The Crew: Game Review

Well, the wait is over. Here is our review for the much-awaited racing game of the season,“The Crew.” A lot of hype was created after the release of the trailer. The shiny Mustang, Camaro, Lambo, Ferrari, Shelby, all they did was igniting the fuel. The banner on the game “Ubisoft” explains that the fans will get what they want. Most of the studios’ game have always been commercially successful and we hope that it goes well for Crew too. So, without much ado let me tell you about the game.

Story

Racing games doesn’t require a story for you to play. All you have to do is switch on the engine and race against your competitors. But with the arrival of NFS:Run it looks like even racing themed games can have a story. In this game, you play as the Troy Baker voiced protagonist Alex as he’s framed for his brother’s murder. In order to get his revenge, he must climb the ranks of the 5-10 gang with the FBI at his back. To do this, he will have to travel across The United States, starting off with Detroit, and do jobs for rather shady individuals. Even in-between missions, Zoe, the FBI handle, will frequently give vocal reminders that there’s missions to do or people around to join with no way to turn it off. It becomes a frustrating aspect when you should be focusing on driving.

Gameplay

Like every other game, the gameplay consists of both the good and the bad bits.

The Good: The handling and feel for the car is spot on. In comparison to Need for Speed Rivals, it feels much more like the racing games of old, so to speak. After you win your selected race, you are rewarded with Gold, Silver or Bronze medals.

The best part is modifying your vehicle and without any doubt, your car just keeps looking better. Races can be as long as two hours, skill games can be as quick as 20 seconds, there’s so much variety to how you can tackle the game.

And upon releasing details about it Ubisoft were quick to point out that this was a whole lot more than your standard wheel-to-wheel thriller. This was about driving with your crew, against online competitors.

The bad: Here is the bad part of the game. If all you want to do is drive across The United States with friends, then you’ll have to at least get through five hours of the campaign before things open up.

Even then, progression is as such that you won’t be able to unlock a lot of the challenges and earn enough cash to purchase new and better vehicles until much later on. There are some incredibly overpriced items at car tuners, but they’re mainly aesthetics, with upgrades to vehicles being won from missions and side activities.

The Crew requires an online connection all the time and currently, there are some issues. There’s nothing like finishing an hour long mission only to get kicked out of the game before any of the progress saves. This is a game that borders on an MMO structure while not completely breaking into the territory, and it’s just ripe with connection issues that will infuriate those who encounter them.

General: The game comprises of 65 main missions. It can be a little draggy as the missions are kind of repetitive. With that said, even though there’s some repetition, there are a couple of standout scenarios, such as traveling to Las Vegas to race in a cavernous terrain.

The emphasis on drifting around corners and the simplification of gear parts gives off a distinct arcade racing feel, but the handling can be a bit clunky, especially in the earlier parts of the campaign. In the game, escaping from the police can be annoying.

Whether it is a getaway mission or accidently you alert the cops, they will chase you like a bull running after red cloth. They will even catch up with you at the top level speeds. If you’re planning to play the main missions alone, then chances are you will most likely lose. This was built for three others to play with, and if players decide to ignore that, they’ll have a far less stellar time. When teaming up with a crew of four, though, it can be an entertaining short couple of minutes, whether cooperating or competing against one another.

Visuals

Ubisoft has stayed true to itself. You cannot complain about the graphics shown in the game. Ivory Tower has crafted a version of The United States to travel across, with some caveats. The recreation of The United States is the most ambitious portion of The Crew, and it succeeds in delivering a vast and stunning country to see.

From Niagara Falls to Los Angeles, there’s roughly 80 miles of road to trek across, taking roughly 40-45 minutes, and that’s just in one direction. It certainly helps that there’s a strong variety of environments to see, never allowing the player to get bored at what’s around them.

While it may be normal for traffic to react differently based on what is going on around them, namely having someone speeding right at them, but it feels like they have been put into purposely obstruct races. On numerous occasions, they’d veer into my lane for no apparent reason, or even if they have a green light, stop right in the middle of the road for you to slam into them.

Final Verdict

The Crew is a game for we which have waited a long time. And it does serve as a good dish for the race-hungry fans. It may lack a few things, but it does cover up those mistakes. The visuals are breathtaking, the gameplay gives a little bit of a problem, but works just fine. Racing missions are long and exciting. And the high-end police chase can be fun and annoying at the same time. So I would say, give it a try. “The Crew” won’t disappoint you.

Rating: 7/10

Here is the gameplay trailer