****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
FunI never bought The Crew when it first came out well over a year ago. The very average reviews put me off, and the Beta didn't do much for me either. Fast forward a year or so however and I bought it...and I'm loving it! My interest was reignited when I read about the big November (2015) patch that not only overhauled the graphics but improved many of the cars' handling. Seeing as by this point the game was pretty cheap I decided to give it a go, and if I'm completely honest I expected to have wasted my money. How wrong I was! The graphics are - for the most part - really nice, with a very impressive draw distance. Cars handle well and as you level up your car(s) the handling is constantly improving. On top of this the map is absolutely HUGE, with lots of varied scenery from cities to deserts, snow covered mountains to forests, and plenty more besides. All of which takes place in a full day/night cycle and changeable weather. Thanks to the variety of scenery on offer this also gives the player much variety in races too, from city streets to dirt tracks and more. There's no shortage of things to do either. The main story missions alone (65 in total I think) will keep you busy for quite a while, and there are tons of short skill tests scattered around the map, most of which you'll just stumble across when driving around, often resulting in an upgrade for your vehicle. There are plenty of online races to keep you entertained too, including PvP lobbies, faction races, and if you decide to get the "Wild Run" expansion, there's "The Summit". I only bought the basic game at first, but as I came to enjoy it more & more I decided to get the Wild Run DLC too, which just expands an already big game even further. My only minor complaint is some occasional screen-tearing, though it isn't a game breaker for me.Open-world racers (OWR) aren't usually my thing. The NFS games don't do much for me. In fact the last OWR I really liked was Burnout Paradise. I can confidently say though that The Crew is the best OWR I've played since then. And it's also good to see that Ubisoft & Ivory Tower are still heavily supporting this game, over a year since it's original release. Highly recommended.Didn't like the game when bought it and tested it. The trailer and the idea of the game were really good. Left it stashed away for a couple of years and when I didn't had anything to play and a lot of time to play, tried again the game and the difference was huge for the better. The updates that Ubisoft had made to the game were surprisingly good. After tested again the game, because it was pretty much a new game for, except for the 30 min or 1h of gaming a few year back. I also had purchased the DLC for the game and I spent a lot of hours playing the game, doing the story, trying to do as much as possible on the game. The driving it is an arcade style, but even for an arcade style, it gives you a pretty decent sensation and notion of driving, specially when driving with a motorcycle with the driver view. In conclusion a bad game transformed to a very nice game after some decent updates. Let's hope for a 2º The Crew at least as good as this one.I could write a lengthy in-depth review but I won't bore you. This game is very similar to an slightly older game called Test Drive Unlimited 2 so if you enjoyed that game then you should love this. There are no personal avatars like in TDU2 though. It's worth me mentioning that this is a vastly improved and smoother game than TDU2. The only downside so far? As with TDU2, joining friends with ease still takes time as the servers need to be syncronised, yet I seem to be able to connect with complete strangers without any issue. Odd. Gameplay is a dream though with a huge terrain to explore and get lost in and for those wondering, there are even wrecked cars to find but their rough location will show up on your world map, so you don't need to consult any online game guides at all. Personally I'm thoroughly enjoying the ride.One of the best driving games out right now ... my only request would be local multiplayer ability (having said that seems to be a trend with PS4 to have games you'd think were no-brainers to be local multiplayer be 1plr only... crazy!) but online multiplayer is great and the open world is so detailed - love the fact you can be chillin with someone and just say 'hey see that mountain in the distance - lets go drive up it!'... and you can just drive however you want right to it and up to the summit! ... or if you just want to relax -you can go park by the ocean and watch whales swim and birds fly... I'd be here all day if I tried to explain it all. They certainly went the extra mile ... can't wait for the new WildRun expansion also!I love this game!I had not even thought about getting this until a friend said they were playing it and it was more like grand theft auto style racing around open world America. I thought I would give it a go and I am thrilled.It starts off a little disappointing because the first car you get handles like rubbish but as you move up the cars get better and better. There is a great story running throughout the game which gives everything a purpose and makes you want to keep playing and revealing more plot lines. There is also little side games to train and test your skills, these can get annoying though.This game is great fun and I would recommend to anyone!
