Almost.
And the reference point is clear: The Crew Motorfest it is inspired – quite a lot – by Forza Horizon 5. Understandable to tell the truth, after all the Playground Games series has become one of the most appreciated automotive sagas by four-wheel enthusiasts. It doesn’t have that maniacal realism of Forza Motorsport or Assetto Corsa but offers the right mix between automotive culture and video game entertainment, a mix that continues to keep players glued to Xbox and PC.
Ivory Towerthe developer of The Crew, knows this and has tried to change the direction of its open world dedicated to engines.
It did so by resizing the map, adding activities that are very similar to what was proposed by the competitor and increasing the vehicles available but also trying to change the structure of the game, proposing playlists, a series of races contained within the same “package” that revolve around a specific theme. Confused? Let’s give some examples: we have American Muscle with American muscle cars, we have the playlist dedicated to vintage cars, the one inspired by the Japanese driving style and so on. The idea is not bad but the system still needs to be refined.
However, we don’t want to jump to conclusions so sit back and let us guide you into the world of The Crew Motorfest.
The Crew Motorfest review
In 2014, Ubisoft introduced players to The Crew, an open world racing game that put ALL of the United States of America at their disposal.
A huge map, a lot of vehicles and the story of Alex Taylor, ready to do whatever is necessary to help the FBI capture Shiv, his brother’s killer.
Now we don’t actually have a real protagonist to follow.
Or better, the protagonist here is you.
The Crew Motorfest revolves around a car festivaljust like Forza Horizon.
In the blink of an eye you will find yourself at Huawei, on the island of O’ahubehind the wheel. In fact, a quick initial sequence allows you not only to admire the beauty of the place but also to change vehicles to get a taste of what awaits you shortly afterwards.
Time to settle in and then you will be ready to create your avatar. The game offers you a series of ready-made characters, from which you can start to customize your digital alter ego.
And no, it’s not one of those cases in which you create him not to see him but more: you will see him driving, you will see him rejoicing at the end of each race and you will also see him in theinitial hub of the game, a sort of social area that tries to encourage interaction with other players but without too much success. Motorfest takes you here every time you start the game but we ended up spending only a few seconds there, partly because we were eager to drive and partly because the experience with our avatar is not fluid and satisfying. In short, you don’t have as much fun on foot as you do behind the wheel.
What do you do at The Crew Motorfest?
Ivory Tower offers us playlists, a collection of themed challenges which allows us not only to earn points but also to get a generous prize at the end.
Playlists include a variable number of events and predict their own “narrative strand”.
Quotation marks are a must here.
Take, for example, Made in Japan. This playlist, dedicated to Japanese car culture, allows you to get to know Hayato, leader of The Pack. However, don’t expect a real story. It’s more of an excuse to have a narrating voice during the various challenges, a guide who will tell you interesting explanations on the driving style and the vehicles involved in the races.
It’s not a real lack, let’s be clear. Forza Horizon also has no real narrative component. And that’s fine, after all the players mainly want to drive, and it’s not at all bad to do it while someone entertains you with all kinds of anecdotes.
Ecco, just keep in mind that the Italian language is not available. Or rather, there are subtitles in Italian but the audio is not in English. This means that if you don’t have a good command of the language you will struggle to follow the stories of the various challengers, also because while you’re going at 200 km/h reading without crashing becomes a bit difficult.
Regarding the variety of races proposed, not all playlists gave us the same joys. The Made in Japan races, for example, are set only at night but we have both races against other drivers and drifiting and drag racing challenges.
The Hawaii Scenic Tour instead abandons the classic circuit to take you from point A to point B in almost all events, compensating however with the introduction of speedboats and planes.
Instead, there are playlists like the 911 Legacy, dedicated to Porsche, where you only have classic races.
How do you compensate for the possible “boredom” effect resulting from this playlist structure which, basically, suggests you start and finish one, move on to the next one and so on?
A good way is to use the map. You open it and instead of reaching the next stop foreseen by the playlist, you go to the event closest to us, thus moving from one playlist to another.
Also keep in mind that playlists don’t just have the section Events with the races but also the Side Activities e le Challenges. You will encounter the first ones along the route and they can be done with any vehicle. They include photos to take, speed cameras to whiz past at full speed – hoping to reach the expected km/h -, Escapes, i.e. activities that require you to move N meters/km away from a point within a pre-established time, and Slaloms, where you will have to do exactly this, a slalom between obstacles positioned along the road trying not to hit other cars if possible.
The Challenges, on the other hand, are challenges that require a specific vehicle and range from “get to this place” to “drive at 200 km/h for 5 minutes”.
In exchange, of course, you will have experience and money.
Finally there are the Live Competition, temporary playlists with which you can try your hand with the aim of positioning yourself in the world ranking, and online matches such as Demolition Royale where you will be thrown into the fray with the task of destroying the competition’s cars.
In short, you will have your work cut out for you with The Crew Motorfest.
But what car do I drive?
At the beginning of the game you will have the opportunity to choose your first car.
So far everything is fine, right? It’s a classic.
However, you won’t need the car for the races.
Yes, you understood correctly. The game will lend you a vehicle every time you race. Yet, at the end of each competition, you will take home some pieces to customize your car.
What does it mean?
At first the logic may escape you but in reality all this will come back to you useful for all those activities you will encounter along the waysuch as Speedtraps and Escapes.
Getting your hands on the car means being faster, better performing, more agile, so you will be able to bring home new experience points and other very useful money, money with which you can buy other cars and elements for the aesthetic customization of the vehicles.
There are many cars available (more than 600) and you will have something to enjoy, especially because the driving model has improved: cars have a weight, their specificities, their defects. They improve if you put your hand to it and you can little by little find the right feeling.
It’s not a simulation game obviously, it is a simcadeand in our opinion this makes it enjoyable and truly suitable for anyone.
It’s just a shame that the same attention wasn’t paid to driving planes and motorboats where it all comes down to applying the cars model to these vehicles, NOS included.
The charm of Hawaii
The game map has been resized compared to previous chapters.
Now we have only a small island, before a whole country.
It’s not a huge loss though. Or rather, it is certainly a departure from the past and an approach that is very similar to that of Forza Horizon (and yes, we mention it again because the comparison is necessary), but we gain a lot in terms of detail.
The Crew Motorfest is Hawaii incredibly fascinating, with beaches, cities, volcanoes, forests… It’s all there and everything has been done with great care, including cars.
The visual experience is therefore of the highest level.
Then keep in mind that at the beginning of the game you can choose the desired mode: Performance gives priority to fluidity to guarantee you 60 fps, while Resolution instead it gives you a nice 4K at the expense of frames per second.
The Crew Motorfest review: conclusions
Ivory Tower has clearly decided to throw down the gauntlet to Forza Horizon, today the king of simcade. He does this by changing his formula, reviewing some elements, expanding the car fleet and reducing the map. The level is not yet that of its obvious competitor but the path traced could be the right one.
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