I finally got to experience the closed beta of The Crew; the game I was really looking forward to as it promised endless, sprawling, urban environments, as well as a chance to team up with your friends online in your own “crew”.

There were some loading screen limbo moments, but that’s understandable seeing as it is the beta after all. Graphically the cars and environments are pretty damn impressive; the visuals fall short in certain places, but I’ll come back to that later. As you would hope to expect, the cars handle in a pretty decent fashion. The cars all have their own characteristics, akin to those of their real-life counterparts; a Dodge feels heavy to manoeuvre, whereas a buggy has massive suspension and bounce.

The beta offers the chance to experience different types of races; standard A to B races, a collect mode where you follow a particular course and hit the virtual markers, the self-explanatory follow mode, checkpoint run, takedown, standard races, and getaway where you obviously have to drive away enough to “escape”. By the way, they’re just the story races. In addition to that there’s skill missions; escape where you evade police, hill climb, jump, precision, racing line, scramble similar to that of collect mode, slalom, and speed. That’s not even scratching the surface of multiplayer, drive hub challenges, faction missions, and exploring the map for landmarks. Needless to say, you’ll be kept pretty busy.

Of course, the most impressive thing about The Crew is that you can drive coast-to-coast, even in the closed beta. The map has that “fog of war” quality to it, so the more you explore, the more of the map you’ll uncover. Although the cars in the beta are obviously limited, from what Ubisoft has announced about the full game we know the amount of vehicles on release will be substantial, as well as bragging good customisation options.

The thing that struck me as strange about the game was the storyline that seemed to come out of nowhere. I won’t give the details to save you from any potential plot spoilers, but needless to say it reminded me of the The Fast and the Furious film of yester-year; a bit too over the top, cliché, and hard to believe. When you think of the staples of the racing genre, such as the Need for Speed titles, Midnight Club, Forza, Gran Turismo, and Burnout, you are given objectives and challenges rather than any real story driven content. But then I think that’s exactly what works in these types of games.

Most gamers who enjoy a good racing game do it because of the beautiful cars and fast-paced races. Now don’t get me wrong, the cars in The Crew are beautifully crafted, but the story cut-scenes seem half-assed and slapped on in comparison. The graphics of the characters aren’t up to scratch when compared to the cars and all of them seem to have a bad case of awful lip synch with mediocre voice acting in places. The story side of The Crew is coming across as a bit of an after-thought based on the amount of effort that appears to have gone into the plot and visuals of the cut-scenes. All I can keep thinking is, do I really need a storyline? Do we need a reason to drive from point A to point B, climbing my way up the ladder to become the ultimate driver?

I’d be happy with just challenges and objectives, I don’t need to know the reason behind why the protagonist is driving a car. Every time I’m sat in another awful looking cut scene it just feels like a waste of time. With the staggering amount of content and race options available for players, the storyline just feels nonessential. I also have one other bug bear with the game; whilst racing, other characters who are not in your car will shout words of encouragement when you overtake others, or abuse when you crash. I’m not sure how these people are watching me drive about town, or why they feel the need to add a running commentary, I just wish they would stop.

If this is the future of racing games, I think I might stick to dusting off some of the old classics. Of course, that’s just my opinion, I’d be interested to hear other views on whether the story element is worthwhile in racing games.

Meg Pelliccio

Editor at Geeks Don't Lie

Meg appreciates gaming on all formats, but primarily spends her time achievement hunting to the extreme. Her passion for gaming began as a child, when first introduced to the Amstrad. A collector of gaming consoles past and present, Meg spends as much of her time rediscovering old classics as she does playing the latest releases.