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Fancy a road trip across the USA without having to leave the comfort of your own home? Welcome to the modern holiday experience.
It is impossible to talk about The Crew without first mentioning the map. The map covers the whole of the USA and like the real thing, it is big. Granted, it is not to scale and not every single town, city and landmark is there but plenty of it is. The road network is also a compromise but there are still over 6,000 miles of road and it can easily take over 30 minutes to drive from New York to LA in the game. There are a few surprises along the way such as Punxsutawney which most of us probably became aware of in the Groundhog Day film and racing game fans will be pleased to see Laguna Seca.
Covering the whole of the USA means there is a lot of variety in the scenery. There are the busy city centres, the long stretching highways, snow topped mountain ranges, miles of farmland and water-logged swamps complete with crocodiles to mention just a few. The variety makes for an interesting long distance drive.
The entire map is available from the start and you can set a waypoint at any spot whether on road or off. The map has a great zoom feature which goes right down to street level so you can pinpoint the exact spot you want to navigate to. The built-in satnav will produce a floating blue line guiding you to your location and the mini map in the corner will show you how far you have left to travel. With the size of the map, driving to each destination could become time consuming so the game allows for some quicker methods in the form of fast travel, train journeys and flights. In order to do each of these you need to have visited the location. The map is covered in a blue tint which shows the places you have yet to explore. As you cruise around more and more of the map opens up allowing greater options for a quick arrival. Flights can naturally only happen between airports and not surprisingly, train journeys can only happen between train stations.
There are various reasons to explore other than opening up fast travel access. There are 242 landmarks to be discovered and each one has a little trivia fact. I did find that some of the landmarks I’d expect are not covered e.g. the Empire State Building or the Golden Gate Bridge. Perhaps Ubisoft felt we already know about these and wanted to expand our knowledge with information on other landmarks. There are also hidden car wrecks in each area, find them all and you’ll unlock a new car. The last aspect of exploration are the 30 data centres. In what seems to be based on Ubisoft’s gaming standard these days, discover these data centres and more items on the map are shown. Data centres and car wrecks are given a rough area meaning you will have to do a bit of hunting. The mini map helps by showing a ping of colour when you get close. The concentration of the colour shows the direction; it starts as red, changes to amber when you get closer and green indicates it is within touching distance. There is a lot to discover and you can get your money’s worth out of the game just by concentrating on these aspects alone.
Some concessions have been made in the name of fun. Traffic density is nothing like the real thing but waiting in traffic jams in New York wouldn’t make for the most interesting of racing games. When heading off road for a short cut at speed the game is more likely to give you a little bounce off a tree as if you clipped the side of the trunk rather than stop you in your tracks. Pedestrians are also few and far between and they are all alert and agile so there will be no GTA style hit and runs. There are some nice touches though; a startled pedestrian throwing the shopping bag raises a smile and seeing the convicts digging the road as the guard watches was an unexpected sight. And the ski jump is worth a visit!
You are free to go where you please but you are not free to do what you want without consequence. Certain actions catch the attention of the police and you will be hunted down if you’re a naughty driver. What is interesting is just what catches their attention. They don’t seem to bother if you drift round a corner on the wrong side of the road at a silly speed and narrowly miss the patrol car. Knocking down a fence post in the middle of nowhere however and suddenly you have their attention. The fascinating aspect of that is that there is nobody about in the forest but the instant you hit the post you hear the police announcement that there has been reports of a reckless driver. Who saw me? And I’m blown away by the response time from calling in the incident to it being announced to the officers on patrol. Cause enough destruction and you become wanted and the police will look for you. Escaping their sight radius is all that is needed to get rid of the heat. The more damage you cause the more attention you will receive and more effort the police will put into stopping you. It’s a fairly standard formula.
It’s not all exploration and police chases though; there are many mini events to try for financial reward and car parts. The events can see you slaloming between markers, driving between 2 closely placed markers, sticking to the racing line, performing jumps and seeing how far you can drive in a given time frame. The gold medal winning ghost car is shown but it isn’t always a true indicator of how well you are doing, for points based events you can finish ahead of the gold medal car but have less points. These mini events fit in nicely with the cruising around, for instance, pass through the marker to start and chances are you will be participating in the event as you travel the roads you were planning to travel anyway. Not having to stop to start the events also adds a touch of convenience. You are awarded bronze, silver or gold medals. At a certain point the platinum challenge for each becomes available. Getting gold in a lot of the events is a challenge and needs a capable car and driver; I’ll blame the car for now.
