The joy of driving without limits. The luxury of losing yourself aimlessly in a true paradise or experimenting with different ways of competing; and the genuine feeling of be having a good time at all times. Whether it is crossing tropical landscapes that transmit freshness at absurd speeds, dreamy beaches at sunset or urban night environments in which only the road and the effect of neon lights are visible. It may be a video game, but The Crew Motorfest will arrive in the middle of summer and it is already a great plan that is hard to say no to.
Ubisoft retains that inordinate ambition of its big projects and its signature flair for creating captivating open worlds in this new foray into The Crew saga. Now, this third installment knows how to bring new sensations to the player as well as a powerful additional claim: the fact of driving and competing through a replica of the island paradise of Oahuin Hawaii, which has accommodated here and there so that conquering her behind the wheel is a joy.
In fact, the French company reinforces its commitment to motorsports by focusing very specifically on what it does best: offer freedom to the player in open world key. One in which it’s a pleasure to get lost at our pace or at absurd speeds, whether it’s with classic cars, powerful electric supercars or those Japanese sports cars that skid so wildly.
and even though The Crew Motorfest is a driving game that, as in previous installments, wants to reach everyone through a simple -but exciting- gameplay, it knows how to integrate within itself different layers of variety that make the whole feel scandalous.
Which, like it or not, makes comparisons with the Forza Horizon saga almost, almost inevitable. And quite justified, everything is said. The good news is that after testing The Crew Motorfest We are clear about what has been learned (and inherited) from the PlayGround Games games, but also about what will be contributed to those who come from them and from The Crew 2. And it is that this festival of motoring in the key of a video game aspires to be the new surprise of the engine for the second half of the year.
But the best thing is that It is a very well founded claim.
Oahu, the new Ubisoft motorsport mecca
If you come from the saga Force HorizonUbisoft will welcome you at The Crew Motorfest making you fantasize that it is one more installment of the saga. And no wonder: an awful lot has happened since PlayGround reimagined Mexico at its convenience. Ivory Tower Studio’s treatment of the island of Oahu is very, very similar for the record, but the atmosphere and playable feel are entirely Ubisoft.
One thing does not take away the other, for the record: from the moment you start playing The Crew Motorfest have Hands on the wheel and you’re in the middle of a sprint. Over the next few minutes, it lets you experiment between different environments, vehicle types, and driving experiences, jumping from one to another upon reaching certain milestones. Just like PlayGround games start.
But despite the fact that the similarities are inevitable, as we say, the essentials continue to work as a scandal. Being the way to promote driving and to raise the open world where Ubisoft sweeps home.
For the first time in the saga of The Crew the American continent is abandoned -although technically we are still on American soil- with three very well-defined and successful purposes: to give the open world much more prominence, more variety to driving styles and to encourage that, as occurs in Ubisoft’s sports and competitive games , let’s improvise games with other players while we squeeze each season of content.
The feeling at the controls is not simulation, and as the game is planned, it would be very difficult to make the most of its possibilities. However, briefly fiddling through the options we have been able to find all kinds of adjustments to accommodate the experience both in terms of playability and accessibility. Including a color blind filter that in driving games is more than welcome.
The same passion for driving, different ways of discovering the island
Fun is in the variety. Just by looking at the landscapes we already assume that it is not the same to drive in off-road races than to measure ourselves in urban terrain with Muscle cars. And that is accentuated at the controls and is addressed in a very interesting way through the playlists. Or the playlists. Ubisoft told us that they were the heart of the game itself and I was not exaggerating.
In our games we have found that there are truly unique elements. If, for example, we play with classic cars in a dedicated game list, not only will we feel different and there will be no option to activate the nitro, but during the course of the race we will not have the classic radar or map in view as reference. And that’s not a bad thing when the race layout is well laid out.
The same applies if we prefer drift racing strongly inspired by the Japanese motorsport culture, which, by the way, is very present in the paradise of Oahu. What’s more, despite the fact that in our first minutes we took time to change the chip to accommodate ourselves to the dynamics of taking the curves based on abusing the handbrake, toggle between styles ends up playing in favor of the whole.
Delivering a message loud and clear to the player: why limit yourself to offering a single driving style when you can take advantage of all the possibilities of the open world created?
From here, the part that we could see of how the game develops and evolves revolves around what the title of the installment itself already tells us: The Crew Motorfest It has been conceived as a mega-motorsport festival that takes place throughout the island and that we will enjoy as a character created for the occasion and in which the reward for each milestone and victory is a crucial part of the experience.
After warming up the engines, Ubisoft gave us access to the game playlists, which work in a very similar way to those of PlayGround Games when it comes to improvising games: a kind of short thematic campaigns with custom races, themed events and other unique challenges.
And yes, in case you skid badly in the most important curve – in which the race is at stake – or you get confused at the controls when going from an electric supercar to a buggy, you have the option to rewind. Or, at least, when it comes to the single player experience. It will be time to wait a little longer to draw our conclusions with the multiplayer. Although not too much.
Holidays in Hawaii start in September
The feeling we get after testing what is offered in The Crew Motorfest it is positive. really positive. But we are also aware that even having access to the different driving styles and being able to choose between different Playlists, we have only been able to see the tip of the iceberg.
A simple appetizer of what it can offer and provide an open world in which the variety of environments, the contrast between the vehicles and the ambition of its size and details will be transcendental. And how he brings that fun we experience to multiplayer will also make a world of difference.
Ubisoft and the Ivory Tower Studio team don’t stitch without thread: The Crew Motorfest It comes right between a GT7 whose commitment to simulation has just made the leap to Virtual Reality and a Forza Motorsport which will focus on closed circuits. Giving a kind of relief to the series Forza Horizonsbut preserving what makes Ubisoft’s open worlds and its characteristic progress system work for months and years.
And it is that the launch of The Crew Motorfest it will be only the beginning of a succession of events that will come in the future. And, as expected, we can expect the arrival of news: we know that the Year 1 Pass will add no less than 25 additional cars to a final list of vehicles yet to be announced.
In fact, we are curious to know the total number of cars that we will be able to drive, because the variety between them already plays completely in favor of the game. And you can import the cars you already have in The Crew 2 even more.
For now, we already anticipate that The Crew Motorfest It will be played on both generations of PlayStation and Xbox, as well as on PC, starting on September 14. And despite the fact that we are not sure when you will start the holidays or what plans you will have, it is worth considering the Aloha State as a perfect option to get lost and disconnect from the routine. Even from our own home.
Card of The Crew Motorfest
- Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Amazon Luna
- Multiplayer: Yes
- Developer: Ivory Tower Studio
- Company: Ubisoft
- Release: September 14, 2023
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