The Crew is a 2014 online racing video game set in a large open world environment, developed by Ivory Tower and Ubisoft Reflections and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with an Xbox 360 port developed by Asobo Studio.
The Crew received a mixed reception upon release. Critics praised the game's world design but criticized the always-online aspect, which created technical glitches and other issues, the difficult-to-understand user interface, and the presence of microtransactions. The game shipped two million copies by January 1, 2015. The Crew received an expansion, titled The Crew: Wild Run, which was released on November 17, 2015.
Gameplay:
The Crew features an open and persistent world for racing and free-roaming across a scaled-down recreation of the contiguous United States. The map is split into five regions: The Midwest, East Coast, The South, Mountain States, and West Coast. Each region has its own unique geographical features. Six main cities (one in each region, two in the Midwest) are featured in the game: Detroit and Chicago in the Midwest, New York City on the East Coast, Miami in The South, Las Vegas in the Mountain States, and Los Angeles on the West Coast. Various other cities, such as San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Santa Fe, Dallas, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Washington D.C., are also featured in the game. Over thirty smaller cities and towns line the countryside like Nashville, Norfolk and others. It takes approximately 45 minutes in real time to drive from coast to coast in-game. The single-player campaign is 20 hours long, and entails infiltrating criminal groups with protagonist Alex Taylor (Troy Baker). Players can also participate in mini-games called skills challenges that are peppered across the world. They are triggered when a player drives through them and it involves completing challenges such as weaving through gates and staying as close to a racing line as possible for a period of time. Players' scores are automatically saved so friends can try and beat their scores, in similar fashion to how Autolog works in games of the Need for Speed franchise. Missions can be played alone, with friends, or with online co-op matchmaking. The multiplayer mode lets a maximum of eight players to compete in races and other gametypes. There are no in-game loading screens or pauses. Players can also build cars with a tie-in app for iOS and Android.
The Crew creative director Julian Gerighty has called the game a role-playing game with large-scale multiplayer elements. The multiplayer is not separate from the single-player. Players can form "crews" to race together or against ghost records.
Though the player can play alone, the game requires a constant internet connection to play.
Plot:
The story begins with the main character Alex Taylor being pursued by local law enforcement near Detroit. During the chase, he receives a call from Harry, who wants him to participate in a race in the city. After losing the cops, he finds a Chevrolet Camaro that Harry loans him. Harry explains to him that Alex’s older brother Dayton, the founder of the 5-10 motor club, wants to speak with him. Alex participates and wins the race. After his win, Dayton arrives and orders Alex to drive him to the bridge. Once there, Dayton tells him to keep his head down. A Ford GT pulls up, Dayton goes and talks with the driver before walking back to the Camaro; however before he can get there, the driver shoots him and drives off. Alex rushes to Dayton’s side as the police arrive. The police restrain Alex as Dayton succumbs to his wound. Alex is charged and later convicted of Dayton’s murder by FBI Special Agent Bill Coburn, and is sent to prison.
The story continues five years later. Alex encounters an FBI Agent named Zoe, who informs him that he will be temporarily released from prison if he agrees to cooperate with the FBI in revealing the truth behind the murder of his brother. In it, Alex has to infiltrate 5-10 and climb up the motor club hierarchy. This way Alex makes his way to exact revenge on Coburn and bring him to Zoe, and later find his brother’s murderer, the then-leader of 5-10, Dennis "Shiv" Jefferson.
Development:
The Ivory Tower development team includes former Eden Games employees, and is receiving assistance from Ubisoft Reflections. The game plans to use the new consoles' social and cooperative play features. On 13 August 2014, Ubisoft confirmed that the game will be released on the Xbox 360 the same date as the other versions, with Asobo Studio leading the development and Ivory Tower, Ubisoft Reflections and Ubisoft Shanghai providing support.
The Crew used Babel as its video game engine modified with Ivory Tower’s proprietary tools.
On 21 July 2014, Ubisoft released a closed beta of The Crew on the PC for a limited time only. The beta allowed players to play a portion of the story-driven missions in the Midwest and East Coast and free roam the entire United States of America at their own pace. Cars and a variety of other things such as driver levels and specifications for cars were limited. The second closed beta for PC took place from 25 to 29 August 2014. A PlayStation 4 and Xbox One console beta was released on 30 September 2014. Another closed beta for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One took place on 6 to 10 November 2014. An open beta for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network members also took place from 25 to 27 November 2014.
The soundtrack for The Crew was composed by Joseph Trapanese. The track "Heavy As a Feather" was used in the official launch trailer for The Crew.
The Crew: Wild Run
The Crew: Wild Run is an expansion pack to the 2014 game. It is developed by Ivory Tower and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The expansion was announced at E3 2015 during Ubisoft's press conference. It was released on November 17, 2015.
Adding to the base gameplay, the expansion introduces motorcycles and a range of new cars, and new vehicle specifications such as monster trucks, drift cars, and dragsters, as well as a new mode, The Summit. In addition, the release of the expansion introduces a graphical overhaul for the game, via an update available to all players whether or not they own the expansion.
Reception:
The Crew received mixed reviews from critics. Critics overall praised the game's immense world, but disliked the game's technical issues relating to its online-only gameplay, as well as its complicated user interface and use of microtransactions. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 72% based on 7 reviews and 71/100 based on 12 reviews, the Xbox One version 60% based on 14 reviews and 64/100 based on 18 reviews and the PlayStation 4 version 59% based on 37 reviews and 61/100 based on 60 reviews.
Mike Channell from Eurogamer gave the game a 8/10, praising its rich content, worthy side-missions and activities, enormous driveable space, successful blend between the story and the multiplayer, huge variety of scenery and rewarding and entertaining co-operative gameplay, but criticizing its poor story and lead character, "outrageous" AI, as well as the inclusion of microtransactions. He stated that "The Crew is an astonishing achievement, not only because of its vastness but also its level of fidelity and the authenticity of its character."
Matthew Kato from Game Informer gave the game a 7/10, praising the satisfying upgrade and car-purchasing system, as well as the decent voice-acting. However, he criticized the cliched story and stated that "The Crew feels like an average arcade racer. There are some fun times, but you may be surprised to discover that America is a pretty empty place."
Josh Harmon from Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game a 6/10, praising the game world, which he stated "has captured the spirit of America" and described the game as "the best open world in a racing game to date". However, he criticized the off-putting microtransactions, as well as poor story-telling and the pay-to-win model of the game. He stated that "Despite delivering an impressive playground, The Crew struggles to build out a worthwhile game experience around it."
Peter Brown from GameSpot gave the game a 5/10, also praising the massive game world, as well as the single-player mission, but criticizing the automatically activated missions, frustrating side-missions, such as the raid car missions and the fleeing missions, as well as outdated graphics, poor physics, AI and user interface, texture pop-in and disappointing cars, buildings and environment models. He also criticized the game for not encouraging players to form a crew to play missions. He summarized the review by saying that "The Crew isn't that good after all. When you can't play due to server issues, you find a new game to play and leave The Crew in your dust."
The Crew has shipped 2 million copies as of January 1, 2015.
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