Car handling is arcade based and for the most part it seems fine. I was uncertain of it in the beta but the final version seems more solid. There is plenty of room to tinker in the options to reach a preferred setup. For the most part it is fine but at times when doing the slalom events it can feel like I’m in control of a double decker bus rather than a sports car. It could be the way I drive. Tuning the cars can improve the handling; your vehicles level up alongside the player’s ranking and the auto shops allow for some tinkering under the bonnet. There is a nice sequence as the car components are stripped back one by one until you are left with 4 wheels, a chassis and an engine.
Graphically the game gets a bit of stick but I think that is rather unfair. It isn’t a showpiece for the new consoles but it is by no means worthy of criticism. The car models are detailed which is more obvious close up and a map that size must come with a slight overhead for the graphics engine. I certainly think it looks good.
*
The main component of the game is of course the story mode. Driving games are not known for their memorable stories and this one is no different. You are a street racer trying to rise up through the ranks to avenge the death of your brother. There is a little side line in that you are working under cover for the authorities to clear your name since you were originally convicted of the death. It’s all really just a reason for the events to take place and you’ll meet all manner of forgettable or dislikeable characters. But it doesn’t get in the way and any story scenes are short enough that you are back behind the wheel quickly.
Story missions are nice and varied. Naturally there are the street races but you will also find yourself participating in off road events which wouldn’t look out of place in a Dirt game. In fact, some of them are more interesting that anything I saw in a Dirt game with smashing through a fence, dodging the trees on the downward slope, splashing through the river and so on. Other events take a pursuit style where you’ll be chasing a target trying to take the vehicle down or you yourself will be the target. There is a very good chase round an active airport early in the game.
As the name suggests, the game is about having a crew and is therefore heavily multiplayer based. It is an always online game and there will be others in your game world. You can attack the game missions on your own or with a crew member. The presence of others is all seamless and you’ll not notice people dropping in or out. It will be at its best with friends but there is an obstacle of crew members only being able to participate in races they have unlocked in their own story progress which is something that could become quite restrictive to those that play more. I’m not really interested in the social side but other than not being able to pause, most of the time I feel like I am on my own anyway. Every now and then I’ll see the gamer picture of the others pop up and the distance and direction they are away from me but with a map that size, it is easy to not come across another at all. I’ve spent many hours in the game and from what I have seen there are many others just like me going about their own business thing in a shared world. Need For Speed Rivals has the same online aspect but you can at least switch it off which is something lacking from The Crew.
There are player versus player events which I’ve not tried but reading on the internet suggests few seems to bother. There are also challenges against your friends. The game will let you know if one of your friends has a better score/time on an event and you can try to claim top spot.
The Crew is an ambitious game with plenty to commend it but the multiplayer aspect doesn't seem to have really worked out for those without a group of friends, in my experience at least. Thankfully the always online aspect doesn’t get in the way and there is a wealth of content between a lengthy story, loads of mini events and lots of exploration to be done. I’ve certainly enjoyed it much more than my experience with the beta. It is an easy game to lose a lot of time in and the diversity of content is a big plus point.
8
It is impossible to talk about The Crew without first mentioning the map. The map covers the whole of the USA and like the real thing, it is big. Granted, it is not to scale and not every single town, city and landmark is there but plenty of it is. The road network is also a compromise but there are still over 6,000 miles of road and it can easily take over 30 minutes to drive from New York to LA in the game. There are a few surprises along the way such as Punxsutawney which most of us probably became aware of in the Groundhog Day film and racing game fans will be pleased to see Laguna Seca.
Covering the whole of the USA means there is a lot of variety in the scenery. There are the busy city centres, the long stretching highways, snow topped mountain ranges, miles of farmland and water-logged swamps complete with crocodiles to mention just a few. The variety makes for an interesting long distance drive.
