If you can believe it, those issues aren’t even the worst of what The Crew brings to the table. While there are several other glaring problems, which I’ll get to, the worst may just be the wonky car handling and physics. I knew coming into this that I wasn’t going to get a pure simulation like Gran Turismo, but I at least figured my car wouldn’t control like I was driving on ice at all times. If I was going fast, a simple tap of the steering wheel would typically send my vehicle careening all over. It’s absolutely ridiculous, and feels like whoever designed the handling for the early portion of the game doesn’t know a whole lot about how cars handle.
That said, I do understand why Ivory Tower decided to make the handling so obnoxious. They wanted to give the game a kind of RPG-like progression system, where better parts can be earned by completing missions. It’s like beating a difficult boss and receiving a stronger and deadlier weapon. However, that type of progression system works for those games because they know how to properly guide you through their early portions. Here, you’re just thrown into missions that require pinpoint steering right off the bat, which is more annoying and unfair than fun and challenging.
The piss-poor handling extends to more than just the basic cars you purchase, though, as even mission-specific rides suffer from this problem. For example, near the start of the campaign, you are told to use an off-road vehicle to complete a set time trial. Simple enough, right? Even considering the fact that this vehicle was built to handle going off-road, it controls just as poorly in the dirt as my regular ride. So, instead of swerving in and out of trees, like Ivory Tower wants me to, I slammed from tree to tree and came out of the woods looking like I just drove off a cliff. And since that’s not what my handler wanted, I was forced to repeat the mission over and over and over again.
Of course, if you would rather bypass the awful mess that is the early part of The Crew, you can just buy your way to better parts, as Ubisoft has implemented a ton of microtransactions into the title. I don’t necessarily have an issue with the idea of microtransactions, but only if they are featured in free-to-play games. When a full-priced AAA title crams itself full of these cash sinks, it becomes infuriating. This a slimy practice from Ubisoft, and one that has become increasingly normal for the publisher.
Besides the fact that they are trying to take even more money from unsuspecting consumers, what really annoys me about the microtransactions here is that they screw with the already-shaky progression system of the game. Since Ubisoft would prefer it if you bought Crew Credits from them, what’s to stop them from making non-paying players grind their way to these better parts? There is also an embarrassingly small amount of cars to choose from (less than 40), which I’m sure is just another way Ubisoft wants to drain more money from consumers. This is not only bad practice in general, but it looks completely absurd compared to a title like Forza Horizon 2, which features 200 cars in its base game alone.
Even the big feature of The Crew —Â it’s massive map of the United States — is something of a letdown. Sure, there is a ton to do, and there’s something to be said for being able to drive from New York to California in one go, but there really isn’t a ton of detail to be found. Most of the cities tend to look the same, outside of specific landmarks, and there’s a distressing lack of civilians in what should be busy areas. I don’t even care that they all have the same canned animations, just make it seem like the city is actually alive.
The lack of detail in this digitized United States is just one specific example of how underwhelming The Crew can look. Since this was a title that started development way back in 2008, I kind of understand why it looks as shoddy as it does at times, but this is an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 game. Why is there so much pop-in occurring while I’m driving? And why are the vehicles lacking details seen in other major racing titles? These issues can be masked by the fact that, when you are driving 140+ mph down the freeway, you don’t really notice them. However, as soon as you stop and look around, you’ll realize how sad everything really looks.
The always online-nature of the game is also a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, being able to seamlessly team up with a wandering band of drivers in order to tackle missions or just to race is a wonderful feature. That said, being able to use these features or play the game in general, means that you’ll need to connect to the main server, which has been a tad problematic so far.
Much like Ubisoft’s other recent releases, The Crew is a major disappointment considering all it has going for it. The massive map of the United States is an achievement, and the MMO-like aspects could have been excellent. However, for all of the great ideas Ivory Tower brings to the table, there are just as many negatives to be found. From the absurd handling and cheap enemy A.I. to the ugly graphics and over-reliance on microtransactions, there are no shortage of problems here. Even if you are desperate for a new racer (I’m looking at you PS4 owners), I can’t justify recommending this game in its current state.
This review is based on the Xbox One version of the game, which we were provided with.
