Review of the game Crew, The. The Crew: review

Which was presented with pomp at E3 2013, then postponed, and now, finally, appearing on store shelves.

The game was developed Ubisoft Reflections and company Ivory Tower. The latter arose in 2007 and consisted of immigrants Eden Games, which are known to fans of duology racing and PS1- versions Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed.

At the core The Crew lies the story of a former street racer who is incredibly similar to Gordon Freeman (except that the glasses have changed a little, and the hairstyle and beard have become more fashionable). His brother, who, by the way, does not look like him at all, is killed in the prologue of the game, framing the protagonist. The accusation and several years behind bars - all this remains behind the scenes, since it turns out to be background history.

The action begins to actively develop around the group “ 510 ” - street racers who don’t put their words under the hood. These people are ready to threaten, kill and smash cars if this is necessary for the prosperity of the gang. A car crime group has gained control of all major US cities. It’s clear that this situation does not suit the country’s authorities, so a sexual agent contacts the main character secret service, offering to become their undercover man. Wanting to avenge the death of his brother and years of prison, the main character agrees and now his goal is to become the head of the gang “ 510 ”, defeating all the leaders, and at the same time feel like a detective on wheels, having found a connection with the “rats” from the agency who have been covering the group all this time.

To say that the plot is banal is to say nothing. We saw similar “moves” in “ Fast and Furious” and in single player campaigns Need For Speed(same ). But since the time E3 2013, everyone's attention was riveted by one idea - the location of the action. All America on huge map no downloads, large cities with recognizable streets and monuments. Realists said that Ubisoft It’s unlikely that they’ll be able to do everything very reliably; they’ve set the bar too high for themselves. What happened in the end? Let's figure it out.

The first city, Detroit, is almost extinct in reality, but in the game it appears to us, one might say, as polished as it was during the heyday of auto production. Having completed several not very diverse tasks, gaining confidence in the leader of the local “ 510 ” and once we got into the group, we moved to St. Louis. At this moment you understand that there can be no question of authenticity. The distance between St. Louis and Detroit is almost 750 kilometers, and in the game there are only 20. The path from New York to Los Angeles 4000 kilometers away, but in The Crew limited to 120 kilometers of winding roads and changing landscapes. Just for fun, we drove the last route, spending about 40 minutes of game time on it. It would seem not bad for games, and the local world can be called truly huge, but the scale of 1:30 is hardly comparable to the big words from the announcement of the game about the map of all of America. Moreover, the chosen proportion not only reduces the distances between points, but also the cities themselves. IN New York, for example, only a couple of blocks separate Central Park from Times Square, instead of 10-15 “blocks”. The scale can still be accepted, but it is impossible to accept the many shortcomings.

For example, every car, of which there are about sixty in the game, has a view from the cockpit, which is very commendable, but the mirrors “don’t work”, they are dead. And we're talking about a racing game in 2014 on next-gen consoles! The cabin is a separate issue. It would seem, how can you screw up the gear shift? Just! The animation starts a moment after you hear the sound of the gearbox going up or down. As a result, it looks like the player is tapping the steering wheel. At the same time, the gearshift shift paddles remain motionless. The on-board computer also does not work in the cabin, which can be classified as an unpleasant detail.

Added to everything else is terrifying physics, which definitely has nothing to compare with. At a speed of 250 kilometers per hour, the car behaves as if you were driving sixty. The speed is completely invisible and not felt, the controls have been wooden since the beta version, and remain so in the release. Despite the conditional leveling - when you win events, you receive car upgrades that can be instantly installed on your car - the situation does not change in any way.

A unique feature of the game can be considered the fun dismantling of cars down to the last screw in the garage, as well as various “builds” from high-speed and city to rally buggies with high ground clearance, huge arches and increased cross-country ability. Assembly and disassembly in the garage looks beautiful from an aesthetic point of view and is truly fascinating. The same cannot be said about the game as a whole.

It would seem that America, rich in landscapes and geographical points, should look great. Niagara Falls, Yosemite Park, the Grand Canyon - all this is in the game, but you don’t feel any delight from visiting these places. These places have virtually nothing in common with reality. The Crew Dont Have. Is not natural beauty, fascinating with their power and size. The graphics are mediocre and look very crude, not much different from the beta version. Periodically the image strobes, trees, road signs and even infographics are sometimes loaded during the game, which only causes irritation.