The entire map is available from the start and you can set a waypoint at any spot whether on road or off. The map has a great zoom feature which goes right down to street level so you can pinpoint the exact spot you want to navigate to. The built-in satnav will produce a floating blue line guiding you to your location and the mini map in the corner will show you how far you have left to travel. With the size of the map, driving to each destination could become time consuming so the game allows for some quicker methods in the form of fast travel, train journeys and flights. In order to do each of these you need to have visited the location. The map is covered in a blue tint which shows the places you have yet to explore. As you cruise around more and more of the map opens up allowing greater options for a quick arrival. Flights can naturally only happen between airports and not surprisingly, train journeys can only happen between train stations.
There are various reasons to explore other than opening up fast travel access. There are 242 landmarks to be discovered and each one has a little trivia fact. I did find that some of the landmarks I’d expect are not covered e.g. the Empire State Building or the Golden Gate Bridge. Perhaps Ubisoft felt we already know about these and wanted to expand our knowledge with information on other landmarks. There are also hidden car wrecks in each area, find them all and you’ll unlock a new car. The last aspect of exploration are the 30 data centres. In what seems to be based on Ubisoft’s gaming standard these days, discover these data centres and more items on the map are shown. Data centres and car wrecks are given a rough area meaning you will have to do a bit of hunting. The mini map helps by showing a ping of colour when you get close. The concentration of the colour shows the direction; it starts as red, changes to amber when you get closer and green indicates it is within touching distance. There is a lot to discover and you can get your money’s worth out of the game just by concentrating on these aspects alone.
Some concessions have been made in the name of fun. Traffic density is nothing like the real thing but waiting in traffic jams in New York wouldn’t make for the most interesting of racing games. When heading off road for a short cut at speed the game is more likely to give you a little bounce off a tree as if you clipped the side of the trunk rather than stop you in your tracks. Pedestrians are also few and far between and they are all alert and agile so there will be no GTA style hit and runs. There are some nice touches though; a startled pedestrian throwing the shopping bag raises a smile and seeing the convicts digging the road as the guard watches was an unexpected sight. And the ski jump is worth a visit!
You are free to go where you please but you are not free to do what you want without consequence. Certain actions catch the attention of the police and you will be hunted down if you’re a naughty driver. What is interesting is just what catches their attention. They don’t seem to bother if you drift round a corner on the wrong side of the road at a silly speed and narrowly miss the patrol car. Knocking down a fence post in the middle of nowhere however and suddenly you have their attention. The fascinating aspect of that is that there is nobody about in the forest but the instant you hit the post you hear the police announcement that there has been reports of a reckless driver. Who saw me? And I’m blown away by the response time from calling in the incident to it being announced to the officers on patrol. Cause enough destruction and you become wanted and the police will look for you. Escaping their sight radius is all that is needed to get rid of the heat. The more damage you cause the more attention you will receive and more effort the police will put into stopping you. It’s a fairly standard formula.
It’s not all exploration and police chases though; there are many mini events to try for financial reward and car parts. The events can see you slaloming between markers, driving between 2 closely placed markers, sticking to the racing line, performing jumps and seeing how far you can drive in a given time frame. The gold medal winning ghost car is shown but it isn’t always a true indicator of how well you are doing, for points based events you can finish ahead of the gold medal car but have less points. These mini events fit in nicely with the cruising around, for instance, pass through the marker to start and chances are you will be participating in the event as you travel the roads you were planning to travel anyway. Not having to stop to start the events also adds a touch of convenience. You are awarded bronze, silver or gold medals. At a certain point the platinum challenge for each becomes available. Getting gold in a lot of the events is a challenge and needs a capable car and driver; I’ll blame the car for now.
Car handling is arcade based and for the most part it seems fine. I was uncertain of it in the beta but the final version seems more solid. There is plenty of room to tinker in the options to reach a preferred setup. For the most part it is fine but at times when doing the slalom events it can feel like I’m in control of a double decker bus rather than a sports car. It could be the way I drive. Tuning the cars can improve the handling; your vehicles level up alongside the player’s ranking and the auto shops allow for some tinkering under the bonnet. There is a nice sequence as the car components are stripped back one by one until you are left with 4 wheels, a chassis and an engine.
Graphically the game gets a bit of stick but I think that is rather unfair. It isn’t a showpiece for the new consoles but it is by no means worthy of criticism. The car models are detailed which is more obvious close up and a map that size must come with a slight overhead for the graphics engine. I certainly think it looks good.
