Upon The Crew Motorfest’s reveal at this 12 months’s (frankly weird) Ubisoft Forward in June, I feel I had the identical dismissive response as most individuals: some variation of “we’ve got Forza Horizon at residence”. I’m happy to say I used to be hasty, and improper, on this preliminary evaluation. To be clear, The Crew Motorfest is a high quality open-world racer, and in my opinion is definitely higher than Microsoft’s flagship driving recreation in numerous methods, significantly by way of its construction, but in addition as a result of it at no level makes you drive by means of Edinburgh.
Sure, the Horizon inspiration is evident and simple. All the bits are there: the shiny Instagram-fresh presentation, the optimistic sunshine, the infinite-budget “motoring pageant” that takes over a whole territory for an indefinite period of time. The boffins at Ivory Tower can forgive us for our wholesome scepticism.
But you might simply argue that Ivory Tower are literally reclaiming the style from Forza, given its origins because the workforce behind Test Drive Unlimited: a seminal open-world racer which individuals cherished as a result of it was an excellent highway journey simulator with attention-grabbing life sim parts, regardless of being a little bit of a garbage racing recreation with a driving mannequin that left quite a bit to be desired. That’s an outline which, by the way, applies simply as nicely to The Crew and arguably The Crew 2, video games which have been very a lot conceived as religious successors to TDU.
It’s barely disorienting that Motorfest is concurrently a throwback to the grandaddy of the style, with which it shares the island setting of O’ahu, but in addition a pivot away from what made The Crew notable and into another person’s wheelhouse solely.
Putting apart the Horizon comparisons for a second, and evaluating Motorfest as a part of Test Drive Unlimited’s lineage, what we’ve got in Motorfest is a location throwback that, for all its cribbing from trendy contemporaries, looks like a little bit of a step backwards. Curbing the map measurement again to 360-era proportions very clearly flies within the face of The Crew’s huge USP which is that it befell on an unlimited open-world map that represented, albeit closely compressed, the whole lot of the contiguous United States.
Essentially, it boils right down to highway journeys. The Crew (2014)’s working title was “Route 66”, which might be a way more becoming title than the one it ended up with, because it succinctly captures the sport’s whole enchantment. People don’t fondly recall the Fast & Furious-esque storyline, its hilariously unforgiving rubber-banding, or the truth that its driving mannequin felt barely extra subtle than its 360-era progenitor. What individuals bear in mind about The Crew is doing huge drives throughout the map: making that pilgrimage from Chicago to Santa Monica, or doing the heroic coast-to-coast slog from New York City to downtown LA.
These drives didn’t by any means take so long as their real-life counterparts, however they nailed the texture: the open highway, the frenzy of awe as the varied biomes of America give approach to one another whereas surroundings rushes previous. From the city sprawl of the East Coast megalopolis, to blue misty mountains, to arid deserts, to the sun-kissed fields of California. At its most inviting, The Crew was a romantic portrait of America, with roads as its canvas: the anti-GTA.
In these issues, Motorfest clearly suffers by advantage of the truth that it isn’t simulating a whole continent. That’s to not say it isn’t worthy of some highway journeys: there’s numerous tarmac to be discovered on O’ahu. But that particular sense of discovery that evokes Easy Rider, Thelma & Louise, or, uh, Beavis & Butthead Do America, is now not part of the deal. And for a sequel to The Crew, that is one thing that will get ever extra baffling each time I give it some thought.
Personally, I like when a sequence revisits a particular map or location. It’s enjoyable to match Assassin’s Creed Syndicate to Watch_Dogs Legion, for instance. Seeing how the micro-proportioned setting of Kamurocho develops through the years and a long time is a big a part of the enchantment of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon sequence, which simply appears to be unstoppable at this level. The Crew didn’t essentially must abandon the continental map idea to maintain going. Cities are continually altering, in spite of everything, and different continents can be found. I might like to see The Crew’s idea utilized to different areas of the world than the USA.
So, in that respect, Motorfest looks like a regression. And as a direct follow-up to Test Drive Unlimited, it leaves a good bit to be desired as nicely. There’s no sense of possession of the vehicles, no life simulation facet that features visiting auto dealerships, shopping for flats, and really having trigger to observe the principles of the highway every now and then somewhat than simply preserving the proper set off slammed backwards for almost all of your time within the recreation world. TDU’s model of O’ahu felt considerably tangible, and what you probably did there didn’t really feel 1,000,000 miles away from the true expertise of automotive possession. Motorfest, compared, turns Hawaii into Disneyland for supercars. Or some bizarre afterlife for petrolheads, the place you’ll be able to fulfil wild desires comparable to driving a DeLorean that isn’t a horrid, sluggish, rickety piece of shit.