What is the game itself? Races and various competitions for speed and time, plus a huge number of collectibles. Remembering that Ivory Tower- these are former immigrants Eden Games You’re not surprised when you see old cars scattered here and there that need to be explored. Heritage Ubisoft also appears from all the cracks. Towers play an important role in The Crew, therefore they must be opened. There is also random events, which are not particularly diverse - long distance jumps, high-speed snake on a track full of traffic, breaking glass walls and speed races.

According to the developers, The Crew in some ways similar to , only in the large open world there are no clubs, but there are teams of real players who can play the game together, competing in events and among themselves. In fact, racing is easier to play solo, if only because, God willing, you will recruit one or two players into your team, waiting for the treasured one to appear last Hero and the race will begin. By the way, there will be only three competitors in any race, which seems somehow not funny joke against the background of any modern arcades and simulators, especially those released on PS4 or Xbox One .

As a result, the game The Crew turns into constant covering of distances (if there is no Fast Travel) and participation in solo events, as well as constantly pouring in invitations from random people who really want to fight online. Racing online is a waste of time and is unlikely to be fun unless you are a big fan of waiting.

Another annoying feature is the local police and their artificial intelligence. It can be difficult to get away from her, but the chases can last for hours, reminiscent of a game of “Cat and Mouse”. They will lag behind and immediately catch up and overtake you, the helicopter will appear and then lose sight of you, and the so-called road blocks in The Crew are a lone car with a wooden fence in front of it.

Soundtrack in The Crew very good. The list contains good dance music, a lot of rock, including Arctic Monkeys, and one radio station with classics takes us back to Test Drive Unlimited. The selection of music in it almost completely repeats the brainchild Eden Games. Music can be mixed with ambient sound and engine noise, but the tracks will never be loud.

Ivory Tower made the game in the image and likeness Test Drive Unlimited, keeping the big open world and session players you might meet along the way, but throwing it all into a new setting and wrapping it all in a street racing package. At the same time, none of the mistakes of previous projects were taken into account: apart from completing the campaign, there is absolutely nothing to do in the large open world. Online session players on the map are just annoying. Add to this a curved interface - a block that opens on the right, which can be controlled with the D-pad on the fly. If you want to change the radio station, it’s all right, but at speed it’s very difficult and completely inconvenient to choose one of nine options. Roughly speaking, a pause in the game is possible only if you press the map button in order to select the next adventure point, which is also not very convenient.

The Crew- This unsuccessful attempt wrap a well-known and remembered game in new packaging and sell it again on Xbox One And PS4. A depressing urban setting and night races on the scales on the one hand and bright sunny islands, expensive supercars and villas on the other. Maybe these are warm nostalgic memories, but Test Drive Unlimited deserves much more attention than The Crew, which can only be proud of its beautiful assembly and disassembly in the garage and various car builds, which actually do little to help in the gameplay. And if you want to do an amusing trip across the American continent, it is better to wipe off dust from the paste-gen attachment and. There is no open world, but even it will be more exciting game with almost the same plot.

The game was completed on Xbox One.

The most ambitious, detailed, massively multiplayer sandbox racing game of all time. What could be better for those who like to burn rubber and smash police cars? This is exactly how Ubisoft, together with Ivory Tower, positioned it for us. Did they succeed or not? Having spent a lot of time driving around the states, I will try to answer this question comprehensively.

Need for Crew or Fast and Crewious

No problem. I'm on my way.

This is not a request. You have no choice.
Where is the logic? Probably lying under the counter with the screenwriter.
However, it should be noted that the few cutscenes that reveal the plot are executed really well. Good production, detailed reproduction of the world, the animation of the characters is also not satisfactory, but as soon as they start a conversation, the fire begins to burn below the back. It seems that the plot component is just a marketing ploy, so that there is something to tell and show in pre-release videos. But this “story” takes as much as 20 hours! I wish everyone strong nerves.

