Review: The Crew 2

Goutham Jayaraman

Ravencrow Game Review #6

 

The Crew 2

The Crew 2 | Ubisoft (US)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/646910/The_Crew_2/

Genre	Racing
Platform	PC
Developer	Ivory Tower
Publisher	Ubisoft
Playtime	∞
Date Completed	-
Date Reviewed	13/5/2021
Overall Grade	S*

 

The Crew 2 is one of those odd once-in-a-year games that actually got me hyped up enough to actually shell out the full sale price of the game at launch date just to start playing it ASAP, much like Pokemon games have done in the past.

A vast open world racing and driving game, the Crew 2 features a gorgeous and detailed reconstruction of the United States (albeit a more squashed up version) which is large enough to take players anywhere from 30 mins to a whole hour just to drive from one end to the other, and that too potentially using a hyper car.

The Crew 2’s gameplay is classified into several disciplines which then fall under 4 HQs, namely Street Racing, Offroad, Freestyle and Pro Racing. The disciplines are

[Street Racing HQ] Street Races, Drift Races, Drag Races, Hypercar

[Offroad HQ] Rally Raid, Motocross, Rallycross, Hovercraft

[Freestyle HQ] Aerobatics, Demolition Derby, Jetsprint, Monster Truck

[Pro Racing HQ] Powerboat, Air Races, Touring Car and the Alpha Grand Prix.

At launch, the game was actually not all that amazing. It had bugs, crashed frequently, had some performance issues and implemented rather wonky physics.

As the months and years passed though, the game gradually became better and better. Bugs were largely resolved to a tolerable state (although some still persist to this day). Physics were vastly improved. Numerous additional disciplines were added to the game. Daily challenges and weekly live summits were also added, taking the game’s already lengthy playtime and tossing it into the stars. New cars and customization options were also being constantly added. Finally, fast forwarding to recent times, we now have amazingly fun stunt events.

Right off the bat, I think you can see just how vast this game is and just how many different things you can do when booting up the game.

And the racing isn’t even all of it. You do, after all have the map of the United States to fool around in. That’s pretty significant. A substantial portion of my early play time in the game was actually just lazily wandering around and exploring the world, an action that potentially has no end, given how dynamic the world is (well, more so the elements in the world rather than the terrain, but you get the point).

I can even go as far as to say The Crew 2 was one of the few non-narrative based games to actually put a genuine smile on my face, and that’s saying something.

How good is it truly though? Let’s take a look.

What I liked

-          The vast variety of events and disciplines to participate in

-          The game world. Exploring it is always an amazing experience.

-          Weekly events keep me playing

-          The game is simply a ton of fun

-          The relative easiness of the events

-          Additional elements scattered about the world (animals, loot boxes, areas of interest etc.)

-          How the game has grown over time

What I disliked                                                                   

-          The game hanging at times

-          The game crashing at times

-          Driving the hovercraft

-          Having other players on the map. They simply just get in the way when you are trying to do an event. They should really be ghosted out when competing in events.

-          The microtransactions. They appear greedy and unnecessary

Gameplay 22/20	+ 16 Disciplines, of which at least a dozen are immense fun to play + Over 200 events to play, each having multiple difficulty levels (with the lower difficulty levels being great for relieving depression) + Weekly events are a huge draw, keeping players regularly playing the game and provide a good degree of fun + Having the ability to explore the world at one’s own pace + Having other players on the map definitely offers enhanced gameplay to those who can appreciate it + Hot swapping between different vehicles in free roam + Stunt and takedown events are tremendous fun + Additional skill events + Photo taking - Crashes - Performance Issues - Jarring Collisions (largely reduced over time, but still persist)
Game Design 15/20	+ Creative event and track design. + Disciplines are designed to cover a wide variety of environments and use a good selection of vehicles + Designing the game around a televising company (LIVE) makes events feel more exciting + Multi-discipline events + Headquarters are a nice touch and provide color to the game + Inclusion of experience and level up mechanics based on stunt driving in the open world adds some added entertainment to free roam - Dependent on loot boxes and events to get parts, which are randomized. Unable to buy with money. - Cars within a discipline are too similar, each having the same maximum performance level. - Allowing collisions with other players whilst doing events creates frustration - No function to walk around in the game world - Additional Microtransactions for an already expensive game. - Unclear what you can and can't collide with. Some trees you can plow through, but other trees stop you cold
Graphics 25/20	+ Beautiful expansive world (Entire USA is faithfully recreated for us to explore) + Widespread attention to detail + Good car models and huge variety of cars to choose from + Plenty of car customization options + World is very memorable and never gets old to play in.
Audio 20/20	+ Good soundtrack + Energetic sound effects + Music tailored for new stunt events fits the mood well
Story 1/5	= There is some attempt at a narrative in the game - However, it is all over the place and struggles to form a cohesive story. It definitely feels like lost potential
Lore 3/5	+ There is basically a character who serves as a primary coach and a character who serves as a rival to beat in each HQ. + They have some fairly basic backstory attached to them = You have a manager who regularly comments while you are racing with the same few lines. Neither bad nor good = Game has videos telling something, but no idea what they actually do and also lag for some reason = Ultimately, you won’t be paying much attention to either the story or the lore. Just drive the car.
Value 20/20	+ Pretty solid value even though the game has a steep price. + Microtransactions are thankfully completely unnecessary to enjoy the game.
Overall Grade 20/20	S*
Score	97

 

Despite its numerous flaws, I still feel like the Crew 2 is one of the best racing games of all time and is definitely worth owning and playing.

It is easy to appreciate all the effort the devs continually throw at the game, and combined with the fact that it is incredibly fun to play make the game an S* quality game in my books. Of course, it certainly helps that the game receives frequent updates, regular events and has faithfully recreated a large country (Yes, there is always still room for improvement, but I feel like it is still enough to deserve the max limit break for graphics), all of which converge together to create a memorable one-of-a-kind racing experience.

If it weren't for some shaky game design choices, a lack of narrative (both of which do not detract all that much from the overall gameplay experience) and performance issues that persist to this day (I have to modify the executable in the task manager each time to stop it from crashing), this game would truly cement itself as one of the best masterpieces of all time.

If you enjoy racing games, especially ones that offer much more than the basic “drive a car from point A to point B” experience, then I’m sure you’ll love having this game around. I know I do, because I still play this game specifically when I need cheering up.