The Crew Motorfest Review

The Crew Motorfest

Release: September 14, 2023
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
Genre: PS5 Reviews, Racing, ReviewsXBox One ReviewsXbox Series X Reviews
PEGI: 12
Comments:

 

Comment

It’s hard to put out a racing game today and not be compared to things like Forza or Gran Tourismo, which are the cream of the crop in the gaming world to be honest. But Ubisoft tries their damnedest with The Crew Motorfest.

Eight years ago, with THE CREW 1, they  brought to life a vision of a shared open world filled with car adventures. They gave players the opportunity to experience the illegal street racing fantasy in the whole USA.

Then Four years later with THE CREW 2, they switched gears and brought the ultimate driving champion fantasy to players. They revisited the iconic US playground and built a new experience focused on one of the core pillars of car culture, motorsports competition. Now in 2023 with The Crew Motorfest, they have taken heavy inspiration from Forza Motorfest to give you their reimaging of The Crew.

The game starts off exactly like the last few Forza Horizon games, giving you quick sample portions of various race types so you knew what to expect. Some cars, some off-roading action, even some F1 Pit stops, it’s all there.

Then you get shoehorned into the familiar welcome to the festival type thing. Which makes me ponder where in the world do these types of things actually take place where it’s becoming a common theme in games. Sure, take over this country and just go bananas racing everywhere, smashing fences, explosions and fireworks everywhere! In this case Motorfest takes place on an Island in Hawaii which greatly scales down the open world they boasted for the last two games.

The map obviously is much smaller, however the detail is pretty great where no two areas really feel very similar. They all have their own distinct vibe and culture they focus on. As far as vehicles go you have everything from race cars, drift cars, trucks, atvs, motorbikes, planes, and boats to add to the zaniness of it all.

There’s a lot to love here, as you go through the game you select playlists (basically a collection of events) that focus on a certain culture or style of car. Giving you a little insight into the car fandom lifestyle.

As you work your way through you are rewarded with money (to buy more cars), upgrades for your vehicle, or even new vehicles. Unfortunately, during your initial playthrough of a specific playlist, you are given specific cars to have to use, that cannot be customized or upgraded. Which make your rewards seem a bit useless, as you only use a custom vehicle to travel from one event to another.

Once you complete a playlist you can then replay the events with whatever car you want. But with the amount of stuff there is to do, I don’t feel a strong pull to revisit completed events again. As there is always something new to do or see as they introduce different things all of the time. The game is also very microtransaction heavy and in your face, now, it’s not as bad as any 2K game but it is very noticeable and often.

Graphically the game is probably one of, if not the best looking game I’ve seen from a Ubisoft studio. The level of detail and beauty in the cars and environments and lighting is stunning. I had no issues at all technically with the game during my playtime, which was pleasant to say the least. The soundtrack which is high energy and different from Forza unfortunately for me, doesn’t hit the same way and falls a bit flat and forgettable.

All in all there are a lot of great things going on here in The Crew Motorfest, it’s definitely a lot of fun, albeit grindy. For folks on Playstation who have been jonesing for a Forza Horizon type experience it’s a no brainier. Heck I can openly say too I had more fun with this than I did the last Forza Horizon. Often Ubisoft doesn’t get the recognition they deserve for making really solid games, don’t let this one fall off your radar.

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