The scale is worthy of respect

Let's move on to what gives a head start to all arcade races since the days of the same NFSMW - to open world and its scale. The game fully reproduces the USA (of course, somewhat scaled), which is divided into 5 regions: the east and west coasts, the midwest, the mountain region and the southern states. Among them, the largest and interesting cities such as New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. And what's really cool is that all these regions are just a seamless sandbox. You can drive from New York to Los Angeles without any load! Such a trip will take more than 40 minutes, but this is the only thing that entails. You can forget about the plot, about all the side factors and just enjoy the trip to Las Vegas at night, the beaches of Miami or the mountains.

The graphon was delivered

In terms of the graphical component of the game, one can only blame the completely passable textures of the city population and their fauna. The decorativeness of local residents and animals in the forest area does not pretend to be plausible. However, there are often cases when, while driving along a mountain highway, a bear runs out onto the roadway, past which you will certainly crash into some tree, not knowing that you can drive right through it without any losses.
But the reproduction of most locations, cities and historical monuments is simply phenomenal. Turning on the game radio on your favorite wavelength, trips from snowy mountain states to industrial areas, along the way crossing sunny wastelands, are enchanting.
In addition, the game is really optimized. It’s not for nothing that the release was postponed; no FPS drops or malicious, impenetrable bugs were noticed. The game is on quite smoothly, the car responds to controls instantly. In a word, visualization is only a plus for her.

Sandbox mechanics

As has been the custom for a long time, in every Ubisoft game There are hundreds of side effects and always - yes, you guessed it - towers. 8D The local analogue of towers is satellite dishes, which, when located on part of the map, open all side races and secret places. Although here it is not as intrusive as in Assassins Creed or, you will have to find antennas, because at the end of the story the game is just beginning and you will still have to know all the points on the map.
Players racing games Last but not least, I am interested in the number of cars and the possibility of customizing them. As for the first one, there are no complaints here. All major brands are represented in the game, and each of the cars has several incarnations, because the races will take place not only on the roads, but also on beaches, fields, deserts, and sometimes in forests, so your car needs to be modified more than once. Having chosen one of the offered cars at the start, you will change it until the very end of the campaign. Opening new region, a new garage and tuning workshop opens for you, where a new basic set modifications. That is, starting with a basic model, you change it first to a street car, then to an SUV, and then to a racing uberplane.

Visual customization falls short NFS series Underground, but has its advantages. The display of replacement of one or another part of your car is very cool. The machine simply splits into atoms and reassembles itself. There are three categories of customization: change color range(external palette, interior color and decals), engine tuning and external aerodynamic changes (bumpers, spoilers, rims, etc.)
In addition to the basic changes, you will receive one detail for completing skill competitions that litter almost the entire game map. Here you will have to demonstrate highest speed, run from a simulated chase, collect special items and stay on the suggested driving line. For each such quest, you receive one additional part, which raises your level in general and the level of the machine in particular.
Each race requires a certain level of the car, accordingly, if your level is lower, it will be very difficult to win, and if it is higher, then the difficulty level decreases accordingly. This approach works, but it is not clear why some mythical level affects the speed and handling of the car.
Thus, the game encourages you to complete these mini-quests in order to increase the level of each class of your car and your profile as a whole. After all, for example, if your profile level is lower than required by the story race, you simply will not be able to take part in it.

Level 50 mob

Now about the sweets. It’s not for nothing that it requires constant online presence. Completing story races doesn't seem so forced if you play with friends or random online henchmen. At the beginning of each race you are given a choice - to ride it alone or with partners. In the second case, a competition awaits you, which brings a lot of pleasure, because firstly, it increases your chances of winning, and secondly, it introduces an element of cooperation into your actions.
After completing the story campaign that will allow you to reach 50, maximum level driver, you get a sandbox for PvP battles. Each region has its own online lobby, where you and your friends can compete 4x4 with other squads, earning money, opening up greater tuning opportunities and access to new cars. Such fun can tempt you to stay in the game for dozens more hours, and subsequent game updates, which introduce new tasks for your “Crew,” will force you to return to the game more than once. That is, the MMO component was a success for the developers, if you do not take into account the traditional server crashes under the guise of “planned maintenance” and ping problems if your online partner is served by a server far from you.