And that’s Motorfest’s new proposition in a nutshell. Not particularly the tricked out DeLoreans, however the concept it’s a fantasy driving playground that borders on the religious with its want fulfilment. On regular problem, the races are pretty forgiving, offering simply sufficient problem to not really feel utterly pointless however on no account ever placing a participant at risk of dropping under the highest three so long as they vaguely perceive the ideas of breaking and accelerating. This is distinct from Forza Horizon, which does attempt to pay some heed to the mechanical actuality of the autos it simulates. Single participant races pose an actual problem, and profession development inside its occasions system can usually be a tough activity consequently. In Motorfest, nearly each automotive that isn’t particularly tagged as a motorsport car is fitted with a nitro booster as customary, even the traditional ones. It is, the truth is, a key a part of the second-to-second gameplay: boosting out of corners and into straights is kind of the primary ability you want.
So, The Crew Motorfest is an odd beast. You can hint its lineage straight again to the unique open world racer, however at this level it has discarded nearly each attention-grabbing facet of it other than the situation – suppose The Elder Scrolls Online’s model of Morrowind vs, er, Morrowind. It’s clearly impressed by Forza Horizon, however with out Forza’s hyperlink to its extra severe stablemate, there’s little incentive to floor its driving mannequin in something resembling actuality, so we find yourself with a fantasy motoring recreation the place the whole lot of the auto inventory drives like a supercar.
And it’s completely thrilling, as a result of it’s designed on the expense of each different facet of driving simulation to simply really feel good it doesn’t matter what. Are you driving a horrible steel-brushed shed on wheels from a movie, however you wish to overtake a Porsche 911 going at a full pelt? Done. You can try this. Want to nonetheless find yourself in pole place after whiffing a nook so badly that you just ended up dropping right down to sixth place, with solely half a lap left to go? Perfectly doable, on you go son.
It’s patently absurd, and but, totally enchanting. And one of many issues it does quite a bit higher than Horizon is the way it by no means leaves you caught for issues to do. Microsoft’s recreation has an enormous “okay so, what now?” drag issue that kicks in after the preliminary rush of actions. Its headline races and signature occasions are second to none, however within the huge gulf between these issues, motivation can endure for lack of a transparent path forward. Motorfest, compared, is structured round “playlists”: 15 teams of themed occasion races which can be very clearly signposted as you progress by means of them. They are usually themed round specific aspects of automotive tradition: traditional vehicles, muscle vehicles, Japanese avenue racing. My favorite one, and I believe the primary one everybody does, is the Hawaii Scenic Tour, a magic guided spin round O’ahu’s varied areas that showcases numerous various kinds of car and in addition offers you a kind of Lonely Planet cliff-notes abstract of native landmarks and their environment.
Ubisoft rightly takes numerous pelters for its homogenous strategy to recreation design, however one factor it does higher than everybody else is digital tourism. Real world areas sampled right down to their essence and hammered into online game kind. The Hawaii Scenic Tour completely leverages this to indicate off Motorfest’s riches, and it’s a beautiful setting to whizz round in. Motorfest actually has a greater sense of place than any of the latest Horizons. FH4’s truncated model of the UK felt so inauthentic that it truthfully felt alienating. Perhaps that is familiarity breeding contempt, however I don’t get the sense that O’ahu is equally bothered with this incapability to distil a location right down to its fundamental vibes in the best way that Ubisoft studios have grown so masterful at doing.
In the top, everybody’s preliminary impression of The Crew Motorfest as being kind of Ubi’s tackle Forza Horizon did kind of pan out. And it isn’t, regardless of sharing an island, any form of revival of Test Drive Unlimited. It’s not even something like The Crew. But the place numerous us have been improper, myself included, is in assuming that every one this is able to work in opposition to it. After first impressions have gotten themselves blown off on the freeway, Motorfest does sufficient to differentiate itself from Horizon that it may be seen as a worthy various. And although it’s not fairly as slick, it’s way more pleasantly structured. It completely succeeds in matching velocity with its greatest rival within the house, but in addition does new issues with the style that push it ahead ever so barely.
When video games come alongside which have such a muddled identification, which isn’t a very uncommon phenomenon as this business suffers from the 2 many cooks phenomenon greater than every other, it’s prudent to surprise who this factor is definitely for. Motorfest is a good launch for Playstation customers who may really feel like they would not thoughts a bash on the newest Forza Horizon, assuming they exist. It offers one thing adjoining sufficient to the expertise to fulfill these emotions with out having to expire and purchase an Xbox (perish the thought!). For Forza Horizon followers, it gives one thing mechanically distinct, that’s much more arcadey, however in a well-recognized format and an excellent new location. And for individuals who miss Test Drive Unlimited, it’s an attention-grabbing tour again to an outdated hang-out, albeit one which feels a bit hole, just like the vaguely unsettling nostalgia of visiting a home you used to stay in. Perhaps most unsettling, although, is that for individuals who cherished The Crew or The Crew 2, assuming they exist, Motorfest is a whole departure from the issues that make these video games what they’re.
Who is it really for, then? People who wish to drive a DeLorean up a volcano at 160mph, I suppose. That’s me, I wish to try this. Motorfest is extremely daft, and overproduced, and it barely has any concept what it needs to be. But by some means, that doesn’t work in opposition to it, and the result’s an especially good time.
The Crew Motorfest is on the market now on every little thing besides Nintendo Switch
