The Crew may be one of the most ambitious next-gen racers to hit E3's showroom floor. Every aspect of Ubisoft's Reflections and Ivory Tower Studios just hits players from left and right with some solid ideas that look to push the genre forward pass racing. For starters lets get to Ubisoft's persistent open world take on America.
Yes, the racing world is America; from New York to Los Angeles and everything else in-between. According to developers a drive from New York to Los Angeles will take a couple of hours and if players can see it, there's a strong chance that cars can burn rubber there. Outside of cities, country sides and mountain areas are even drivable.
Then, there's the customization.
Midnight Club Racing 3: Dub Edition and the original Need For Speed Underground where known for having the most ridiculous amounts of options for customizing vehicles and The Crew blows that those out of the water effortlessly. Ubisoft has added enough vehicle details that the car can be stripped to the engine bare yet it's all for a purpose. Cars (and trucks) can be customized to fit different terrain and challenges (more on that later). For example, the Ford F-150 Raptor can go from speedy off-roader to flat out street racer with enough tinkering and a current generation Ford Mustang could be transformed into a Road Warrior like off-road vehicle complete with modified suspension.
Ubisoft has also found a way to integrate smart phone or tablet usage to The Crew in clever ways. Players can use mobile devices to customize cars and even pick a starting point on the game's map when not playing. This means when away from the player's Playstation 4 or Xbox One, they can set things up for themselves until the next session.
The Crew's E3 demo used this feature before even touching the controller and starting the demo. Before starting, developers helped pick a starting point (Los Angeles, Miami, Midwest and South were available) and chose a vehicle for customization while another player finished his/her time with the demo. Once that was over players were given two minutes to drive around and complete simple challenges like point-to-point time trails. After the two minutes, players were put in crews (with three other players participating in the demo) to play the armored truck take down mission shown during E3's press briefing. The crew aspect blended with the huge open world lends itself to an MMO feel similar to what EA plans on doing with Need For Speed Rivals.
There are a few problems with The Crew. Visually, the draw distance is breathtaking but everything else isn't and its handling isn't much up to snuff compared to Need For Speed Rivals'. Driving the Ford Truck felt like driving a tank at time. Hopefully, Ubisoft can make some changes because the potential is undoubtedly there.
