The Crew Motorfest Review – A delightful racer.

After driving all over Oʻahu in the Crew Motorfest in the most exotic cars, such as the Bugatti La Voiture Noire, Lotus Evija, Lamborghini Terzo Millennio, Ford Mustang and Porsche 911, I can only think of one thing: this game really needs a Fiat Multipla.

Style is everything

When I first started up Crew Motorfest, something immediately struck me: this game is full of style. From the beautifully crafted and varied tropical map to the smallest details in the race cars you use to unsafe the streets. Graphically, Ubisoft Ivory Tower has managed to create something truly stunning. Hardcore car fans will undoubtedly enjoy all the beauty Motorfest has to offer endlessly.

When I heard the roaring sound of my brand new Bugatti Veyron, I still got goosebumps.

That style carries over to the sound design, a key component for a game like this, which is nothing short of amazing. From the scuffing tires in the sharp corners to the futuristic sound the Hypercars manage to make. I must admit that expensive cars with fancy engines generally leave me cold, but when I heard the roaring sound of my brand new Bugatti Veyron, I still got goosebumps.

Ivory Tower manages to continue this delightful style in the so-called Playlists. These are sort of mini-campaigns where you follow a story around a specific car culture, such as American muscle cars or Formula 1 racing. You then do all kinds of races and other challenges in them. With these playlists, the developers manage to bring somewhat of a storyline to the game. The stories and narrative are not very special, but they are fun to follow and even quite educational. You probably didn’t expect to learn anything from a game like this, but Ubisoft really manages to teach you something about the different car cultures in the game, even if it’s just an introduction. Coming back to the sound design, the music in these playlists also manages to set the mood very well. The Vintage Garage races are especially good at this, with wonderful music from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, they really knew how to take me back to that moment in time.

Where the music and sound design manage to convince in the playlists, the voice actors and NPCs sometimes do not at all. From a too typical British accent to a cringy group of Japanese youths trying to be really way too cool, it simply does not always work. In addition, the NPCs look very ugly and fake. On one hand, this doesn’t really matter much; after all, it is a game focused on cars, but on the other hand, it completely pulls you out of the game when you are presented with a cutscene with these dead-looking puppets.

From the Beetle to the La Voiture Noire

Anyway, the Crew Motorfest is and always has been a car game, and they do it well. The game has more than 600 different vehicles at its disposal. Among them are sports cars, passenger cars, motorcycles, quads, race cars, concept cars and even some airplanes. What struck me most here was the fact that all the vehicles actually felt fundamentally different. When I had to do a race in a Volkswagen T21, I also really felt the weight and size of the van. Then I got into a Bugatti La Voiture Noire that was going so fast that I regularly flew out of the corner. Which the NPC who guided me through this playlist didn’t really appreciate. By the end of the race, there wasn’t much left of the car with a $22 million price tag.

Still, there were some things I missed in the selection of cars. There were mostly sports cars and nice cars to race and not really many options for some more dull or silly little cars. Outside of the Beetle and the T21, there really isn’t that much choice. It would have been great if something like a Fiat Multipla was available, for example. Imagine being able to drive out a Ferrari in a fully souped-up Multipla.

The selection and customization of the cars do have one major problem. Some playlists or challenges require you to buy specific vehicles, and the price of those vehicles can be quite high. For the Hypercar playlist, you must have a car that can easily cost one million of the in-game currency. You earn that in-game currency fairly quickly, but it still took me six hours to buy that hypercar, and it was an ugly one at that. The fact that you have to spend quite a lot of your earnings on these kinds of cars discouraged me from getting the Ferrari F40, for example. I really wanted to race this car, but it quickly cost half a million, which I really needed to save for playlists and challenges. Of course, you can avoid all this by buying in-game currency with real money, but for a 70 euro game you really shouldn’t ask for that.

The Main Stage

One of the most important parts of Crew Motorfest is the post-launch content in the form of the Main Stage. This will feature new races, challenges and more each week, all in a specific theme. The month of November, for example, is all about European brands, which in turn are divided into specific weeks. For example, there is a French, German, British and Italian week.

It’s important, then, that Ubisoft keep updating the game constantly so that the Main Stage can keep running. Now thankfully we know that content is already ready for the next six months, but I wonder if they will continue to add new content for free or if they will ask for money at some point anyway. In all honesty, outside of the Main Stage and the 15 playlists, there isn’t mega much to do either, so it’s really important that this is constantly replenished. In my opinion, then, Motorfest can stand or fall with this seasonal content.

The Main Stage should keep the game fresh and give a reason to come back every week and try the new content. I think it works well, only here is the same problem I already encountered with the playlists. Some races require you to use a specific car, and if you don’t have one, you have to buy it. That means you have to go out and buy those new cars every week simply to participate, which only compounds the original problem. You can only spend your coins once, and with all these different cars you do have to buy, it’s very hard to justify a purchase out there.

Cyberbullying

The Crew Motorfest is an online game; you basically play in a world with other players. You also occasionally see them driving around in the open world. I frequently ran into other players who I would then start following and bullying a little bit. I would spam them with emotes, honk constantly and try to push them off the road, which was pretty funny to do, but honestly there was no reason to have other players in my world, and they probably didn’t like running into me either. In the Playlists and Main Stage, the game also just feels like a single player game, but then again, you need good internet to play it.

“There was no reason to have other players in my world, and they probably didn’t like running into me either.”

The online component really comes into its own in the PvP matches, where you can try some pretty crazy stuff. Personally, I was especially a fan of the big races, where you had to complete a very large course with 26 players at the same time. In between, you would then change cars twice. For example, you start the race on an off-road vehicle and end it in a Formula 1 car. Especially those Formula 1 cars could provide hilarious moments. For example, I had a race in which we started with that type of car, but no one could really control them, and so already in the first corner there was a kind of mega crash full of honking and race cars flying down the track.