The Crew Motorfest Preview — To the horizon

There’s a particular type of racing game I really enjoy. There is something interesting about full on simulators like Gran Turismo 7 (before they added microtransactions), but I’m drawn towards more arcade-like experiences. Classics like Ridge Racer Type R, basically every Mario Kart, Sega Rally, and more modern titles such as Forza Horizon. Today I can add yet another title to that list with The Crew Motorfest. I played a good portion of the early game recently at a remote Ubisoft event, and what I saw was very promising.

Motorfest begins with character creation. While you’ll spend most of the game not being able to see your character because you’re in a car, plane, or boat, it looks like bikes and ATVs may become available later on. You first pick a premade character as your base then edit from there. Most options are in the face and hair, so the base will determine your gender/body type, though no characters will ever refer to you with gendered language or a name and you are a silent protagonist. There’s a decent suite of options here, with tons of faces, hairstyles, and a good amount of clothing too. This isn’t on the level of Black Desert Online or even Baldur’s Gate 3, but the amount here feels good for the type of game this is and helps your character feel unique.

Once your character is complete, you’re shown the first few Playlists you’ll have access to in short demo sequences, then you’re dropped into the open world of Hawaii’s O’ahu to do as you please. Playlists are themed sets of races and challenges you complete in order to progress. We had access to Made In Japan, which put you in Japanese manufactured cars to race and drift through neon city streets, Hawaii Scenic Tour, to go off the beaten path and learn more about Hawaian culture, and finally Vintage Garage has races in car culture classics with no GPS or Nitro boost. There were also three others shown only in this intro featuring F1 racing, off roading, and another with only Lamborghini cars. Later on in the demo, I also got to try out Electric Odyssey, where you race an Electric Vehicle, or EV, against combustion engine cars in a style that feels very F-Zero. This is of course a work in progress build, so what the final game gives you access to at the start may vary.

Before we dive into any single playlist, let’s talk about the driving model. Cars here are a lot heavier than I’m used to, trending more towards simulator realism while remaining fun and arcadey. It took me a bit to get used to, but once you get the overall game feel down you can adapt to each car’s specific quirks. I stuck with the normal difficulty the entire time, but if you’re having trouble or just gliding through you can increase or decrease the AI racers’ difficulty. The game has some very, very difficult challenges too. Even if I had unlimited time in the session, I don’t think I could have beaten any of the playlists aside from Hawaii Scenic Tour (which progresses regardless of what you place in). For example, I’ve always been bad at drifting outside of Mario Kart, and one of the Made in Japan challenges really puts your skills to the test in a tight time limit. You really have to engage with all of the game mechanics to succeed.

The most prominent of these mechanics is the Nitro boosting. To the right of your speedometer is the boost meter. When you have any amount of meter, you can hold A to boost for a time, the more meter you have, the longer. I used it mostly on straightaways, but supposedly you can also use it to course correct your momentum in certain situations. Different playlists have different ways to build meter. Made in Japan uses the normal, recharging after a time method while Electric Odyssey requires you to drive on specific, pink colored sections of track. Of course, playlists like Vintage Garage or racing in F1 cars disable boost entirely, so you can’t rely on it to carry you forward in every situation.

Out of all the playlists we tried, I enjoyed playing Made in Japan and Electric Odyssey the most. They had interesting challenges, circumstances, and decent storylines. Unfortunately it doesn’t reach the level of the first Crew game, but that wouldn’t really fit the tone Motorfest is going for. Of course I loved hearing about Hawaii’s history and mythology in Hawaii Scenic Tour, but I found the actual races a bit bland in comparison. Vintage Garage also didn’t hit home with me, mostly because I’m not terribly into car culture, but even so it’s interesting to learn about each vehicle’s history and legacy.

The diversity in playlists is actually part of what makes Motorfest so approachable. If you’re not vibing with a particular playlist at the moment or are having trouble with a certain challenge, you can pick up where you left off in another one just by driving to the next objective. You can get around Hawaii however you want to, with the ability to instantly swap between car, plane, and boat with a press of the right stick. It’s a lot of fun to fly up high in an airplane, then come crashing down in your car of choice or gracefully drop into the sea with a boat. I didn’t see any playlists using anything but cars, so I hope the final game will utilize these other two vehicle types.

I had a lot of fun with The Crew Motorfest. It’s basically a Forza Horizon copy but that is in no way a bad thing. There’s something incredibly zen about open world racing games that you can’t get anywhere else, and I imagine that feeling will only be enhanced by the licensed soundtrack. You can hop in, tune in, and zone out for an adrenaline filled tropical vacation when The Crew Motorfest releases on September 14th.

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