Better Driving
Let’s get The Crew’s major issue out of the way first, the driving was pretty poor. From a combination of poor physics and AI, driving just wasn’t fun and the game too often used extreme rubber-banding tactics to attempt to make it a “close race.” That’s something that definitely needs to be fixed up for The Crew 2.
While it’s clear that The Crew was opting for an arcade-style racer, it lacked the kind of depth and variety in the way its vehicles handled to put it on the same level as last year’s Forza Horizon 3. It’s all well and good having a giant world to drive around in, but if it’s not fun to drive, the whole concept kinda falls apart. Here’s hoping Ubisoft will tweak the driving mechanics for The Crew 2.
More Upgrade Customization
The Crew went about upgrades and customization in a bit of a strange way. While you could do a number of different stylish, aesthetic changes to your vehicle, they were also tied into the performance level of your vehicle. As such, upgrading your car to progress through the story missions would change its appearance, even if you didn’t want it to.
On top of that, The Crew’s performance-focused ‘tuning’ upgrades were a little lackluster and vague. You’d unlock different parts with a level to indicate how good it was, but it was sometimes difficult to really feel any noticeable difference. Factor in the rubber-banding AI and these smaller upgrades felt pretty worthless.
The Crew 2 has an opportunity to really go to town when it comes to upgrades. Allow us to really dive under the hood of the car and tweak and tune just about everything you can think of from gear ratios to the ECM and air flow. Plus, don’t force the look of our car to change with its performance level, let players be creative and complete The Crew 2’s roster of challenges in style.
Even More Cars (and make ’em affordable)
While The Crew certainly didn’t disappoint with some of the cars on offer, the roster looks underwhelming when you take a look at it now. With only around 60 cars (including DLC) on offer, there are plenty of modern and vintage classics that could have easily made their way into the sprawling world. While we’ve yet to see exactly what Ubisoft has in store for The Crew 2, an extended roster including some of the fastest and most exotic cars certainly wouldn’t go amiss.
Of course, there’s one major flaw with the way unlocking cars in The Crew worked – its economy. If you were happy rolling around in the lower-end, slower cars, you could buy a bunch. Alternatively, picking up a Lamborghini would completely wipe you out, and you’d only likely be able to afford it at the very end of the game when the fun is coming to a close. Only if you invested in microtransactions would you be able to unlock these earlier, and that’s problematic.
The Crew 2 should have us racing in all manner of cars as we venture across the United States (or whatever locale they drop us in this time) from the very beginning. Here’s hoping the in-game economy isn’t as busted this time around.
More Exciting Events
Don’t get us wrong, the amount of content in The Crew sure was enjoyable, but it didn’t exactly make use of the incredible roads, iconic landmarks, or varied terrain that the United States has to offer. Why weren’t we speeding across the salt plains or doing one huge tour of landmarks from coast to coast? It’s the kind of thing you could do if you planned it out with friends, but The Crew 2 should be taking the initiative this time around.
Give us exciting, long-distance races to embark on with our friends and heart-racing, over-the-top challenges like Forza Horizon’s showcase events rather than drift and slalom challenges down boring, ordinary roads.
A Bigger Multiplayer Focus
The Crew felt like it had its foot in the multiplayer pond, while cautiously remaining a single-player experience. The result was a huge, sprawling world that you could explore with your friends, but one that lacked content to keep you all playing together. Following Ubisoft’s success with multiplayer-focused experiences in recent years such as The Division and Ghost Recon: Widllands it’s time The Crew 2 joined in on the fun too.
Make that story mode a full, co-op campaign where friends can jump in and out of races and missions to help or hinder your progress whenever they want. Give us daily, weekly, and monthly multiplayer events to partake in, challenging us to drive huge numbers of miles, drift flawlessly in a group, or simply drive from one state to another. There are a ton of options available to The Crew 2 to make it feel like a more fleshed-out, multiplayer experience, and considering the sheer scope of its world, we can only imagine the fun to be had.
Published: May 16, 2017 02:52 pm