Ubisoft’s upcoming The Crew 2 is shaping up to be a lot better than the first entry in this recent franchise. Instead of limiting your racing experience to cars, this game adds boats and airplanes to the deal. The Closed Beta proved us that this game might race to the top when it officially launches next month.
Start your journey
The Closed Beta already gave a good overall impression of what the final product will offer. First of all, you start your adventure after you design one of the generic avatars. Your character will never speak and the story really isn’t that interesting to follow. What you do need to understand, however, is the fact that everything you’ll do matters. It’s all about gaining followers in The Crew 2 and you can consider yourself as the next influencer trying to go viral. In order to gain followers, you’ll need to prove your skills in several disciplines. Those aren’t limited to the three type of vehicles since the developers made sure there’s a challenge for everybody here. Want to go for a fast Formula One race for example? Better reach the highest rank of the professional races first! The game is a constant journey towards the number one spot in several disciplines divided over a giant playground.
Become the best, conquer the world
The map found in the Closed Beta is the same that we’ll find in the final product, the difference is the amount of events. During the beta, not all events were unlocked just yet. Having just a selection of the events isn’t a bad thing since it really demonstrated how big this open world really is. You’ll travel across the United States in your quest to become the number one overall racer and the terrain you have to cover is just gigantic. It’s amazing to see the variation offered in locations due to this. One moment you’re racing off-road through the forest while minutes after you’re entering a street race in a big city. The Crew 2 is all about variation combined with freedom.
For me personally, the map was the big star of the Closed Beta. Compared to the initial release of ‘The Crew’, the game really has come a long way. It all looks a lot better now and although most of the attention went into the vehicles, the environments do look good considering the size of the map. I think a lot of racing fans will have tremendous amounts of fun just freestyling their way through the States. The best thing about it? Not being limited to cars!
Pick your vehicle
Moving away from only cars is perhaps the biggest innovation in The Crew 2. After a small tutorial where you learn to control all three of them (one of the best tutorials I’ve played recently), you can switch between your vehicles with just one push of the button. This works extremely fast and fluently, without a single hesitation, I could ‘transform’ my car into an airplane while driving on a freeway. Of course, the only limitation here is your environment. If there’s no water, you can’t switch to a boat. If there’s not enough space, you can’t switch to an airplane. It all depends on your location but the map offers multiple perfect spots where transforming into different vehicles is just a walk in the park. I really loved scouting the environment while constantly switching between one of my three vehicles.
The first three vehicles are models that are offered to you for free after you cleared a certain competition. The game isn’t limited to this and you can spend your money on several new vehicles along the way. The amount of vehicles is simply insane and I’m sure everybody will find something they like. Besides this, you can also tune your specs casually or in-depth for those who are looking for a more realistic approach. To conclude, the game also offers Loot Boxes where you can score some random gear to tune your cars but this is never mandatory. You can easily progress without Loot Boxes.
Early Conclusion:
The Closed Beta looked very promising for The Crew 2. The game is a huge step forward for the franchise and thanks to the variation in vehicles and enormous size of the map, I’m sure you’ll have fun with this for months. I can’t wait to jump back into this crazy world and assemble a crew of my own to discover all the craziness this game still has to offer. Keep a close eye on this one, even if you’re just remotely a fan of the genre!
