The Crew 2: Demolition Derby is more than just the PvP shot in the arm Ivory Tower's arcade racer needs. It introduces a wildly entertaining and silly slice of car "combat" that any player can get on board with, further showing Ubisoft's chops at keeping players engaged for the long haul.
The Crew 2 Demolition Derby update proves yet again that Ubisoft has an uncanny ability at putting its hooks into players. The publisher’s stable of games are more than one-off voyages down a narrative path. Content drops months down the line tantalize us into seeing what that shiny new feature or mode or expansion is. At times they reinvigorate a dormant game but most often give a dedicated fanbase another reason to stay invested.
As the primary driving sim/arcade racer under Ubisoft’s care (sorry Trials, I still see you as brain-bending physics puzzles on wheels), The Crew series twists the open-world formula into a massive expanse of endless roads and paths players can drive on. Developer Ivory Tower transformed the United States into a geographically inaccurate but impressive playground where the terrain rarely dictated where a set of rubber wheels could or couldn’t go. The Crew 2‘s signature Inception-like world folding was symbolic of the ability to instantaneously switch between cars, planes, motorcycles, boats, and off-road vehicles.
Though the free Gator Rush update in September breathed a bit of life into the sequel, what players were really yearning for was a proper PvP mode, not hovercrafts. Demolition Derby, which is out on December 5, adds a necessary component to the core of The Crew 2 that kept some from fully embracing it. But better yet, it introduces a completely new Discipline that is unexpected, bat-shit insane, and so much fun.
PvP fanatics have long awaited its implementation since The Crew 2‘s release in June 2018. Ivory Tower’s choice to push PvP all the way to December was a hard pill to swallow for many, especially considering that forming your own crew of fellow drivers is a primary reason the game is called “The Crew.” Now that we’ve arrived to release, I think this new update will make up a lot of ground and work towards strengthening the game’s current audience while pulling in those who were initially hesitant about a lack of PvP.
Drivers can now hop into multiplayer lobbies that allow up to 8 players to compete against each other. The best part about The Crew 2‘s PvP is that it is accessible right after unlocking the first HQ in the game, which only takes minutes. From there, players will select either the Race playlist comprising Street Racing and Hyper Car events or a mixed playlist that changes every day. The mixed playlist features most of the game’s Disciplines and focuses on various themes to provide something fresh all the time. Vehicle performance levels are maxed out, meaning that no one has to grind out loot and levels to hold a competitive edge. While some may want skill-based lobbies that focus on performance score, I think leveling out the vehicle playing field makes races fairer and more approachable.
At a preview event for the Demolition Derby update held by Ubisoft, I raced against 7 others. Like any PvP racing experience, adrenaline runs much higher when the ghosts of others are within view of your dashboard. Everyone in the lobby votes on what event they would like to race and what car they would like to drive. Though I wasn’t a fan of the seconds-long voting process, matches started quickly and left little downtime to be bored in.
As horrible as I am at racing games, there is so much fun to be had trying to make a perfect turn and punch the nitro to pass another player. Ivory Tower is also making adjustments to vehicle handling with the update and I definitely felt that the overall driving experience was much tighter. Watching another player slam into a wall or losing track of the route and following someone else who is going the wrong way are the kinds of moments that will draw in players who mostly stay in the solo lane. By introducing a league ranking system, The Crew 2 gives competitive players more of an incentive to master specific tracks and focus on shaving off precious seconds from their best times. The game was always great at informing you when you beat a friend’s milestone or had outdone another player but the absence of true PvP was palpable. Now that almost every vehicle, course, and Discipline can be a competitive battleground, it will enrich The Crew 2‘s core.
Racing past another human online is fun and all but what about bashing into them with a fully destructible vehicle at breakneck speeds? Demolition Derby bridges the gap between a number of vehicular genres and provides The Crew 2 players with a unique mode that is hard to tear away from. During my preview, I spent time in four new events that focused on controlling the new Fender Demolition Derby cars. Vehicle damage in The Crew 2 is being introduced with the new update but the Fender cars redefine what twisted metal means.
Demolition Derby events embrace the PvP nature of this new update and let a lobby of up to 8 players gloriously crash into each other. The first event I played took place in a square arena surrounded by water where each driver started in a circle facing each other. As soon as the countdown clock hit and the gas pedals where slammed with lead foots, eight cars erratically moved around in hopes of tearing off chunks of every other car. It took maybe five to ten seconds for the first of us to fall into the water and lose 5,000 points.
https://youtu.be/AiWvOn4-ffc
Some of the Demolition Derby events play much like a car deathmatch. Fall into the water and you lose points. Hit someone and you gain points. Force someone into the water and gain a lot of points. These modes are all about crippling other players’ cars and not being totaled yourself. Going at faster speeds and t-boning a car will accrue more points and possibly knock off a part, awarding even more points. Bonuses will randomly pop up over the course of a match that doubles the damage you do to a car, repairs your car, or gives bonus points. It’s fascinating watching a group of people laugh their asses off performing poorly and engaging in spectacular destruction. Demolition Derby is too much fun because it is in no way a serious mode but provides friendly competition with a silly edge.
I challenge anyone to not be enthralled after having the tires on both sides of their Fender vehicle blown and attempt to turn into another car as fast as possible. Props go to Ivory Tower for their work in modelling these vehicles from the tread up so they break in believable ways and look somewhat realistic and humorous. I even love the little touches like showing the vehicle’s current damage in the winner’s circle. In most racing games, no hood and missing wheels usually mean last place, here you’re likely in first. The physics feel appropriately goofy and looser, especially when some of the arenas incorporate traps like rotating obstacles and pneumatic pads that will launch a car in the air.
I also had the opportunity to sit down with Claire Garin, Communications Manager at Ivory Tower, and talk about how the team brought such an entertaining mode to The Crew 2. Many parts of Demolition Derby feel like they were built from the ground up to give players a worthwhile Discipline that is less of a distraction and more of an entirely new game. Check out the full interview below:
| The Crew 2 Demolition Derby Interview with Claire Garin |
Lasting only a few minutes at most, matches of Demolition Derby are brisk and enjoyable. A few events act as races where someone by divine providence manages to come in first place. The one track I played was a figure eight course that was compact and deadly. The intersection always spelled trouble for those in the lead and those tailing behind. Even more ridiculous was the fact that a barrier that infrequently blocked the course required us to drive along the walls like it was a round of Rocket League. Regardless of ending position, in a Demolition Derby event everyone feels like a winner who just drunkenly drove their car across a road of butter. What I would really like to see is how the Fender cars fare on the long stretches of the United States alongside variations of events that may have bonuses constantly dropping to keep things even more unpredictable.
The Crew 2 Demolition Derby is an update that makes the game feel more fully realized. As feature rich as Ivory Tower’s second effort was, fans’ complaints were understandable. When I was kid, Mario Kart 64 was proof that a driving game could be infinitely better with friends. After playing Demolition Derby, I thought about those times chasing down buddies on Rainbow Road or trying to red shell one of their balloons off and felt right at home. Standard PvP is everything players should want and expect but really, the new demolition events are brilliant and should not be passed by.
