The Crew Motorfest is a wildly engaging arcade racer that excels through its diverse Hawaiian setting and unique vehicle playlists. Players who enjoy Ubisoft's dense open worlds will find plenty of activities to keep them satiated.
The Crew Motorfest opens with a dazzling introduction.
Players are shot out into the Hawaiian island of O’ahu in their car racing across its gorgeous streets. Careening past other vehicles, the narrator begins describing what’s to come of this year’s Motorfest, the setting for The Crew‘s newest playground. Suddenly the topography shifts along with the vehicle. The city becomes drenched in night and neon lights, fiery red dragons draped along the track. The colors then become washed out and players take control of a vintage Cadillac. Action shifts from a plane flying over the sandy beaches to a boat crashing against the waves.
In a matter of minutes, The Crew Motorfest displays its strengths and content in a flashy spectacle that will make any racing enthusiast grin. From there, the foot is always on the gas.
The Crew feels like it’s never had its moment to truly shine among Ubisoft’s stable of potential crowd-pleasing open-world showcases. The first two games promised the vast ecosystem of the United States as the playable space where players would drive, fly, and sail against and with others. The Crew 2 ditched the gritty narrative and revamped the map and, like many Ubisoft games, received support for years.
The series has never risen to the notoriety of Sony’s Gran Turismo or Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon. But with The Crew Motorfest, the pieces have come together and developer Ubisoft Ivory Tower have concocted an exciting blend of features to separate itself from the pack while borrowing enough elements from players who may be familiar with other franchises.
The Crew Motorfest‘s main allure this entry is Hawaii, particularly its densely populated island of O’ahu. Foregoing the attempt to replicate key features of the American landscape, Ivory Tower has smartly decided to craft a racing festival carved out of the beautiful and varied landscape of this ocean treasure. While not an exact 1:1 recreation of O’ahu, there’s a sense of seamlessness when driving through it. “Biome” shifts feel logical and appropriate. Because O’ahu is an island, the map is surrounded by beaches and large chunks of water perfect for boats. The sand transitions into curvy mountains, steep climbs up a dormant volcano, and burning rubber through dense cities. Choppy paths are perfect for off-roading and players can expect to drag race and drift on the asphalt of an airport.
Hawaii makes for an absolutely stunning location for both scope and technical chops. The Crew Motorfest shines in how diverse its visual language is, despite being just a racing game where players spend chunks of time ogling their cars. Races in the game often thread between multiple types of geography if it fits the theme. Expect to feel like a virtual tourist in the span of a few minutes as the bustling metropolis of Honolulu gives way to flatter fields or arid dirt paths, or breaks right into rocky terrain.
Directing all this action are the playlists that curate a lineup of vehicles for players to drive along with a theme. Take, for example, the “Made in Japan” playlist. Here, players will drive a number of street cars designed for drifting, drag racing, and sheer control on the asphalt. In addition to the selection of cars, driving will take place at night and center near urban areas to maximize the allure of the streets of Tokyo and similar Japanese locales. As players race along the tracks, red lanterns and dragons will light the path and the streets are bathed in blue and purple neon.
Playlists are also noteworthy because they include voiced dialog meant to provide light banter and color commentary while extolling the virtues of the playlist’s fundamentals. The cast in the Made in Japan playlist will rib the player and each other as part of a mini-crew made of Japanese racing fanatics, joking about whose car is best and speaking of its origins.
Shift to the Hawaii Scenic Tour playlist and a local Hawaiian will offer up tidbits about the island’s history and take snapshots of noteworthy destinations. This particular playlist is less designed as a lesson in cars and more meant to help players become acclimated with Hawaii as a racetrack. The Vintage Garage playlist takes players through various decades of cars, adding visual filters, removing GPS leads, and letting players find their way using pictures of landmarks encountered along the track. Rule the Streets is a playlist “presented by” YouTube channel Donut that often tasks players with picking one car over another and testing the two in a duel.
Much of The Crew Motorfest‘s initial appeal lies in the playlists, allowing players to familiarize themselves with the game’s progression and methodology. I would honestly suggest starting with the Hawaii Scenic Tour playlist because it provides one of the more flexible entry points for racing game newcomers and those just wanting to understand how vehicles control in a variety of scenarios. Plenty of races in this playlist show off the diverse capabilities of O’ahu and what kind of terrain insanity that the game provides. Better yet, the requirements to win or complete a race in the playlist are usually placing in the top three or simply crossing the finish line. The playlist culminates in a nearly 15-minute drive around the perimeter of O’ahu that is less endurance trial and more relaxing virtual tourism with nitro boosts peppered in.
Shifting into other playlists, players should find particular ones that scratch a particular vehicular itch. There are brand-centric playlists like Lamborghini and Porsche. Ones that revolve around boats and off-road vehicles or electric cars. Each playlist begins with an introductory video and then has players driving across Hawaii to visit the starting points for each entry in the playlist. After completing every race in the playlist, players are awarded with a special vehicle and are then able to unlock specific challenges and events tied to that playlist.
As a player who has only a cursory interest in cars and only a fan of arcade racers over simulation, I can still appreciate the love The Crew Motorfest has for car culture. I was captivated by the history lessons Gran Turismo 7 provided last year, trying to envelop players in a chic, tailored presentation that had an elegance in its simplicity. The Crew Motorfest is the chaotic cousin, the playlist narrators spitting out factoids during a race and attempting to have their own personality.
Voice acting in the game can be a little stilted and lacking particular enthusiasm but it feels honest enough. The AI named Cara that frequently speaks has a charm for me but I can see it being annoying to others. I’m not big on YouTube personalities and the bombastic goofiness of the Donut guy wasn’t necessarily for me… but I could appreciate that his tone and delivery was appropriate for the playlist. Silly interstitial videos would introduce a challenge where players couldn’t brake and had to avoid cones. And each race in the playlist featured him following the action in a visible drone and providing color commentary.