*
The main component of the game is of course the story mode. Driving games are not known for their memorable stories and this one is no different. You are a street racer trying to rise up through the ranks to avenge the death of your brother. There is a little side line in that you are working under cover for the authorities to clear your name since you were originally convicted of the death. It’s all really just a reason for the events to take place and you’ll meet all manner of forgettable or dislikeable characters. But it doesn’t get in the way and any story scenes are short enough that you are back behind the wheel quickly.
Story missions are nice and varied. Naturally there are the street races but you will also find yourself participating in off road events which wouldn’t look out of place in a Dirt game. In fact, some of them are more interesting that anything I saw in a Dirt game with smashing through a fence, dodging the trees on the downward slope, splashing through the river and so on. Other events take a pursuit style where you’ll be chasing a target trying to take the vehicle down or you yourself will be the target. There is a very good chase round an active airport early in the game.
As the name suggests, the game is about having a crew and is therefore heavily multiplayer based. It is an always online game and there will be others in your game world. You can attack the game missions on your own or with a crew member. The presence of others is all seamless and you’ll not notice people dropping in or out. It will be at its best with friends but there is an obstacle of crew members only being able to participate in races they have unlocked in their own story progress which is something that could become quite restrictive to those that play more. I’m not really interested in the social side but other than not being able to pause, most of the time I feel like I am on my own anyway. Every now and then I’ll see the gamer picture of the others pop up and the distance and direction they are away from me but with a map that size, it is easy to not come across another at all. I’ve spent many hours in the game and from what I have seen there are many others just like me going about their own business thing in a shared world. Need For Speed Rivals has the same online aspect but you can at least switch it off which is something lacking from The Crew.
There are player versus player events which I’ve not tried but reading on the internet suggests few seems to bother. There are also challenges against your friends. The game will let you know if one of your friends has a better score/time on an event and you can try to claim top spot.
The Crew is an ambitious game with plenty to commend it but the multiplayer aspect doesn't seem to have really worked out for those without a group of friends, in my experience at least. Thankfully the always online aspect doesn’t get in the way and there is a wealth of content between a lengthy story, loads of mini events and lots of exploration to be done. I’ve certainly enjoyed it much more than my experience with the beta. It is an easy game to lose a lot of time in and the diversity of content is a big plus point.
8
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Fancy a road trip across the USA without having to leave the comfort of your own home? Welcome to the modern holiday experience.
It is impossible to talk about The Crew without first mentioning the map. The map covers the whole of the USA and like the real thing, it is big. Granted, it is not to scale and not every single town, city and landmark is there but plenty of it is. The road network is also a compromise but there are still over 6,000 miles of road and it can easily take over 30 minutes to drive from New York to LA in the game. There are a few surprises along the way such as Punxsutawney which most of us probably became aware of in the Groundhog Day film and racing game fans will be pleased to see Laguna Seca.
Covering the whole of the USA means there is a lot of variety in the scenery. There are the busy city centres, the long stretching highways, snow topped mountain ranges, miles of farmland and water-logged swamps complete with crocodiles to mention just a few. The variety makes for an interesting long distance drive.
The entire map is available from the start and you can set a waypoint at any spot whether on road or off. The map has a great zoom feature which goes right down to street level so you can pinpoint the exact spot you want to navigate to. The built-in satnav will produce a floating blue line guiding you to your location and the mini map in the corner will show you how far you have left to travel. With the size of the map, driving to each destination could become time consuming so the game allows for some quicker methods in the form of fast travel, train journeys and flights. In order to do each of these you need to have visited the location. The map is covered in a blue tint which shows the places you have yet to explore. As you cruise around more and more of the map opens up allowing greater options for a quick arrival. Flights can naturally only happen between airports and not surprisingly, train journeys can only happen between train stations.
There are various reasons to explore other than opening up fast travel access. There are 242 landmarks to be discovered and each one has a little trivia fact. I did find that some of the landmarks I’d expect are not covered e.g. the Empire State Building or the Golden Gate Bridge. Perhaps Ubisoft felt we already know about these and wanted to expand our knowledge with information on other landmarks. There are also hidden car wrecks in each area, find them all and you’ll unlock a new car. The last aspect of exploration are the 30 data centres. In what seems to be based on Ubisoft’s gaming standard these days, discover these data centres and more items on the map are shown. Data centres and car wrecks are given a rough area meaning you will have to do a bit of hunting. The mini map helps by showing a ping of colour when you get close. The concentration of the colour shows the direction; it starts as red, changes to amber when you get closer and green indicates it is within touching distance. There is a lot to discover and you can get your money’s worth out of the game just by concentrating on these aspects alone.
