The Crew

PC, PS4, Xbox One

This time, Ivory Tower has its priorities in order. While The Crew crammed players into the confines of its po-faced story, at least its follow-up DLC expansion, Wild Run, sprinkled motorbikes and monster trucks into the mix for a sorely needed shot of riotous fun. But the full sequel goes further: with the ability to switch the vehicle you’re controlling at any time, in any place – from plane, to boat, to car and back – Ivory Tower’s online racing game has now firmly decided to ditch reality in favour of fantasy.

With more moving, flying and waveskimming parts than ever before, The Crew 2’ s commitment to seamlessness is an ambitious one. The Fast Fav feature is what allows the vehicle transitions, a quick-access menu that lets you to transform a BMW M4 leaping off a ramp into an upward-soaring set of stunt wings. “It should feel magic,” creative director

Stephane Beley tells us, explaining that this bit of wizardry has long laid dormant in the series. “It was already inside The Crew, but only in prototype. We already had this technology of switching between cars on the fly. But it was perceived by players at the time, by Ubisoft and the team, as kind of a cheat. So we decided to keep it for a more long-term vision.”

Here it is. As we fly over a shimmering stretch of water in our demo, we spot an activity marker hovering over the waves below: a press of a button later, our plane has melted into a speedboat, which falls from the sky, into the water and zips towards our objective. It is somehow both patently ridiculous and effortlessly functional. “I don’t want any moments of frustration for the player,” Beley says. “You should be in control at every moment of the switch. With the technology, we try to extrapolate where the vehicle will be if it becomes a plane, or a boat, to maintain the momentum and the fun of the moment.”

Indeed, we are able to switch back to our pre-selected BMW while skipping across the water – though this time, the result is a jarring change of scenery, as we’re duly teleported to a nearby road. But Ivory Tower has the occasional trick up its sleeve to help players navigate The

Crew 2’ s environments smoothly: unfolding the world beneath your wheels in an Inceptionstyle illusion Beley calls “the bend” during transitions between certain events. But with a group of friends, it’s Free Roam mode that is bound to provoke silliness, whether playing car-to-plane chicken on a Miami beach or parking boats atop New York skyscrapers.

Everything is made to ensure nothing gets in the way of the player and a good time, then. Designing The Crew 2’ s condensed, yet still sprawling, version of America has been a challenge, Beley admits. “A new iteration of the world has to be adapted to fit with the ability to switch anywhere. We recreate collisions in every part of the world just for that moment of the player using Fast Fav.” But for Beley and his team, the work is worth it. “It was so powerful during playtests, E3 and Gamescom – finally, this was able to surprise people.”

It’s a shame, then, that much of The Crew 2 is familiar for the wrong reasons, particularly the handling. Beley points out that, “We are not between simulation and arcade-style gameplay: this is an arcade game where you should be able to access any type of vehicle and immediately enjoy it.” But there’s still a looseness to cars, boats and bikes that makes turns hard to consistently judge. And while it’s no bad thing for a plane to feel floaty, speeding a sprint boat over the sea is oddly characterless. Equally disappointing are the missions we sample: while F1 races on rainslicked tracks and frantic motocross events add variety, we can’t help but wonder why we’re not prompted to use the creatively stimulating vehicle-switching mechanic in any of them.

Then again, Ivory Tower is keen to hold back some things. It’s reluctant to show much of the redesigned progression system from the first game, which let you upgrade classes of car with collected parts, and the online elements crucial to nurturing a community. We can only hope there’s more to come that integrates and celebrates The Crew 2’ s new mechanic. For now, Beley is just enjoying his ride on the waves it’s created. “I made The Crew 2 to surprise players. Nowadays in the game industry, surprise isn’t often present. And if I’m able to create one that will let people have fun, that’s perfect for me.”

“You should be able to access any type of vehicle and immediately enjoy it”