Preview: How The Crew 2 fixes everything The Crew got wrong
There was something excellent about Ubisoft and Ivory Tower's The Crew although it always seemed to be lacking that certain spark...
I had no idea what was wrong with The Crew. In fairness, there really wasn't anything much that was wrong with it. Sure the story was a bit hackneyed with a poor attempt at recreating a street racing crime drama that no one has ever really successfully done in video games, but with a good car line up and an amazing open world, I struggled to find exactly what it was that was I felt was wrong about it. Until I played The Crew 2 that is.
To be honest, I wasn't overly excited for a sequel because I didn't really know what it would bring. The videos and previews all showed me a game that left the road and headed to the skies and the water in order to mix up its offerings in what I thought was a vain attempt to solve its issues. I felt like it was trying to be a bit too much like Grand Theft Auto in its slightly extreme and silly vehicle choice. But, in reality, it has completely freed the game. The thing that has made me fall in love with The Crew 2 was the way that I could now interact with its world.
THE OLD ROAD
Here's the thing about The Crew. It was an alright game but its world was second to none. A faithful recreation of major US cities, roads and landmarks made this game an homage to the great American road trip. It made you really want to travel somewhere in order to see what it was like and how the world that was familiar to American audiences and aspirational to many others was realised. Unfortunately, outside of that surface, there wasn't much to do once you'd seen something, which various content packs and online challenges tried to fix. But it was ultimately a great world that felt kind of empty. What The Crew 2 has done is completely open that world up.
On the face of it, The Crew 2 does exactly the same as The Crew in offering an incredibly detailed affectation of the USA. But what I didn't expect is that the way the game opens up the air and the water as an avenue of travel would make me appreciate this landscape a whole lot more. With the updated graphics engine no longer needing to include the previous generation of consoles, it also looks absolutely stunning with an incredible lighting system that will see you flying off to the horizon, chasing the setting sun.
A vast portion of the Southern states of the US involve water so it seems utterly obvious that the best way to traverse this landscape is by boat. It seems utterly obvious that the mountainous ranges and deep valleys of the US are much more open to a Cesnca like plane. The Crew 2 adds an element to it that gives it a narrative discourse, with its four families (or driving styles). As you unlock the various racing teams and families throughout the game, you'll be able to access all three modes of transport through a click wheel and spawn yourself a new ride, instantly. You can drive in to a river and quickly turn yourself in to a boat, beach yourself and turn in to a plane, taking a bit of a run up to launch yourself in to the air and see the ground you just left below you as you do a loop. The exploration of the world is much more open and three dimensional, which is what The Crew always needed.
BACK TO THE TRACK
Aside from the world, The Crew 2 does a lot to differentiate the different classes of racing that The Crew never really got. Rather than have a garage car list that differentiates between road, track, drift and off-road by modifying the vehicles, the disciplines all have their own car sets and are broken up in to the various families. The street racing and drifting styles are all under the umbrella of one family. Track racing under another, with the added focus on speedboat racing.
The four families have a hub styled area which all represent the different classes and racing communities around them. The more serious competitive racing team that employs you has a hub around a New Jersey race track, which is where you'll find the Mercedes AMG GT4 car, the Jaguar Vector V40 powerboat and even an Aston Martin Racing Red Bull Formula One car. You can test drive these too so even though you won't be able to buy them yet, they aren't entirely hidden. The aspiration for the racers is there to unlock the top cars, which the game will dangle in front you like a delicious carrot in the various hubs.
But the appeal of the tarmac and the four wheels is an incredibly temporary one given the other available hubs. Off-road vehicles features a great plethora of exciting trucks and dirt vehicles, including the Citroen C3 WRC car. The extreme air show will grant you planes galore and then you've got the good old street racing group that gives you access to great drift machines (although I was silly and chose a Mustang as my first car in this category to drift around a dock).
Position-based races are the natural go-to for this kind of game with road tracks featuring lap races and point-to-point races mostly used in off-road and water races. Air shows feature stunts and performing daredevil antics will earn you points and credibility outside of the mission specific maneuvers. All of the vehicles have simple to understand controls and a slight arcade feel about them, without losing too much of the feel of the vehicles. It has that same drop-in-and-play style feel to it that the first game had.
THE HOOK
Most games of this type, including The Crew before it, have you complete a series of tasks in order to better yourself up the ranks of the narrative antagonist in order to better them and win. The Crew 2 is different. There's no 'real' antagonist, only your own drive to the top and your unwillingness to let anyone better you. As before you are unlocking parts along the way to better your vehicles, but it isn't so much the unsatisfying and confusing MMO style the the first game had. The families all unlock various challenges and events for you to compete in with more coming available as you level up through the ranks. Improvements just feel like an added bonus rather than the essential levelling-up dynamic. Although you are rewarded with financial loot and parts for race wins and event completions.
Gone is the crime syndicate style narrative. This game is about perfecting every aspect of racing and the challenges that come before you rather than settling vendettas. That you can do by forging new rivalries online. No, it's about knowing the area well enough to take advantage of its surroundings. If you're on a track, you know when to brake late and hang it out. On a street course, you know where to take the shortcuts. In the air you know where you can fly to hang the plane as low as you can until the last minute.
The Crew 2 will reward the daredevil in you. More to the point, it will reward the adventurer in you. That's something The Crew tried to do but failed, not because of its short scope but because America is a country that cannot be seen just from the road. It's a myriad of waterways, a maze of airways and a sandbox of roads.
The Crew 2 has unleashed the potential of the landscape and in doing so has taken the best vehicle traits that games like Grand Theft Auto 5 have and applied them to a large, realistic homage to the great areas of North America. Where you decide to go is truly up to you, to a point. What you want to achieve will be up to your decisions.
One thing is for sure and that is that The Crew 2 is an entirely different proposition to The Crew. It gives you a big playground to join up with friends and show others how drifting around a cargo carrier ship is done. The narrative maybe be a very loose way to introduce the various categories of vehicle and racing but the focus in-game is on you, your vehicles and your explorations. After all, America is the land of the free and The Crew 2 finally gets that freedom.
Join In
Comments (1)
Looks like I have my next racing game sorted.