Some concessions have been made in the name of fun. Traffic density is nothing like the real thing but waiting in traffic jams in New York wouldn’t make for the most interesting of racing games. When heading off road for a short cut at speed the game is more likely to give you a little bounce off a tree as if you clipped the side of the trunk rather than stop you in your tracks. Pedestrians are also few and far between and they are all alert and agile so there will be no GTA style hit and runs. There are some nice touches though; a startled pedestrian throwing the shopping bag raises a smile and seeing the convicts digging the road as the guard watches was an unexpected sight. And the ski jump is worth a visit!
You are free to go where you please but you are not free to do what you want without consequence. Certain actions catch the attention of the police and you will be hunted down if you’re a naughty driver. What is interesting is just what catches their attention. They don’t seem to bother if you drift round a corner on the wrong side of the road at a silly speed and narrowly miss the patrol car. Knocking down a fence post in the middle of nowhere however and suddenly you have their attention. The fascinating aspect of that is that there is nobody about in the forest but the instant you hit the post you hear the police announcement that there has been reports of a reckless driver. Who saw me? And I’m blown away by the response time from calling in the incident to it being announced to the officers on patrol. Cause enough destruction and you become wanted and the police will look for you. Escaping their sight radius is all that is needed to get rid of the heat. The more damage you cause the more attention you will receive and more effort the police will put into stopping you. It’s a fairly standard formula.
It’s not all exploration and police chases though; there are many mini events to try for financial reward and car parts. The events can see you slaloming between markers, driving between 2 closely placed markers, sticking to the racing line, performing jumps and seeing how far you can drive in a given time frame. The gold medal winning ghost car is shown but it isn’t always a true indicator of how well you are doing, for points based events you can finish ahead of the gold medal car but have less points. These mini events fit in nicely with the cruising around, for instance, pass through the marker to start and chances are you will be participating in the event as you travel the roads you were planning to travel anyway. Not having to stop to start the events also adds a touch of convenience. You are awarded bronze, silver or gold medals. At a certain point the platinum challenge for each becomes available. Getting gold in a lot of the events is a challenge and needs a capable car and driver; I’ll blame the car for now.
Car handling is arcade based and for the most part it seems fine. I was uncertain of it in the beta but the final version seems more solid. There is plenty of room to tinker in the options to reach a preferred setup. For the most part it is fine but at times when doing the slalom events it can feel like I’m in control of a double decker bus rather than a sports car. It could be the way I drive. Tuning the cars can improve the handling; your vehicles level up alongside the player’s ranking and the auto shops allow for some tinkering under the bonnet. There is a nice sequence as the car components are stripped back one by one until you are left with 4 wheels, a chassis and an engine.
Graphically the game gets a bit of stick but I think that is rather unfair. It isn’t a showpiece for the new consoles but it is by no means worthy of criticism. The car models are detailed which is more obvious close up and a map that size must come with a slight overhead for the graphics engine. I certainly think it looks good.
*
The main component of the game is of course the story mode. Driving games are not known for their memorable stories and this one is no different. You are a street racer trying to rise up through the ranks to avenge the death of your brother. There is a little side line in that you are working under cover for the authorities to clear your name since you were originally convicted of the death. It’s all really just a reason for the events to take place and you’ll meet all manner of forgettable or dislikeable characters. But it doesn’t get in the way and any story scenes are short enough that you are back behind the wheel quickly.
Story missions are nice and varied. Naturally there are the street races but you will also find yourself participating in off road events which wouldn’t look out of place in a Dirt game. In fact, some of them are more interesting that anything I saw in a Dirt game with smashing through a fence, dodging the trees on the downward slope, splashing through the river and so on. Other events take a pursuit style where you’ll be chasing a target trying to take the vehicle down or you yourself will be the target. There is a very good chase round an active airport early in the game.
