The Crew Motorfest

Now that I have been let loose on the island of Oahu in The Crew Motorfest, it's clear to me that while the game shares a lot of similarities with Playground's Forza Horizon series, it's really Riders Republic that this game most seems to imitate. You see, on the surface the open-world racing dynamic and focus is enough to paint the picture that this game is a near copy of Forza Horizon, but when you start peeling back the layers, look at the more arcade-feeling racing systems, experience the multiplayer offering, and see how the 'story' is arranged with its Playlists, it really does feel like Ubisoft's extreme sports title. And that's both for the better and worse.

The Crew Motorfest is an enormous game. The island of Oahu is gigantic and since you can use the Fast-Nav feature to instantly swap between car/bike, plane, and boat, you can explore the land without compromise. You can even swap cars without needing to visit a hub location or a home. Everything is possible on the fly, and this works in tandem with the game's more arcade nature. But while on the topic of size, The Crew Motorfest has a bafflingly large garage of over 600 cars to flick through, and the map is littered with activities and additional objectives, in a similar way to other modern open-world racing games. Believe me when I say that you will never be lacking in things to do in this title.

But as Forza Horizon, for example, prided itself on its more realistic and accurate racing nature, The Crew Motorfest seems to go the other way. The cars feel a bit too responsive and fake, and the simulated driving systems don't come across as something that will blow you away and ask you to be careful and precise with your driving. Hell, it'll even drift for you with some cars. The point is, this doesn't feel like a racing simulation in many senses. It's more Need for Speed than Gran Turismo, and admittedly this does suit the tone of the game, even if it detracts in an immersive sense.

The Crew Motorfest also looks to dance a very strange line in regard to how it approaches racing culture and its festival theme. On one hand, the island has been decorated like a Forza Horizon festival, with big theme park-like hubs and wacky balloons dotted around the landscape. You'll even come across a slate of computer-controlled racers and real players around the island, all like Playground's title. But at the same time, the game looks to tell stories and educate you on the history and intricacies of the world of motorsports and cars, all through its new Playlists campaign offering.

Playlists are essentially chapters that each pertain to different car brands or styles of driving. There is a chapter dedicated to Japanese vehicles and drifting and another tailored to racing cars out of your wildest dreams. There are off-road Playlists, ones themed around boats and planes, others dedicated to fast-paced Formula-style racing, and some themed solely around car manufactures too (Porsche and Lamborghini, for example). Each Playlist will see you competing in a variety of unique races and driving different cars, and while I will say that they are fun to experience and interesting to follow, the Playlists system also often feels like a very lengthy tutorial, as many activities around the world won't be available until you complete respective Playlists.

As you complete more Playlists, you'll find more speed traps, slalom runs, escape activities, collectibles, and so forth, all littered over the map. This is similar to how Forza Horizon angles its progression, but in Forza Horizon 5, for example, there are only a limited number of chapters to unlock, whereas in The Crew Motorfest you'll be starting a new Playlist every hour or so. And since Ubisoft and developer Ivory Tower clearly has a grand live plan for this game, it feels like there is a smaller number of Playlists right now as Ubisoft wants you to keep coming back and chipping away at Playlists every week.

Playlists are also more than just races, as once you complete the main batch and unlock the reward car at the end, Ivory Tower throws a ton of challenges your way and additional tasks, all that provide experience and cash so that you can level up your account to unlock more goodies, and also buy new cars, some of which are required to unlock the next Playlist. The progression in The Crew Motorfest doesn't feel all too rewarding, although that could be because I'm so familiar with the dopamine engine that is Forza Horizon and its wheel spins.

In terms of the car customisation, this is one of the areas that I think The Crew Motorfest (and The Crew series in general really) lacks the most. There's no fiddling with individual components and parts. You simply earn different car parts, in the form of cards, by completing races or levelling up and just slot them in your cars to improve their performance. It's not exactly very thrilling, but I will say where it lacks in excitement and depth, it makes up for it in its intuitive nature and simplicity.

But anyway, what about the online portion of the game? This is where the Riders Republic inspiration really seems to take centre stage in my opinion. When racing online, you can of course simply jump into regular races, but you can also join events and activities that pop up every so often that allow you to compete in grand races and demolition derbys, and see tens of people competing at once. If you thought these kinds of activities were chaotic in Riders Republic, try experiencing them in hefty cars. It's madness. Some of these events even feature weird niche abilities, with the demolition derby being framed like a battle royale where you have to pick up shielding to protect your car from being smashed into a million tiny pieces during a collision, all while evading a gradually shrinking boundary of play. This mode never really drew me in too much, and the grand races came across as a bit too chaotic to engage someone who enjoys tight racing like myself.

While the racing and Playlists system has its positives and negatives, the island itself is an absolute marvel. Ivory Tower has created a playground that begs to be explored and travelled around, a map that is unbelievably pretty too. If you had any doubt that Hawaii is one of the most striking places on the planet, this representation of the pacific islands will put that to bed, especially after a spot of rain, with puddles reflecting the azure sky as you blaze along the baking hot asphalt roads. I did notice a few strange visual bugs however, including shadows not lining up or appearing whatsoever and textures popping in, but if you can glance over these problems (and computer-controlled cars appearing out of thin air) then The Crew Motorfest will not disappoint with its presentation.

There's no denying that The Crew Motorfest has some serious competition in the open-world racing space, and looking at my time with the game, two things are apparent. First, the game isn't currently at the same level of quality and structure as that of Forza Horizon 5, which is a game that is to this day almost the gold standard in this category of titles. Secondly, it's clear to me that, when also looking at how Ubisoft supports The Crew 2, this game has the chance to age like a fine wine, meaning while it feels a bit barebones and predictable at times, the live elements will no doubt mean that you will have plenty of reasons to keep playing or to routinely return for more racing fun. But with both of those thoughts in mind, as it stands, The Crew Motorfest is a competent and genuinely fun racer that while introducing some interesting activities and online features, does struggle to live up to the heights and levels of immersive realism that separates the good of this sector of games from the truly great ones.