Gas pedal to the metal

- a wonderful racing sandbox that has no analogues in scale. If we put aside the cliched and frankly failed story campaign, we get dozens of hours of pleasure, competing with friends in perfectly reproduced US locations and a wonderful personal experience. The game guarantees an unforgettable experience, driving the beaches of Miami, the night streets of Las Vegas, and sunny Los Angeles in cockpit view mode. Just like it guarantees periodic server crashes and connection problems.

We wind thousands of miles across the virtual United States, once again we are surprised by the scale of the game and try to get used to the sight of off-road supercars

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Two months ago, at IgroMir 2014, a representative Ivory Tower he said that it took the team about five years to complete the game. Apparently, the developers spent most of their time recreating a web of roads, fields, cities, mountains, forests, farms - everything that is found in almost the vast territory of the United States. Here you need about an hour and a half of real time to get from one corner of the map to another, and to get one of the “achievements” you need to drive five thousand miles (about eight thousand kilometers) without changing your car.

Everything speaks of gigantism and incredible scope. Forget about: her tropical island compared to the territory is like a coin next to sewer hatch. Once in starting Detroit, you can start by completing tasks and exploring the city. Or you can open the map, place a target designator somewhere in the southwest, in the Los Angeles area, and get ready for a real trip. Expressways, gravel roads with cows wandering along the roads, large cities, gorges, tunnels - you name it! I have to give it back Ivory Tower due: the developers’ territory turned out to be surprisingly large and diverse.

And here comes the second coolest moment after, in fact, the impression of the size of the locations. We can drive not only on the roads, but also wherever we please. Roughly speaking, you can get from Miami to Las Vegas even diagonally. The only obstacles will be rivers, lakes and reinforced concrete fences of highways, which, however, are relatively rare. Otherwise, nothing limits us in the style of movement. When you realize the true scale of The Crew, you feel uneasy: there are five megacities alone, and they are recreated in quite detail, with key landmarks and buildings. It is impossible to call cities “living” even if one wants to. There are practically no pedestrians, little traffic, although this is even good - otherwise it would be very difficult to complete the races. Megacities serve solely as decorations. Large, beautiful in places, but dead.

It is probably assumed that the players will breathe life into the world of the project. After all, it’s a full-fledged MMO race, as the developers position their brainchild. It is designed for long passage, joining teams, battles between rival parties, completing tasks together, increasing in levels, searching for rare parts... In general, everything that is in any or, only adjusted for a very real location and automotive theme. It’s quite difficult to comprehend this at first, but before us is really a race with all the attributes of MMO projects. For example, car upgrades gradually raise the level of the vehicle: a sports gearbox will give +3 points, and stronger brakes will give +5. Upgrading cars opens up access to more difficult races.

The player himself also has a level that increases as he completes numerous tasks. If the number is lower than acceptable for the quest, please gain experience and only then start the mission. In general, if you do everything story missions and do not disdain additional ones, then the current level will more or less correspond to what is required for a specific assignment. But in the future, around the twentieth level, you will have to specifically perform monotonous side missions to gain experience: jump on maximum range, go around the gate, unwind maximum speed and others. As an alternative, there are PVP races, which award a decent amount of experience points.

Additional tasks are generously scattered along the roads, but they are often repeated. Doing them on purpose is quite boring, but they help kill time when long trip. Let's say you have to drive a hundred kilometers - no matter how you look at it, it's pretty monotonous. And then one task comes across, then another. Unfortunately, while creating an excellent area, the developers did not add enough entertainment for the player. There are not enough little things like travel companions, accidents, road repairs and at least some natural disaster. Everything is very ordinary: traffic cars are driving somewhere into the distance, we are looking at beautiful sunsets with the sunrise and we roll towards our destination. At the same time, during the races you can see rescue operations with helicopters and rushing ambulances, but the problem is that these events occur according to scripts, and not randomly.

