American Playground (The Crew Review)

Quick Facts:

Developers: Ubisoft, Ivory Tower, Ubisoft Reflections
Initial Release Date: December 2, 2014

Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Rating: T (Language, Mild Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence)

I am the king of the road. The smell of smoke and burning rubber ignite my instinct as I prepare myself for another race that I am certain I'll win. Up to this point, I haven't lost to anyone, and I don't plan on giving this crown to an unworthy suitor. Let the games begin.

Suddenly I slam on the pedal and the powerful engine revs as my black car bolts like a streak of lightning down the road. I savor every moment as the sunlight dances off of the metallic vehicles and reflects off of the beautiful blue water of the ocean. This is paradise, I told myself as I weaved in and out of traffic. 

The sense of speed is incredible as objects blur past in flashes of realistic light and color. This may be one of the prettier racing titles I've ever played, but there was one thing I did not expect. Without warning, my winning streak was crushed under the boot of an unexpected assailant. Out of nowhere, another car runs into me from the side, leaving ugly white streaks down my sleek paint job. The other cars kept racing by and I glared at the floating ID. This was not an car controlled by the intelligence of the game I was in, but of another player who had no interest in my race or respect for my title.

Suddenly, I pop up a menu to find out who this person is, and realize he is both a higher level and a more experienced driver than I am. I thought I was the king of this continental castle, but I was dead wrong. The other car revved it's engine as if it were mocking my little black streak of lightning. For a brief second, the other car looked somewhat menacing, until it drove off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

This is only a brief scene of what one can expect when playing The Crew. It is a magnificent playground of cities, swamps, deserts, and fields to drive through. The only constraints are the ocean and your willingness to explore the detailed map to find new cars and parts. Every moment of The Crew feels great thanks to smooth driving controls and an easy to follow GPS system. All you have to do is open up the map with one press of a button, find a spot, and mark it. The game then proceeds to tell you the route to that spot using the road systems it has built in place. 

But, this game isn't called The Crew just for it's story (which I will not spoil in this review). This game has a unique feature. Unlike other driving games, you can invite other players to be part of your "crew" and take on missions with you. These missions vary from getting to a certain place at a certain time to wrecking a competitor's car. They vary in difficulty, and the different members of your crew can take on various roles depending on what needs to be done by switching out their cars and modifications. 

Of course, if you don't feel like doing missions, you and your friends can just as easily fool around the entire map seamlessly in multiplayer. That's right, you can literally drive across the country with your friends with no load times or artificial barriers. This kind of multiplayer leads to dynamic and engaging gameplay, including spontaneous games of motor tag (where you run into another car and that person is "it" until they hit you back) to shoving random players into the swamps of the Everglades.

Although this game shines bright with innovation and entertainment, there are a few dark spots. I reviewed the vanilla version of The Crew (vanilla meaning that I didn't buy any downloadable content for it, and I didn't purchase the Wild Run expansion), which led to a few incidences of disappointment. One incident involved a friend and his immediate desire to purchase a motorcycle.

We drove all the way from the Everglades to the Midwest (about forty minutes in real time, which is impressive from a technical standpoint), and my friend was so excited. All the way down the road he talked about what kind of motorcycle he was going to buy, what he was going to do with it, and lots of other technical details I couldn't follow. As we got closer, his voice rose in excitement, and I was ready to see his new, shiny bike. Sadly, when we arrived, all hope was lost. 

The motorcycle shop showed on the map. All of the motorcycles available for purchase revealed themselves in bright, metallic glory on the screen, but there was a catch. Where one would normally purchase these bikes was a button. A big button that said, "Buy Wild Run." There was a sudden silence, and then he said, "I guess I can't get one then." 

Personally, I do not like it when companies fully reveal downloadable content in a game as if you own it only to show the bitter truth that it's actually locked behind a pay wall. Why not just hide the content until the downloadable content is bought? Well, I guess it's so people will WANT to buy it, but I was still not pleased with this tactic, especially for my friend who really wanted the bike.

Overall, I would highly recommend this game for anyone who is into racing, exploration, and goofing around with friends in cars. Just don't try to buy a motorcycle. Hearts get broken that way.

(DISCLOSURE: There is a complete edition of the game available that includes everything the game has to offer. This review only pertains to The Crew in it's original form, which I got for free for Xbox Live Gold members as of the time of this writing. If you have the full version, then you can buy a motorcycle and let me know how it feels to ride it.)