Have you ever had a game that you were looking forward to, only to finally get your hands on it to discover it was utter rubbish? That game where everything you were excited about was turned upside down and you were left feeling like the kid on Christmas morning who received a package of new underwear? Well, that’s that I felt when I loaded up the PC beta of The Crew recently. After ten minutes I was left with shoulders sagged, a frown, and a feeling of disappointment that I haven’t felt about a game in a long time. Simply put, this just wasn’t the game I thought it was supposed to be.
The thing that disappoints me most about The Crew is the way in which cars handle. Or, more accurately, the lack of handling thereof. I was trying to explain it to a friend when I ultimately settled on this: it’s like driving a UPS truck on a Slip N’ Slide. The moment you lose the rear end of your car, you just have to wait until you hit something to straighten out. I tried two races and was so frustrated by the time the second one was over, I just logged off and threw my hands in the air. If I wasn’t scheduled to write this preview, I’m not sure I would have gone back and played it at all. That is how disappointed I was.
When I went back, I really dug into the settings and thankfully found some sliders to adjust the handling, breaking and other nuanced aspects of the car. I spent the next half hour tweaking those sliders to where I was comfortable and could actually stay straight more often than not. It was a half hour well spent. Once I had the settings to my liking, I found myself having fun again. Frustration was replaced by joy and I was starting to see the game I was hoping for emerge.
Even once you’ve found the correct sliders to match your style of play, The Crew’s seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis. On one hand it seems to want to feel like an arcade racer — think Burnout or Need for Speed — and on the other, it seems like it wants to play more like a simulation racer like Forza or Gran Turismo. I wish Ubisoft would have settled on one or the other; I would have preferred an arcade racer in this instance. This whole identity crisis plays out in the handling, car speed and car physics. Having a mix of both arcade and simulator often left me guessing on right way to approach a turn, bump a rival car, or routes to take.
Aside from the handling, there is so much to really like about this game. The map is huge, and by huge I mean it’s the biggest map I have seen for any racing game. It takes up the entirety of the United States and no area is off limits. The beta consisted of missions and challenges in the midwest and a few on the east coast, but even that felt like there was an overload of stuff to do. There is a main story the feels somewhat similar to the style of Need for Speed: The Run in that they want it to be a big deal, but at the end of the day it’s not. Which is ok, because this game is all about racing and unlocking more cars and car parts.
Which brings me to car customisation. One of the criticisms of the Need for Speed franchise is the inability to truly customise a car. The Crew takes that and turns it upside down. You can customise every piece of the car from body kit to suspension. By doing challenges around the map you unlock new parts and can swap them out to tweak your car for an upcoming event. You can do everything from making your car perfect for a circuit race to swapping out parts and making it a true off road racer, and everything in between. I love racing games, but admittedly I don’t know much about the purpose of each part, the game is nice enough to tell you if the part you have is better than the part you just earned and vice versa. Which is perfect for someone like me who just wants to get in a car and go it takes the guess work out of it.
Where The Crew really shines is in its social element. You can certainly do missions and challenges by yourself, but you can also enlist the help of others to earn better rewards and more XP. It’s as simple as going to a mission marker and selecting co-op and the game will ask those in the area if anyone wants to join you. One of the coolest experiences I had was trying to do a takedown mission and not doing very well on my own. I went back to the marker and tried the instant co-op option and within 10 seconds had two other drivers willing to help. Working in tandem it took us maybe 30-45 seconds to do the takedown, but it was an amazing experience. I ended up driving around with those two for a good hour doing side missions like drag races, a slalom type event, top speed events and more. That is how the game is meant to be played and it really shines while doing so.
After getting past my initial frustration and disappointment, I found myself really enjoying The Crew. I can only hope that the car handling is dramatically improved and more responsive not as loose. Other than that, the game has a good variety of missions and side events to do. I found myself eschewing fast travel and setting waypoints just so I could drive more. The co-op Crew set-up though is what makes the game stand out; I wasn’t expecting it to have that big of an impact on the experience but it did. This is one that I am anxious to see the final build and tear around the United States with my crew. Who knows the trouble we’ll get in, but having friends with you always makes it that much better.
You don’t have to wait for Christmas for this surprisingly rewarding package; The Crew is scheduled to release in November on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4 and Windows PC.
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