Despite the MMO genre, and even racing, a completely coherent plot was revealed. It's a cliché from first to last last task, however, the very presence of history is already commendable. U main character, a street racer, his brother is killed, as a result we find ourselves under the hood of the FBI and work undercover: we infiltrate the trust of street racing gangs and learn valuable information, and then hide them behind bars. Expect colorful characters and unexpected turns not worth it. The maximum you will get is a short video before the mission, and then another race.

We change cars like gloves due to alternating types of tasks. Either on rough terrain, or on asphalt, or all at once - one car is in no way suitable for such purposes. Or rather, one modification of the car. The fact is that for each car there are five options for different races. So don’t be surprised by the spare tire on the roof and massive plastic skirts on the “lifted” Porsche Cayman, which crushes sunflowers in the field with off-road tires and jumps over potholes.

And in five minutes we may well find ourselves behind the wheel of a beautiful Ferrari 458 Italia and fleeing along a six-lane highway from the police. By the way, chases and pursuits are the worst element in. The “catch-up” turned out to be unexpectedly difficult. How, pray tell, can ordinary Ford police sedans overtake the same Ferrari taking off? And not just catch up, but noticeably poke him in the rear bumper. This, if anything, while the supercar is racing at a speed of under 300 km/h. Your pursuers will not lag behind you anywhere: everything that your car can do, so can the enemy carts. Fields, forests, back streets of cities - they will follow you everywhere. It is difficult to escape from the police, and the choice of car for the chase decides little. The situation is the same with missions in which you need to catch up with a car and crash it. The first time, without knowing the enemy's route, it is very, very difficult to complete the task.

Modifications only change the appearance of the vehicle. At least, it was not possible to feel the difference in control. In addition, not all improvements are available immediately, which is understandable: the game requires a long playthrough. So, to get the racing and rally pack you must have high level. But external changes there is a lot here, as long as there is enough money for them. Wheels, bumpers, different interior trims, vinyls, a lot of colors. In a multiplayer game, everyone wants to stand out, and the developers have provided this opportunity.

It turned out to be a fresh and original race that feels good in the MMO genre. At the same time, it has a bunch of problems, ranging from weak graphics and rare stuttering (on PS4), ending dead world and monotonous races, even despite their number. Ivory Tower spent many years on this major project, and some disadvantages can be ignored. Now it’s too early to talk about success or failure: it is unknown whether the players will remain in the world of the project. If the developers continue to work on improvements and adding content, it will live.

Most affordable way travel the USA by car and visit largest cities America

They should know a lot about this. Were these people's expectations met? Not really - at the start the game looks boring, uninteresting, and also suffers from server problems.

A story about how the server forgot all the progress

The promises of a problem-free start were fully fulfilled by Ubisoft employees, but there are numerous complaints about the operation of the servers themselves. It happens that connections are interrupted no matter the quality of the Internet, the selection of participants for competitions is far from ideal, as is their number itself - for some reason there are still half-empty worlds.

The main problem with the server side is that a huge number of players lose progress the next time they log in. This is very disappointing and such unreliability only discourages the desire to play, in addition, all the cars can disappear from the garage, all the car parts can be reset to stock levels, and so on and so forth. Uplay issues are killing co-op mode as players can't find each other.

Is it worth mentioning that no one has installed servers for the vast territory of Russia, so you have to connect 5,000 kilometers away with a ping of more than 200 milliseconds? Ubisoft does not even plan to release patches for the game client, constantly patching the server part (without yet special success). If you think it’s time to feel sorry for buyers who lose a couple of hours of gameplay every day while the servers are on maintenance, then don’t rush - the most important thing is yet to come.

Drop by drop on a new Lamborghini

Accidentally or not, it is quite intrusively asking to pay the developers extra for their efforts. For 2,500 rubles (which is twice the price of the game), you will get a measly 600,000 credits, which is enough for only 2 top cars and a few upgrades for them. At the same time, the price is like that of a solid AAA blockbuster with an excellent single-player campaign. So what are players paying for?

It turns out that only for access to the project. Buying cars and upgrades, resetting perks, accelerating progress - everywhere you need a lot of money - in-game credits disappear like sand through your fingers.

