Skip to content
The Crew 2 is out now, but the first game was one of the worst that I have played for an awfully long time. The build up and excitement surrounding its release was larger than most, and it hurts when you feel as let down by a game as I felt whilst playing it. Nothing about it felt right. Within 10 minutes of playing this sequel, I understood that they had taken on board all of the criticism and amended their mistakes.
What this new entry offers is an extensive range of racing. Only an hour or two into the game, I had raced cars, trucks, off road, motocross bikes, boats, planes… and I could go on. Your aim is to become a top racer in whichever discipline you decide. To level up, you need to race all of the disciplines, unless you are going to take part in all of the little side challenges which I didn’t bother with at all. With each race you get extra subscribers/followers and it makes you more famous. The more famous you are, the more races you can do, and the more loot you can get, which all leads to better cars.
The graphics are nothing short of beautiful. Saying that, I can’t think of the last racing game I played which didn’t fulfil that role. Although I often fast-travelled to a new location, it was nice to take the occasional drive across the gigantic map. When I say gigantic, I mean the map is of the whole of the USA. One negative about this is how painfully slow it is to navigate the map and find activities. I found myself setting a waypoint and then realising it was going to take around 30 minutes to get there… Luckily, one of The Crew 2‘s coolest features is the ability to change your vehicle mid-flow, albeit when you’re flying in the air and reach the highest point then decide you’re going to change into a boat, you do float down beautifully. As you are probably understanding, I had a lot of fun wth this and couldn’t get enough of trying to boat at 150 mph on land. The only criticism I would have of the graphics is that everything was slightly square at times. Just seemed a little too perfect.
The Crew 2 isn’t the easiest game to play, mainly because you have so many different forms of racing to learn. The difference between itself and a game like Project Cars is that this one is quite clearly an arcade game. It doesn’t give the most realistic feel to racing, but it doesn’t mean to. It is just meant to be fun and that is what it is, although it is a little frustrating when you spend ages driving from one side of the map to the other, or trying to find a race or complete a challenge.
The sound is exactly what you would expect. Imagine yourself sitting in a local outdoor pub and a bunch of 17-year-olds storm past in their cars purchased for them by their neglectful parents. Imagine those noises and you know how it sounds. It took me about 7 days to work out how to change the radio station, but when I did I was much happier. The music used neglects to include any absolute bangers, but has a few good songs.
Overall, The Crew 2 offers a fun experience which is far superior to it’s older brother. It is definitely a game I will keep going back to, and is the perfect side chick to support my main game. The vehicles on offer are great, and being able to fly is helping me overcome my actual fear… until I continuously crash into a bridge!
The Crew 2 is out now on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Important info:
- Developer: Ivory Tower
- Publisher: Ubisoft
- Players: single-player, multiplayer
|
GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY ENJOYMENT |
8 7 8 8 |
| OVERALL | 8 |
I have been a video game player since 1993 and a music fan since I can remember. I studied Film and Journalism at university and ended up becoming a Primary School teacher. Video games changed my life and sent me on the right track and have stayed with me ever since.