Available now, The Crew 2 has us hooked.
We like racing games, you see. Especially those that allow us to roam around an open world, having fun with friends as we go. While the original The Crew got off to a shaky start, after multiple patches and expansions it became something rather special indeed. After playing The Crew 2 for a while now, it’s clear that it builds upon the groundwork made by its predecessor, ready to fire on all cylinders from launch. And things can only get better.
Wondering exactly why we’re so hyped about The Crew 2? Well, here goes.
Vehicles. All the vehicles.
While The Crew only concerned itself with vehicles that move on the ground, The Crew 2 gets boats and planes in on the action, too. Don’t worry though; no compromises have been made to the variety of cars available to race around the streets with.
Lamborghinis, Porsches, Audis – they’re all here, alongside bikes, rally cross and off-road raid vehicles. Whether you want to free roam or race via land, sea or air, there’s always plenty of vehicle choice to go along with it. And just like in the original The Crew you can upgrade your vehicles by obtaining and installing new parts. It’s essentially a Need for Speed game, but bigger and a whole lot better.
Photo mode
Raise your hands all you virtual photographers out there. Hmm, there’s quite a few of you. The Crew 2 will make you happy.
With one press of a button you can enter The Crew 2‘s photo mode at any time. With it being such a lovely-looking game with a varied open world, you’ll be wanting to do so too. There are plenty of options and filters to tinker with to get your shot just right, and there are even photo op challenges for you to complete. We just know we’re going to be taking frequent breaks from racing around just to get some good snaps.
Its massive open world
The Crew had a massive open world. Honestly, we remember it taking over an hour to drive across it.
While the world that The Crew 2 presents to us is essentially the same, it feels bigger, more open, and a hell of a lot more varied, making us just want to get lost in it. Like taking your first steps in Skyrim, finding your way in The Crew 2 can feel overwhelming at first. As you play and commit more and more of its epic map to your memory, however, it becomes all the more impressive and absorbing. From sandy dunes to packed city streets, The Crew 2‘s massive open world has it all.
So many events
A massive open world and more vehicles than you can count would be useless without things to do with them, wouldn’t they? Thankfully The Crew 2 doesn’t disappoint.
Featuring multiple racing disciplines, there are more events for you to complete than you can shake a stick at. And as you increase your fame level more are opened up, too. Add in the fact that you can play them all at both normal and hard difficulty and you have a game that’s going to take a considerable amount of time to complete.
Side activities aplenty
Alongside The Crew 2‘s massive number of events, there’s also a generous serving of side activities.
From completing massive jumps to locating loot using your tracker, when you’re not racing there’s always something exciting to do. And being rewarded with loot means that your actions are always worthwhile. Everyone likes to pimp their rides to the max, don’t they?
It looks gorgeous
Have you seen The Crew 2 in action? It is beautiful.
While it’s pleasant on the eyes when played on a standard PS4 or Xbox One, those playing on PC or beefier consoles are in for a real treat. Textures are crisp, special effects bring the world to life, and the draw distance is mightily impressive. And on top of all that, performance remains smooth. The Crew 2 blows its predecessor away on a technical level, and for that, we thank you Ubisoft.
Racing in co-op
Racing other players online is fun, until you encounter an asshole who runs into you during corners. Or just generally acts like a prat. There are a lot of prats online.
What we love about The Crew 2 is that it’s just as much about playing co-operatively as it is competitively. You can play by yourself if you want, but The Crew 2 is best enjoyed with friends. Forming a crew is easy, and then you can complete events or just lark about in the open world at your leisure. You can play how you want with whoever you want. That’s what makes The Crew 2 so appealing to us.
It’s all about fun
It doesn’t take long for you to realise that The Crew 2 is much of a fun game than its predecessor.
It’s very tongue-in-cheek, and taking a leaf out of Forza Horizon 3‘s book, it’s happy with you just enjoying yourself rather than finishing first. While putting in a good racing performance is important, so too is showing off. Progression in The Crew 2 is driven by gaining fans, and sometimes landing insane jumps and pulling off ridiculous drifts is more beneficial than finishing first. Being ahead of the pack is great, but no one’s going to remember your name if your driving’s mundane.
It’s quick and easy
Accessibility seems to be imperative to The Crew 2.
If you want to painstakingly scour the massive map for new events and activities to complete that’s fine. Those who like to fit more action into the time they have available to play, however, will be glad that pretty much all events can be accessed from a menu. It saves time and prevents frustration, which is a big win our books. You don’t need to visit a garage or suchlike to change your vehicle now either; that can be done by accessing a menu too. In fact, you can switch between your favourite land, sea and air vehicles on the fly, making for some hair-raising experiences.
In The Crew 2, what could be streamlined has been streamlined, meaning more time spent racing and having fun, and less time fiddling with options and doing busywork.
We’ll have a full review of The Crew 2 up early next week. As you can probably tell, we’re very much enjoying it though.
Interested in trying the game for yourself? You can buy The Crew 2 right now on Amazon.