As the name suggests, the game is about having a crew and is therefore heavily multiplayer based. It is an always online game and there will be others in your game world. You can attack the game missions on your own or with a crew member. The presence of others is all seamless and you’ll not notice people dropping in or out. It will be at its best with friends but there is an obstacle of crew members only being able to participate in races they have unlocked in their own story progress which is something that could become quite restrictive to those that play more. I’m not really interested in the social side but other than not being able to pause, most of the time I feel like I am on my own anyway. Every now and then I’ll see the gamer picture of the others pop up and the distance and direction they are away from me but with a map that size, it is easy to not come across another at all. I’ve spent many hours in the game and from what I have seen there are many others just like me going about their own business thing in a shared world. Need For Speed Rivals has the same online aspect but you can at least switch it off which is something lacking from The Crew.
There are player versus player events which I’ve not tried but reading on the internet suggests few seems to bother. There are also challenges against your friends. The game will let you know if one of your friends has a better score/time on an event and you can try to claim top spot.
The Crew is an ambitious game with plenty to commend it but the multiplayer aspect doesn't seem to have really worked out for those without a group of friends, in my experience at least. Thankfully the always online aspect doesn’t get in the way and there is a wealth of content between a lengthy story, loads of mini events and lots of exploration to be done. I’ve certainly enjoyed it much more than my experience with the beta. It is an easy game to lose a lot of time in and the diversity of content is a big plus point.
8
It is impossible to talk about The Crew without first mentioning the map. The map covers the whole of the USA and like the real thing, it is big. Granted, it is not to scale and not every single town, city and landmark is there but plenty of it is. The road network is also a compromise but there are still over 6,000 miles of road and it can easily take over 30 minutes to drive from New York to LA in the game. There are a few surprises along the way such as Punxsutawney which most of us probably became aware of in the Groundhog Day film and racing game fans will be pleased to see Laguna Seca.
Covering the whole of the USA means there is a lot of variety in the scenery. There are the busy city centres, the long stretching highways, snow topped mountain ranges, miles of farmland and water-logged swamps complete with crocodiles to mention just a few. The variety makes for an interesting long distance drive.
The entire map is available from the start and you can set a waypoint at any spot whether on road or off. The map has a great zoom feature which goes right down to street level so you can pinpoint the exact spot you want to navigate to. The built-in satnav will produce a floating blue line guiding you to your location and the mini map in the corner will show you how far you have left to travel. With the size of the map, driving to each destination could become time consuming so the game allows for some quicker methods in the form of fast travel, train journeys and flights. In order to do each of these you need to have visited the location. The map is covered in a blue tint which shows the places you have yet to explore. As you cruise around more and more of the map opens up allowing greater options for a quick arrival. Flights can naturally only happen between airports and not surprisingly, train journeys can only happen between train stations.
There are various reasons to explore other than opening up fast travel access. There are 242 landmarks to be discovered and each one has a little trivia fact. I did find that some of the landmarks I’d expect are not covered e.g. the Empire State Building or the Golden Gate Bridge. Perhaps Ubisoft felt we already know about these and wanted to expand our knowledge with information on other landmarks. There are also hidden car wrecks in each area, find them all and you’ll unlock a new car. The last aspect of exploration are the 30 data centres. In what seems to be based on Ubisoft’s gaming standard these days, discover these data centres and more items on the map are shown. Data centres and car wrecks are given a rough area meaning you will have to do a bit of hunting. The mini map helps by showing a ping of colour when you get close. The concentration of the colour shows the direction; it starts as red, changes to amber when you get closer and green indicates it is within touching distance. There is a lot to discover and you can get your money’s worth out of the game just by concentrating on these aspects alone.
Some concessions have been made in the name of fun. Traffic density is nothing like the real thing but waiting in traffic jams in New York wouldn’t make for the most interesting of racing games. When heading off road for a short cut at speed the game is more likely to give you a little bounce off a tree as if you clipped the side of the trunk rather than stop you in your tracks. Pedestrians are also few and far between and they are all alert and agile so there will be no GTA style hit and runs. There are some nice touches though; a startled pedestrian throwing the shopping bag raises a smile and seeing the convicts digging the road as the guard watches was an unexpected sight. And the ski jump is worth a visit!