How much does a player earn? Maybe the problem is far-fetched and not worth a damn? Doubtful. If you don’t play 24/7, you need to play for a very long time to open at least one modern car. At first, in PvP, if everything goes well, you can earn 12-15,000 credits. In the single, the amounts are noticeably smaller. There are, of course, other ways to earn money - successful drifts, exploration of the territory (for each open region you can actually get 60,000 credits), but this also requires time and ingenuity.

No, the developers could be understood if they made the game much cheaper or even free-to-play. But in current situation The situation with , which was literally strangled by micropayments, is completely repeated.

Online component and single player

As you understand, donation has a significant impact on game balance. Within a couple of days of release, online matches were filled with level 1200+ players who either invested money into the game or spent several hours playing it.

As a result, it turns out that cars of the maximum level and “low-level” are participating in the race, with sad results for the latter. The player balancing system works terribly, pitting super-improved players against newcomers. Ubisoft should fix this shortcoming first.

For some reason, in modern racing it is common to make “knockout” collisions, which leads to sad consequences and unnecessary waste of nerves. Who is interested in watching these “breeze-breeze” moments? In addition, in every race there are those who want to take the car in front off the track, which is guaranteed to ruin its chances of winning. Particularly gifted individuals, even while performing a joint task, knock each other off the track.

Some may say that this is so much fun, but then why didn’t the developers set aside a separate mode for this matter, severely punishing aggressive driving in regular races? After all, in 90% of races the outcome is decided in the first turn - if you are knocked off the track, you will arrive at the finish line last.

The single-player mode, like the campaign as a whole, can only please with template solutions copied from Need For Speed. Racing in singles is generously lubricated with “ketchup” - a system that creates competition. If you are far ahead of your computer opponents, they will catch up with you in a couple of seconds, and if you have slowed down, they will also slow down, and in best traditions you may even be missed at the finish line.

The plot is also copied from this legendary game- you need to defeat and beat the bad guys, but first earn yourself fame, money, cool cars and experience. Unfortunately, the single player is so fast that all that remains is PvP and completing faction missions. Why did the developers decide that they would copy the ideas of Need For Speed? ideal solution? After all, he steps on this rake with both feet.

Gameplay, graphics and physics

The standard arcade game is presented physical model, similar to the latest races of the GRID and NFS series, however, despite all the shortcomings, the difference between a supercar, a muscle car and a jeep, front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive cars is clearly felt. Those who find it difficult to control the gas pedal and steering wheel are thoughtfully offered to use a driving assistant.

Lovers fine tuning management will be pleased with the corresponding functionality. You can adjust or tweak the parameters of the physical steering wheel, but with the car settings everything is somewhat simpler - stock, silver, gold, platinum - the higher the level, the better the car parameters. You will spend a minimum of time under the belly of your gasoline-powered comrade in the garage. Sometimes this leads to paradoxical situations when a stock Pagani Huayra or Koenigsegg Agera is much better than a pumped one.

But the game world turned out to be 150% complete, and the locations look one more beautiful than the other. Spacious valleys, winding tracks in canyons, bumpy off-road conditions, cramped city streets, the change of day and night, and much more - thanks to this you don’t want to tear yourself away.

In light of Ubisoft's recent problems, this looks like a real achievement. Judge for yourself, the visual quality of the environment and the game world is at the level of last year, and the engine closely monitors the consumption of resources and processes graphics well at different rendering distances.

The car models are truly well-designed - there is nothing to complain about here (but you can remember the ridiculous idea with giant spoiler boards, which are mandatory attached to each car). Those with weak computers will be pleased with the optimization... this means that the game will run even on a weak PC! If you have a computer 2-3 years old, then you can turn the settings to maximum.

Cru-cru

Apparently, they began to develop it as a shareware project with all that was due: weak graphics and physics, but it was free! Then Ubisoft's intentions changed and the developers a quick fix changed game mechanics, they improved the game world and physics, but the rest did not or did not have time to reach the level of AAA blockbusters.

Thanks to two beta tests, it was possible to avoid problems with server capacity, debug the network code relatively well and attract the attention of the audience, but this is not all that Ubisoft needed to do. , most likely, was a success from a financial point of view, but it’s difficult to call the game excellent, because it still needs to be improved. Is this what we pay our money for?