From first gear to second.
You have to give it to Ubisoft; they sure don’t like to quit. Taking criticisms levelled at games like Watch_Dogs and The Crew and instead of just dropping them, or even worse releasing a sequel exactly the same; they look to ways to improve them and try to make them resonate with players. For The Crew 2 they have taken the same approach as they took with Watch_Dogs; removed the gritty world and narrative and replaced it with a world that is more colorful and fits the genres in a more natural way.
Remember that tale of revenge from the first game? Gone. Remember the tenuous reasons for going from race to race? Gone. Gone are the characters that seemed more at home in a recent Need for Speed game and gone are those damn pop-ups on the map that made you think they were an event and instead were an advert for DLC. In their place is a cheesy but inconsequential story of your chosen character trying to be the best racer in the world. It isn’t deep or meaningful, but it gets the job done by setting the scene and giving you an excuse for going from race to race. You can see that they are trying to copy the success of the Forza Horizon formula, and for the most part they succeed.
Platforms: PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One (Reviewed)
Xbox One X/PS4 Pro Support: Yes
Multiplayer: Yes: Always online
Price: $59.99
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
Starting out as an up and coming wannabe, it is the player’s job to race their way to the top of the food chain; not just on land, but by sea and air too. The headline feature for The Crew 2 is that you don’t just race cars, but motorbikes, power boats and airplanes too. Each of these disciplines have multiple events to take place including open-world runs, point to point races, laps and freestyle events, bringing variation to the gameplay especially as it isn’t just cars you are taking control of. It also adds a lot of markers to the map; a map that is way too big. The whole of North America may seem like a nice sandbox to play in, but in reality it just makes it too overwhelming. Within an hour of starting the game the map lights up like a Christmas tree and I just sat there staring at it, thinking ‘Where the hell do I start’. Luckily all of the markers have the option to travel to them instantly, which I was grateful for, as free-driving in a world that large is just a chore. It also doesn’t help that when driving through the world, it felt stale and sterile. The other cars on the road felt like they were programmed instead of trying to act like they were being driven by real people. I spent as little time as possible in the world, preferring to just get on with the events. Oddly there is also a tab in the main menu which lists all of the activities, sectioned off in their respective category, including many of the side challenges. This completely negates the need for the open world, and the reason why that ended up being the way that I progressed through the events as it was far easier than navigating the map.
The first race in each of the categories gives you a little introduction before letting you loose. From there the goal is to attract as many followers you can, because that is apparently how we all judge our worth nowadays. You gain followers by taking part in events, winning races and performing stunts in the open world. Get enough and your status increases, which in turn unlocks more events, until you have enough rep to challenge the current champs. In other words followers are just another name for XP in The Crew 2, which is fine. At the end of each race you will be awarded with some lootboxes. Now don’t worry, I haven’t seen anywhere you can buy them with real cash (yet), but it does bring me to another problem with The Crew 2. These lootboxes contain upgrades for the vehicles, which you will definitely need if you want to stay competitive and win races. This means that how well you perform has been gated by an RNG. If Ubisoft were smart they programed the game to make sure you get the parts you need. But if that is the case, then why include lootboxes at all? It does make me think that these were a fundamental part of the game before the whole controversy kicked off last year and were then quickly relegated. But that may just be the cynic in me. Winning will also earn you credits which you can spend on expanding your portfolio of cars, boats and planes. But although there is no way to buy lootboxes, Ubisoft are more than happy to sell you the fake currency, Crew Credits. These are a way to purchases vehicles if you don’t want to wait to earn the in-game currency. The game throws a few thousand at you to spend, but if you want more then you will have to shell out some real cash. This can be tempting, as there certainly is a very large selection available, all from major manufacturers, and the models look amazing on the Xbox One X, even if there is no collision damage.
Speaking of racing game staples that are glaringly missing from The Crew 2, there are a few other niggles I have from playing the game. Firstly, there is no mid-game restart option. Mess up a race and you still have to finish it before you can restart it. In 2018 this is a ‘must have’ in a racing game. So is a driving/navigation line, which is also missing. With a landscape that is as full and detailed as the one in The Crew 2 it is essential that you know where you are going, especially when you are traveling at 100+ MPH. It is also a pain to keep looking down at the minimap trying to see where you need to go while racing. The onscreen signposts are no help as they are small and often hard to see, especially when racing in an off-road event. These things are basic for a racing game and is something that Ivory Tower needs to patch in to the game as soon as possible. As well as this the UI is very unintuitive, with the main menu often just links to a website and the main in-game menu being hard to navigate. Add to those the fact that the game doesn’t do a good job of giving you instructions on how to do some of the side content and it seems that this side of the game needs a lot of work.
But the thing that lets The Crew 2 down the most is the fact that they haven’t fixed the driving. Sure, the addition of boats and planes makes things more interesting and they do a decent enough job of those new vehicles, but driving a car still feels too sluggish at times and then to floaty at others. I could never find a car that felt right. The brakes didn’t do a good enough job when turning. The handbrake often left me facing the wrong way or crashing on a corner. There were very few races I played that didn’t end up in complete failure at least once due to the driving. If you didn’t like the driving in the first game, then I doubt you are going to find it enjoyable here. I also had a problem with the Moto X bike events, as they were almost impossible to control with any degree of stability, no matter how many upgrades I applied to the bikes.
The online component of The Crew 2 is exactly what you would expect from a modern day racing game; always online. The plus is that it is easy to join friends for a racing session, or to find other players to race against. The downside is that if the servers go down, you can’t play any part of the game. Whether it is because of server errors or planned maintenance, there is no way to play The Crew 2 if they go down. This is one of the things I hate about live services or always online. I want to play on my schedule, not at the whims of other forces and these things should not stop you from playing the single player. Other than that the online part works well. There is no apparent lag when playing either mode, and joining people is seamless. In fact, if it wasn’t for me being kicked out of the game a few times, I wouldn’t have even noticed it was always online.
Is The Crew 2 an improvement on the original? Without a doubt, yes. Should Forza Horizon be worried? Nope. The improvements made to this sequel and its unique take on racing are let down by lack of improvements where it counts, and some design choices that left me scratching my head. Thankfully, Ubisoft have really set their stall out when it comes to supporting their games over long periods of time, so there may still be some hope. If you are looking for something to tide you over while you wait for Forza Horizon 4, sure you do worse than pick this game up. But I would recommend waiting on a price cut first.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.