A little over five years on from the launch of The Crew 2, Ubisoft and Ivory Tower are ready to move on to the third mainline instalment of their open world franchise, and this time, they’re taking a different direction than what the series has become known for with its first two games. The Crew Motorfest is still, of course, going to be an open world arcade racer, but from its setting to its tone to even how its structured, it’s going to offer a different sort of experience from its predecessors. As we draw closer to its launch, here, we’re going to take a look at a few key things that you should know about it.
SETTING
With The Crew and The Crew 2, Ivory Tower took players to a truncated open world recreation of the entire United States, but Motorfest is heading to new territories. This time, the series is headed specifically to Hawaii- to be more precise, to the island of Oahu. It will obviously still be an open world map, but where its design is concerned, it’s going to be much closer to Forza Horizon that previous The Crew titles- and that won’t be the only area where it resembles Playground Games’ series. More on that in a bit.
ENVIRONMENTS
Ivory Tower has emphasized a few times now that one of the biggest reasons for picking Oahu is the setting for The Crew Motorfest was the natural environmental diversity of the island, which means you can expect to see plenty of varied biomes in the game’s open world. There will, of course, be plenty of pristine beaches for you to race through, as you’d expect from a Hawaii setting, while you can also look forward to driving on the slopes of a volcano, through dense rainforests, on the streets of towns and cities, and more.
THE MOTORFEST
The Crew Motorfest is taking cues from the Forza Horizon games in several key ways, this being chief among them. The entire game will, as its name suggests, now revolve around a festival that’s all about car and car culture. Driving through Oahu is, of course, going to be a pretty pleasant experience in and of itself, but on top of that, The Crew Motorfest is also going to add a festival theme throughout the entire island.
PLAYLISTS
Playlists will form the backbone of The Crew Motorfest, especially where its core content is concerned, and will serve as your “main missions”, so to speak. Each Playlist will be a mini-campaign in and of itself, and each will hone in on specific themes that will celebrate different facets of car culture. From the cars you’re driving to the challenges that you’re asked to tackle to even what the environments look like, Playlists will change things up in a number of ways.
MORE PLAYLIST DETAILS
Ubisoft has confirmed that The Crew Motorfest will feature a total of 15 Playlists at launch. Presumably, that number will go up over time in the months and years after the game’s release, but even at launch, it seems like there’s going to be an interesting amount of variety on offer. For instance, there’s the Made in Japan Playlist, which will focus on Japanese sports cars and have you driving through neon-lit streets at night. Another Playlist will focus entirely on the Porsche 911, which will take you through the history of the car and some of its most iconic models and offshoots. Hawaii Scenic Tour, meanwhile, will serve as a bit of a prologue and take you through the many beautiful locales of Oahu.
MAIN STAGE
Progression through Playlists will be how players will get to the Main Stage, which, as its name suggests, is where you want to get to. The Crew Motorfest will feature a rotating roster of Main Stage events that will change on a regular basis, with each offering a new and entirely different groups of events with specific themes. From racing in specific vehicles to completing a certain type of open world activity to chaining together feats and more, Main Stage events will task players with a variety of different things. Progressing far enough in a Main Stage event will also allow you to enter Legend events, which will be ultimate, more elaborate driving and racing challenges.
VEHICLES ROSTER
The Crew as a series has always boasted sizeable and varied rosters of vehicles (that only tend to get bigger following release), but what should we expect from The Crew Motorfest on this front? Well, more of the same. Much more, in fact. At launch, the game will have a whopping 600-plus vehicles available, spanning multiple manufacturers, and, of course vehicle types. Speaking of which…
BOATS AND PLANES
Cars are obviously going to be the heart and soul of The Crew Motorfest, but as those who’ve played The Crew 2 will know, that’s not necessarily the full story. Ivory Tower has confirmed that like the 2018 title, Motorfest will also allow players to pilot planes and drive boats. Will that function the same way it did in The Crew 2, where you would switch seamlessly with the press of a button? Presumably, though details are currently sparse. We don’t know how much of the roster will be reserved for planes and boats, we don’t know flying in particular will be affected by the much smaller size of the map as compared to The Crew 2, and we don’t know if planes and boats will be as heavily emphasized as they were before. Motorfest seems to be putting the bulk of its emphasis on car culture, so it does seem like planes and boats are going to be sidelined a little bit, at least compared to The Crew 2.
NEW VEHICLES
As has been previously confirmed, The Crew Motorfest’s massive roster of vehicles is going to encompass almost the entirety of The Crew 2’s roster as well (with players also having the option to import their collection of vehicles from the 2018 game to its upcoming follow-up), but there will, of course, be plenty of new vehicles to drive as well. Out of the 600-plus vehicles in the game, over 80 will be entirely new introductions, including electric cars by Porsche and Nissan, the GMC Hummer EV, the Toyota Supra, and the Lotus Evija. Meanwhile, new vehicles types are also being added in the form of quad bikes and SSVs.
CAR MEETS
In the spirit of its festival theme and its emphasis on celebrating car culture, The Crew Motorfest will also feature car meets, where the primary drive will, of course, be to show off your vehicle in all of its glory and with all of its customizations to other players. The game will now also allow players to take a deeper and more detailed look at the exteriors and interiors of their cars, which means you get expect a much greater level of authenticity and attention to detail (or that’s the hope, at least).
CUSTOMIZATION
Another area where The Crew Motorfest is looking to take a significant leap over its predecessors is its customization mechanics, and the level of options and flexibility it will prove to players in how they want to tweak and tune their vehicle. In total, there will be over 800 customization parts on offer, which is over 20% more than what was featured in The Crew 2. Ivory Tower says there will be millions of possible combinations for players to play around with, even spanning details like what sound your vehicle’s engine makes.
GRAND RACE AND DEMOLITION ROYALE
Multiplayer experiences have obviously always been at the heart of The Crew games, and that’s going to be the case in The Crew Motorfest as well. Specifically where dedicated multiplayer modes are concerned, the game will have a few on offer. For instance, there’s Grand Race, which will be a 28-player free-for-all race. Meanwhile, the Demolition Royale will be a battle royale experience, with eight crews of four players each going up against each other in demolition derbies to be the last crew standing.
SUMMIT CONTEST
Another mode on offer in The Crew Motorfest will be Summit Contest, which, of course, is going to be built on a similar framework to The Crew 2’s Live Summit events. Each week will bring new Summit Contest, bringing different themes and challenges. Completing Summit Contests will reward you with points, allowing you to climb up the leaderboards over the course of the week. At the end of the week, depending on if you fall in the Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum tier, you’ll get access to different rewards.
ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES
Ubisoft Ivory Tower has also confirmed that it’s looking to include a vast range of accessibility options in The Crew Motorfest right off the bat. On top of a toggle for a driving line and being able to tweak the AI’s difficulty, there will also be a greater amount of options for controller mapping and remapping. Additional options will include a colour blindness mode, and options to tweak and change things like motion blur, camera shake, the size and colour of text and the UI, and more.
PHOTO OPS
You’ll be seeing plenty of gorgeous sights as you’re driving through the island of Oahu in The Crew Motorfest, while you are, of course, going to want to admire your cars every chance you get as well. If you are so inclined, Photo Ops will appeal to you. This activity will task players with using the Photo Mode function to take photos meeting specific criteria, including locations, vehicles, time of day, and more.
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