You are free to go where you please but you are not free to do what you want without consequence. Certain actions catch the attention of the police and you will be hunted down if you’re a naughty driver. What is interesting is just what catches their attention. They don’t seem to bother if you drift round a corner on the wrong side of the road at a silly speed and narrowly miss the patrol car. Knocking down a fence post in the middle of nowhere however and suddenly you have their attention. The fascinating aspect of that is that there is nobody about in the forest but the instant you hit the post you hear the police announcement that there has been reports of a reckless driver. Who saw me? And I’m blown away by the response time from calling in the incident to it being announced to the officers on patrol. Cause enough destruction and you become wanted and the police will look for you. Escaping their sight radius is all that is needed to get rid of the heat. The more damage you cause the more attention you will receive and more effort the police will put into stopping you. It’s a fairly standard formula.
It’s not all exploration and police chases though; there are many mini events to try for financial reward and car parts. The events can see you slaloming between markers, driving between 2 closely placed markers, sticking to the racing line, performing jumps and seeing how far you can drive in a given time frame. The gold medal winning ghost car is shown but it isn’t always a true indicator of how well you are doing, for points based events you can finish ahead of the gold medal car but have less points. These mini events fit in nicely with the cruising around, for instance, pass through the marker to start and chances are you will be participating in the event as you travel the roads you were planning to travel anyway. Not having to stop to start the events also adds a touch of convenience. You are awarded bronze, silver or gold medals. At a certain point the platinum challenge for each becomes available. Getting gold in a lot of the events is a challenge and needs a capable car and driver; I’ll blame the car for now.
Car handling is arcade based and for the most part it seems fine. I was uncertain of it in the beta but the final version seems more solid. There is plenty of room to tinker in the options to reach a preferred setup. For the most part it is fine but at times when doing the slalom events it can feel like I’m in control of a double decker bus rather than a sports car. It could be the way I drive. Tuning the cars can improve the handling; your vehicles level up alongside the player’s ranking and the auto shops allow for some tinkering under the bonnet. There is a nice sequence as the car components are stripped back one by one until you are left with 4 wheels, a chassis and an engine.
Graphically the game gets a bit of stick but I think that is rather unfair. It isn’t a showpiece for the new consoles but it is by no means worthy of criticism. The car models are detailed which is more obvious close up and a map that size must come with a slight overhead for the graphics engine. I certainly think it looks good.
*
The main component of the game is of course the story mode. Driving games are not known for their memorable stories and this one is no different. You are a street racer trying to rise up through the ranks to avenge the death of your brother. There is a little side line in that you are working under cover for the authorities to clear your name since you were originally convicted of the death. It’s all really just a reason for the events to take place and you’ll meet all manner of forgettable or dislikeable characters. But it doesn’t get in the way and any story scenes are short enough that you are back behind the wheel quickly.
Story missions are nice and varied. Naturally there are the street races but you will also find yourself participating in off road events which wouldn’t look out of place in a Dirt game. In fact, some of them are more interesting that anything I saw in a Dirt game with smashing through a fence, dodging the trees on the downward slope, splashing through the river and so on. Other events take a pursuit style where you’ll be chasing a target trying to take the vehicle down or you yourself will be the target. There is a very good chase round an active airport early in the game.
As the name suggests, the game is about having a crew and is therefore heavily multiplayer based. It is an always online game and there will be others in your game world. You can attack the game missions on your own or with a crew member. The presence of others is all seamless and you’ll not notice people dropping in or out. It will be at its best with friends but there is an obstacle of crew members only being able to participate in races they have unlocked in their own story progress which is something that could become quite restrictive to those that play more. I’m not really interested in the social side but other than not being able to pause, most of the time I feel like I am on my own anyway. Every now and then I’ll see the gamer picture of the others pop up and the distance and direction they are away from me but with a map that size, it is easy to not come across another at all. I’ve spent many hours in the game and from what I have seen there are many others just like me going about their own business thing in a shared world. Need For Speed Rivals has the same online aspect but you can at least switch it off which is something lacking from The Crew.
There are player versus player events which I’ve not tried but reading on the internet suggests few seems to bother. There are also challenges against your friends. The game will let you know if one of your friends has a better score/time on an event and you can try to claim top spot.
The Crew is an ambitious game with plenty to commend it but the multiplayer aspect doesn't seem to have really worked out for those without a group of friends, in my experience at least. Thankfully the always online aspect doesn’t get in the way and there is a wealth of content between a lengthy story, loads of mini events and lots of exploration to be done. I’ve certainly enjoyed it much more than my experience with the beta. It is an easy game to lose a lot of time in and the diversity of content is a big plus point.
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