyable, throwing automobiles round with relative ease, however nonetheless requires you to concentrate and anticipate turns correctly. Probably the most spectacular factor is the dealing with feels good no matter racing self-discipline. Selection is the order of the day right here, and whether or not it is avenue racing, open-wheel indy automobiles, or off-roading, it is all strong and pleasant. Strong use of DualSense’s haptics and triggers is a pleasant bonus, too.
The one factor we’ll say is on-road driving can really feel a bit slide-happy, typically kicking the again out right into a drift slightly too eagerly. It is by no means too large a difficulty, however one thing to pay attention to. General, driving is far more entertaining right here, and you’ve got quantity of assists and car-specific tuning to tweak it to your liking. Boat and airplane dealing with is not fairly on the identical stage, however they’re nonetheless moderately enjoyable to mess with, and add much more selection.
The sport contextualises your highway journey in O’ahu with the titular Motorfest, an island-wide celebration of automobile tradition in all its permutations. A minimum of to start with, your predominant supply of racing comes from Playlists, which comprise themed occasions specializing in a selected area of interest or model. The 15 Playlists at launch embody Hawaii Scenic Tour, which emphasises the setting with some informal races; Off-Roading Addict, lining up occasions by means of muddy jungles and sandy seashores; and 911 Legacy, celebrating Porsche’s beloved sports activities automobile vary. They act like miniature campaigns, and make the lots of of automobiles and lots of race varieties properly digestible. Finishing Playlists rewards you with new automobiles and additional challenges to tackle, ultimately supplying you with lots of of issues to do across the island. That may sound overwhelming, however a wonderful thing about the sport is that the whole lot is elective; you possibly can ignore no matter components do not curiosity you.
There’s heaps to do whereas taking part in solo, however there are additionally some fascinating methods to interact in multiplayer. Clearly you possibly can create or be part of a crew and go for a drive along with your friends, and a handful of aggressive modes are good enjoyable too. Grand Race is a chaotic, 28-player race that has you hot-swapping between three automobile courses on the fly; Demolition Royale is a destruction derby spin on battle royale; and Summit Contest is a weekly problem comprising 9 themed occasions, and also you earn rewards relying on what number of cumulative factors you may have on the finish. Lastly, there’s the Customized Present, in which you’ll submit your decked-out rides for public vote. Unusually, there does not look like a strategy to simply matchmake for a easy race — at launch, no less than.
The Foremost Stage gives a seasonal wrapper for what you are doing, rewarding you with XP, in-game money, and extra as you full Playlists, discover the map, and compete in multiplayer with sure automobiles. The presentation right here might be fairly complicated with 4 XP bars and a wealth of themed occasions to partake in. It is not the one factor we discovered a little bit of a puzzle at first, both. The wealth of automobiles is implausible and there is lots of customisation choices, however you will shortly be inundated with improve components that each one have seemingly random additional perks or buffs along with the common stat will increase. Our recommendation is to equip no matter makes your automobile’s stats go up and be executed with it, lest you spend half your time worrying what all of the little icons imply.
The sheer quantity of stuff to do means Motorfest by no means leaves you bored, however typically it goes slightly far to suggest issues to you. In free roam, you will get notifications for challenges you’ve got accomplished or challenges you possibly can tackle, whereas Feats — easy goals like slaloms or pace traps — pepper the island and, if you happen to’re not paying consideration, can lead you away from the place you have been heading. On prime of the whole lot else, ghosts of different gamers will zoom previous, which might be distracting, and NPCs and your onboard AI assistant are consistently speaking. Often the dialogue is fascinating, including extra context within the Hawaii Scenic Tour Playlist, as an illustration, however it’s largely superfluous. These presentation selections might be overbearing at instances.
It is not all dangerous, although. The in-game map is a spotlight, permitting you to take a broad view of the island or zoom proper in to see different gamers driving round. Additionally, there are some very nice stylistic modifications made relying on the Playlist you are collaborating in. Made in Japan, for instance, coats Honolulu in neon, whereas Classic Storage applies a refined color filter to present a extra old-timey really feel. Whereas the visuals aren’t fairly on par with PS5’s best-looking racers, they’re nothing to smell at both, with a vibrant use of color being a energy. The body fee is a near-constant 60 frames-per-second on efficiency mode, which is our most popular strategy to play, however you possibly can swap to decision mode for 4K and 30 frames-per-second if you would like.
Conclusion
The Crew Motorfest is one of the best within the sequence to this point. Whereas some might miss the big US map of previous, O’ahu makes for a way more inviting setting with its tropical vibes and diversified environments. The dealing with has by no means been higher both, in some way feeling good it doesn’t matter what you are driving. A wealth of issues to see and do is made manageable due to the addictive Playlists, though some presentation selections could make the sport really feel slightly scattershot typically. Even with a few potholes, although, Motorfest is an entertaining drive and, realizing Ubisoft’s observe document with stay service, will solely get higher over time.
