Ubisoft developer Ivory Tower followed up their racing MMO The Crew with a sequel in 2018. I picked this game up on sale recently, after having very much enjoyed the original. Still an MMO in concept, Crew 2 makes fabulous use of its open world to improve on the initial 2014 formula. The arcade style is still there, and perhaps more pronounced. There is a plethora of events. Crew 2 has a lot to offer, and I enjoyed much of its offerings.
Crew 2, like the original, takes place in an open world United States. It is a world densely populated with events, individual race initiation sites sometimes having multiple races to select within. There are too many event types to list. Events exist for three vehicle types: cars, boats and planes. This is new to the sequel, the original just had several types of car events. You can expect on and off-road racing, street racing on and off track, and stunt events, to name some. The one thing The Crew 2 doesn’t have that the original did is a story, but the story of the first game was so shallow I didn’t really miss it at all. I am perfectly happy coming to the world a rookie racer climbing my way up to fame.
And a climb, it is indeed. The Crew 2 has a lot of grind, but there are so many events you will never really get bored. I have played over 20 hours total so far and it has been a fresh experience the whole time, and an enjoyable one most of the time. There is a lot of game left to play. To progress in terms of car upgrades, you need to complete events or find hidden caches in the world to obtain loot, i.e., parts for your vehicles. You will need cash to by cars and visual flair, but a lot of things that can be bought with cash can also be bought with the rarer, but more valuable Crew Credits, (CC.)
CC can be bought with real money and is reasonably enough priced that I actually dropped a little money on CC for visual upgrades to my main street racer, a Dodge Challenger Hellcat. Seeing as how I got the Gold Edition of the game, normally $80, for about $25, I don’t feel too bad about spending a little bit of change on something that is going to enhance the game for me. I may buy more CC in the future to ease the grind of unlocking cars I want, but not bad enough to grind endlessly.
The arcade style racing is very fun in the Crew 2 and works for all vehicles I would say. Steering requires precision, no matter what type of engine you are using. The plane events are very challenging, and there is a weird bug in airplane stunt events where it doesn’t pick up when I have performed a loop, even after troubleshooting online. Even with that, airplanes are a welcome addition. Boat events are fun, but limited. I hope in the future they keep these other vehicle types, but improve on them. Like having more boat types, or jets for some airplane events. There are a lot of different car and motorcycle racing types, and I would say they deliver for the most part.
This is a fun game to play with friends, especially events like monster truck stunt courses which are a lot more fun when you have other humans to play with or against. I very much enjoyed playing a Hyper Car race from New York to San Francisco, the longest race in the game at about 30-40 minutes. It was fun to go into cockpit view and get those real road trip vibes with a few buddies.
There is a terrific selection of vehicles in The Crew 2, and your car has a numerical grade based on its performance. You will find that max level cars are not created equal, and different cars will have different optimal performance. Keep this in mind as you spend your hard earned cash. Especially if, like me, you bought the Gold Edition, which comes with cars that, when max level outperform the topped-out version of the expensive Dodge Hellcat you bought. Hey, I think the car looks cool, ok? And believe me, a max level car of most types will be enough to do what you want to do in this game. Although at times I do yearn for four-wheel-drive. Rear-wheel is consistently fun for me though.
I should say something about the music in The Crew 2. It is a fantastic selection of music for all the eight stations. I found new treasures on a several stations. Even the country station is good, as it avoids the dredges of pop country for a more indie sound that is perfect for cruising through the Midwest in your Dodge. The hip-hop station has some real gems, and the rock station as well. There is also a classical music station if you are feeling sophisticated.
This game is a treat for the eyes. Weather effects look delightful, as do cars and the world offers a bevy of roadside sights to behold. It is a very simplified and skewed version of the United States, but their intention was to make a good video game not a geography lesson. I’m sure, if you’ve driven around the United States you will see a lot of familiar things around the game world. Little slivers of home that endear the game to you. The built-in photo and video editors may lack some little bells and whistles other games offer, but I am just glad they are there. You can’t use them during races, but you can retrace your driven path in the game world map if you want to go back to a landmark and grab a picture. I did this for a little slice of the Midwest that really reminded me of home.
I have very much enjoyed my indulgence of The Crew 2, and I anticipate I will continue to, as there is still so much I haven’t done and unlocked. There are cars I want, new event disciplines altogether, new races and more. Even a lot of old races are worth doing again, especially since you can crank up the difficulty. If you’re looking for a racing game with a lot of different disciplines and an arcade style, look no further than The Crew 2.
HereticDerek 