Almost four years after the first chapter, Ubisoft launches again in the racing game sector. Many will remember the not exactly exciting reception reserved for the first game of the franchise, due to a gameplay not up to the expectations of the fans. However, the French publisher did not want to give up and, last June 29, published The Crew 2, which promises to fill all the gaps of its predecessor. The promised contents are really many and rather varied, but the question that many will be asking is: will Ubisoft be able to take advantage of the lessons learned with the first The Crew? We will try to answer all of this in our review of The Crew 2.
The Crew 2: a lot of meat on the fire
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One of the features that is impossible not to notice about this The Crew 2 is its total abandonment of any type of plot. If in the previous chapter we had a protagonist, with name and surname, and his story was the setting for the gameplay, in this second episode of the series we will be an unspecified pilot who intends make your way into the racing world. Despite the enthusiasm and good will, we will immediately understand that, in 2018, having talent is not enough to succeed, but you must have the right number of followers. The larger our media audience, the more prestigious the events we will be able to access, with correspondingly higher prizes and rewards.
Secondly, one of the innovations of The Crew 2 is that we can run on land, water and air. If in the previous chapter of the saga the races were only "on rubber", in this sequel we will also be able to pilot planes, with which we will be able to carry out the craziest evolutions, and powerboats, which will give us moments of pure adrenaline. As shown by the pompous introduction of the game, it will also be possible switch from one vehicle to another during the race, without any kind of limit. As for car racing, we will be able to compete with different types of races, which can take us from races between city streets to dirt roads. If we added one to all of this map that extends to the entire United States, we will get an idea of the enormous work done by Ivory Tower.
Less realism, more fun
From the very first bars of the game, we immediately understand that The Crew 2 gameplay does not make realism its cornerstone. The gaming experience clearly orients itself to arcade side of the genre, definitely focusing on spectacular, adrenaline-pumping races, and not disdaining the right number of jumps and evolutions. The same possibility of "rewinding the tape" of each race, reliving the hottest moments and perhaps taking some snapshots, reinforces what has just been said. Each circuit is characterized in a perfectly recognizable way: if the city streets are full of murals and with an adequate soundtrack, the dirt roads will be completely immersed in nature.
Fortunately, the bugs seen in the debut of the first The Crew are not present in this sequel, and the same running system has been significantly improved. If racing with airplanes has a rather intuitive piloting system, making even the most reckless evolutions simple, races aboard motorboats turn out to be rather poorly designed, making the brake button not only almost superfluous but even deleterious. The Crew 2despite the many innovations, it is still a long way from perfection. The arcade setting makes driving all of the vehicles in the game quite accessible: it doesn't matter how fast you are going, it doesn't even matter which racing car you are using, the guide will change very little. It goes without saying that what has just been said strikes a bit with a fleet of machines including over 200 vehicles, which, however, it should be emphasized, have many possibilities for customization.
A decidedly fluctuating technical sector
The Crew 2 adds even more to the "big binge" seen in the previous chapter. There game map of this second game is decidedly large, going, as mentioned above, to embrace the entire territory of the United States. Although the possibilities of free roaming are practically limitless, there are some criticisms to be made. At a purely implementation level, a great difference is perceived between urban areas and natural landscapes, and the same map turns out, in many respects, to be rather bare. The same fast travel feature makes the exploratory phase almost completely superfluous, giving us the opportunity to jump from one city to another.
Moving to the fleet, even in this case it is possible to perceive one fluctuating quality between the care with which some vehicles have been made and that with which they have been made others. In this respect the NPC are the real weak point of this The Crew 2, whose creation seems almost hasty, as well as their dubbing. Despite the clear step forward made compared to the previous The Crew, the technical sector represents the true Achilles heel of this game.
Racing against yourself and no competitive multiplayer
Each stylistic choice has its consequences, and The Crew 2's strong arcade gameplay comes with some drawbacks. One of them, for example, is that we will hardly ever have to use the del key freno, except in the most accentuated curves, and that the key to every victory will be hidden in the dosage of the booster. This "bonus acceleration" will be reloaded during the race and, as happens in other similar titles, it can make a difference. As you will have easily understood, rather than looking after a curve tackled to perfection, to bring home the victory we will have to pay attention to all possible shortcuts that the various tracks will offer, perhaps braking with the help of the guard rail.
By choosing i higher difficulty levels, we will have to deal with a decidedly punitive artificial intelligence, but which will push us even more to "play dirty". Every wrong braking, every badly taken corner, could make us lose a race that may have taken the lead, giving us the impression of racing not against other vehicles, but only against ourselves.
Finally, from a title like The Crew 2, we would have expected a sector competitive multiplayer definitely on the shields; and instead, upon admission of the developer himself, this component is currently absent. It will not be possible to compete with our friends, and the only possible competition, at the time of writing, will consist in trying to beat their respective records.
Final judgement
The Crew 2 manages to leave behind most of the flaws of its unfortunate predecessor, but there is still a long way to go. The gameplay with a strong "arcade flavor" will turn their noses up at those who wanted a more realistic gaming experience, and the same technical realization does not even manage to enter into a competition between the sacred monsters of the genre. Despite the current absence of a competitive multiplayer, The Crew 2 turns out to be a title in any case rather enjoyable, above all thanks to the great variety of contents offered and the possibility of customization of the many vehicles present. With the necessary adjustments, Ivory Tower will be able to package a very pleasant product, even if it is far from perfect.
We sincerely thank Ubisoft for providing the copy required for the review.