Playlists may feel a little noisy in their extraneous detail but I think it provides The Crew Motorfest with a needed injection of personality. Watching every track stick to the aesthetic–whether it be visual balloons and effects matching the playlist or the commentary–gives the racing and the lessons that much more spice. It’s a constantly endearing choice made by Ivory Tower and one that instantly warmed me up to The Crew Motorfest as a whole.
Ubisoft titles can be waved away as checklist games that pepper a world with icons to be marked off. And sure, The Crew Motorfest has those elements. But personally, I have always found myself drawn to and relaxed by the particular elements and mechanics of these open-world structures. Whether it’s running around an ancient civilization as an assassin or speeding across Hawaii, these games will either work or they won’t. For racing fans, The Crew Motorfest shepherds and directs players to content that can be consumed at their individual speed and desire.
Progression in The Crew Motorfest isn’t stellar and the menu navigation doesn’t make it completely easy to figure out what’s going on. And I think that may be the most prohibitive thing when players exit the starting gate.
There might be frustration when starting a playlist and realizing that players are forced to use a loaner car. The same can be said for fast travel, with only the starting container location of a playlist available to fast travel from. A number of playlists are locked until players have the required vehicles to complete them. And a lot of this is either unexplained, or briefly touched on in the tile-heavy menus players navigate through. I especially didn’t like that the list of vehicles players own is presented as a horizontal line of content unless filters are applied to thin it out.
Fast travel across Hawaii is not unlocked until players complete 10 playlists. And it isn’t until then that any car can be selected in a race that isn’t a loaner. Completing a playlist unlocks feats such as speedtraps, slaloms, and escapes. Challenges are also unlocked requiring players to accomplish feats (sometimes with specific cars that have to be purchased), collect objects around the world, or play races again under specific conditions.
It’s actually wise for players to mainline playlists as soon as possible to unlock rewarding content throughout The Crew Motorfest. Completing challenges can be extremely rewarding and accomplished during regular Freedrive and competitive events. All of this feeds into injecting a cash flow into players’ account meant to purchase new cars that will help unlock playlists and challenges. While it may be fair to judge the game for blocking off content through the purchasing of cars, I don’t think it becomes an issue when unlocking playlists. The few initially available reward a good amount of money and engaging with activities in the open world are more than enough to round out the massive roster of 600 cars.
For solo players, The Crew Motorfest is packed with content spread across O’ahu. There are enough virtual checklists in there that once accomplished, should make any player feel like an expert driver. There’s a seasonal track (of course) that is currently themed around American cars. Everything players do funnel into raising their Legend level which can unlock cosmetics and bonus points to increase permanent passives.
While 28-player Grand Races and the 32-player Demolition Derby are completely wacky experiences, they aren’t necessarily for everyone. I myself could only handle driving in a steady last place behind 20 others for several minutes before I knew I needed to be better. And the Demolition Derby is wacky enough with its power-ups and random nature to not rely too much on driving skill. But as a solo player, I could still appreciate seeing the ghosts of other racers and races happening all around me. More so, I was baffled by the fact that the game never really slowed down for me in any of these instances.
On a technical level, The Crew Motorfest is astounding in what it manages. I do not recall notable instances of choppy framerates or annoying pop-in on the Performance or Resolution graphics modes. There was no significant lag during the massive multiplayer content either. Hawaii is engulfed in detail and while it may not be packed with pedestrians, such additions don’t really magnify the racing experience in any significant way.
Up close and while not in motion there are going to be sections of the game that won’t blow minds. Cars, however, are consistently impressive and while not designed in eye-watering detail like Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport, a lot of detail is packed into this engine, especially considering the amount of customization options available to players.
Most importantly, though, is the driving. How does it feel? For PlayStation 5 users, The Crew Motorfest has some of the best DualSense implementation I’ve felt in a game. The way the triggers strain right before a gear shift and then loosen up and bounce back up is astounding. The haptic vibration replicates what’s underneath the tires incredibly. But the act of driving a car is likely going to be one that will take each individual player some time to find the right balance.
I spent a majority of my time with the game on the standard difficulty with few assists on. As I kept playing, I dialed up the drift assist because I struggled with tight corners as I’ve always done in racing games. Out of the box, many players will probably find a few things that could feel better about steering and handling turns. And while Ivory Tower has a few blanket settings and assists that can be adjusted for each race, there’s also the ability to have advanced controls over each car. While those settings may not clash with the rarity-based components players are awarded over time, true gearheads are going to have a small stable of cars they love and work to tune them as best they can.
Boats are an excellent time in the game, as players can manipulate the strength and height of waves to go faster and round turns better. Being an island, O’ahu has lots of bodies of water meant to hold fun experiences. Planes are okay but don’t have as complex controls as boats, off-roaders, cars, and motorcycles. Often I would instantly switch to a plane to drive over a mountain rather than around it to get to a checkpoint. That ability to instantly switch between three vehicle types is one of the things that makes The Crew what it is.
Having this variety of options implemented by Ivory Tower really makes The Crew Motorfest feel like a game for any kind of racing enthusiast. It has similar vibes to last year’s Riders Republic but with more obvious focus. Players are meant to have a good time with its casual party vibes but embrace competitiveness when the mood strikes.
The Crew Motorfest‘s beating heart is its diverse playlists, exemplifying the vast beauty of Hawaii and its many racing opportunities. Extolling the virtues of car culture and history, players will interact with unique scenarios meant to hone their skills and extract blistering speed out of a massive roster of vehicles. With one of Ubisoft’s best worlds to date and a constant stream of rewards, The Crew is in top gear.
