Game Review: New crew game is an entertaining ride

The Crew 2

The first Crew game failed on several fronts, but despite its failings Ubisoft decided to give us another one. However, this time around, you aren't restricted to cars - you can compete in multiple disciplines of motorsports, including aerial acrobatics, off-roading and even speed boating, with the aim of mastering them all.

This is all tied in with a wafer-thin story line, which most of the time you can ignore, by skipping ahead. All you need to know from the story is that you can win the game not only by playing through its races, but also by performing insane stunts for points. This is all possible because the main currency to move ahead in the game is followers. The followers are always watching you through some series called Live and you can accumulate fans doing just about anything. They aren't fickle like regular fans either; once you have gained them, they stay on for the ride. You have access to the entire map of America from the word go, though the events only get unlocked as your popularity increases and as you unlock more disciplines.

There are generally four categories of motorsports in The Crew 2. The Street involves street racing, drifting, drag challenges and hypercar events. Offroad, as you can imagine involves rally raid, motocross and rally cross. Pro Racing lets you race powerboats, touring cars, airplanes and F1 cars. The most fun of the four is Freestyle, this involves aerial acrobatics, jet sprints and monster trucks. We spend most of our time competing in aerial challenges and on the monster truck. The great part of this game is you don't really need to compete in anything if you don't want to and that gives you the freedom to just ride around the maps.

Though there are some serious genres of motorsports here, they are all very accessible thanks to the arcade like control of the vehicles. With a little practice you can master any vehicle in the game in a few minutes. This unfortunately doesn't mean it can help you win races, and this has nothing to do with your driving skill. The game is very unforgiving and lets the AI catch up right behind you, no matter how much ahead you are and no matter the level of your vehicle. This was a problem in the first game and it is still a problem here. We have lost many a match to inferior cars just because we exited a turn the wrong way. It is very unfair and some matches with lots of twist and turns involving trees or unmovable objects can get very frustrating.

The racing maps though are very nuanced - if you spend your time learning them - and have tricks and shortcuts up their sleeves that can help your car gain the advantage and move ahead. Multiple playthroughs on a single map can bring these into focus and get you ready for real opponents. The game also has an RPG element to it, all vehicles can be upgraded with parts either gained from racing or by finding a Live loot box. The Crew 2 is a great if you don't have an agenda in mind; just play it as it comes and the game will not disappoint. If you are, however, looking for something more serious, this might not be the game for you.

The Crew 2
Rating: 4/5
Developer: Ivory Tower
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox
Price: PC Rs 2,999;
PS4/ XBOX Rs 3,999