I misjudged The Crew 2. I played the beta a long time ago and cast it aside but decided to give it another shot in the recent sale. I looked up the Steam reviews and saw very much a mixed bag of bad and good reviews. After sinking 24 hours into the game in a matter of days, I can say that I'm slightly addicted.

Now let me start off by saying that the driving in The Crew 2 is mediocre at best. At first I hated it, but a few hours in and with a few upgrades on my cars, I started to appreciate it at least a little more. It is véry arcady, with most regular cars having basically endless grip in corners. I say cars, but there's quite a lot more than just cars in this game. The variety is insane. Street cars, drift cars, hypercars, track cars, motorcycles, two types of boats, two types of airplanes, monster trucks, demolition derby cars, helicopters and even hovercrafts. This adds tremendous variety to the game, especially with the quick swap that lets you transform into a plane, boat or car on the fly. Realism is completely out the window in TC2 and I love it. It's pure unadulterated fun. TC2 rarely tries to be more than it is: just an over-the-top arcade vehicle funfest.

Handling isn't so much based on the vehicle's power, weight and tires but more on it's class. A hypercar always has crazy grip whereas a driftcar will slide even at 5 miles an hour. It's quite fitting for TC2's almost RPG-like game design.

This RPG style isn't always a good thing. Upgrades for cars are really tedious because they're in loot format. You get loot for every race you win, but that loot is only for that specific class. There's green, blue, yellow and pink loot all with different stats. It doesn't feel fitting for a racing game at all and I would've loved to just get a nice garage to upgrade your vehicles similar to a Forza game. Visual modifications are quite diverse, at least on cars, but the mechanics behind them feel really outdated as they are unchanged since The Crew 1. This means you get to scroll through 50 bumpers all with slightly different headlights instead of just getting a seperate headlight and bumper selection.

It's easy to compare TC2 to it's rivals like Forza Horizon 4 and Need for Speed Heat... So I will! Handling doesn't even come close to Horizon, which has absolutely mastered the arcade handling. However, as much as I love Horizon, it has some major flaws, mostly in it's game world. Horizon has tiny maps and refuses to give players what they've been begging for for years: proper mountain roads with bends to touge and drift on. Sure, there's a few, but they're done within 20 seconds. Whenever you go cruising in Horizon for an hour, you'll definitely see the same spot three times. The entire game actually brought back memories of Test Drive Unlimited more than it did of it's modern rivals. The big gameworld, the way you can walk around and arrange cars in your house, the way you meet actual other racers in the world, the way you buy cars and even the handling feel similar.

The Crew's game world is immense. Driving from one side to the other takes over 40 minutes in a fast car. And that's just the fastest route. There are thousands of little roads in between, including some absolutely amazing touge and drift roads. Endless hairpins and fast corners combined that really get you in a proper driving flow. I rarely had more fun than when I drove my Pagani Zonda through the Grand Canyon, blasting a good playlist while perfectly linking the corners, enjoying the amazing sound design and the brilliant cockpit view. It definitely makes you forgive the mediocre car handling.

Despite being much much larger, TC2's world actually feels more alive than Horizon's or NfS' game worlds. Not only because of the brilliant map design, but also very much due to the addition of pedestrians in cities, animals in the wild and decent traffic density. Cities feel like they're actually populated. Obviously you're not gonna get real LA traffic in LA, but at least it's not a wasteland like NfS:Heat's city. While driving through the forests, you see deer crossing the road, moose running alongside it, birds flying over and even alligators running for the water as you pass. It's amazing how much these little details make the world come alive. As for other players, the balance feels just right. In Horizon there were more hypercars flying past than regular traffic. In TC2, you meet another player every now and then but it never feels like a weird fantasy world where there's more Ferraris than VWs. The community so far has been amazing and I have had lots of fun joining random people while free roaming, just roaming the map together.

So far the sound design seems decent. Cars sound good for the most part and backfires and exhaust crackle is nice and exaggerated as it should be in an arcade racer. The music is okay, but it suffers from the usual lack of tracks making it repetitive quickly so I recommend switching the radio off and booting up Spotify. As for content, there's plenty. Dozens and dozens of races in all classes, lots of small little events in the world and my favorite: the long hypercar races that can take over 30 minutes to complete. Mostly though, I spent time in free roam,picking a nice road on the map and taking a long drive over there just to repeat it over and over.

Now let's move to the bad news: TC2's economy is f'ed and the worst thing about this is that is is deliberate. Most events pay around 15k 'bucks' and cars usually go for several hundred thousand if not millions. This means you'll be grinding and grinding just to get that one car you want. Oooor you could buy 'Crew Credits', Ubisoft's premium currency. Yes, there's microtransactions and Ubisoft loves reminding you. It's obvious they made the economy deliberately grindy just to get you to buy these credits. TC2 also suffers from major problems with it's difficulty. It's all over the place. I'm quite decent at racing games, so in most races I took the lead within seconds and stayed there easily, sometimes with more than a minute lead, but other were randomly impossible to beat. These races had insane rubber banding, sometimes shamelessly respawning opponents behind me and making them corner at impossible speeds. There seems to be no sense in which races get this rubber banding and which don't. Some classes are also a lot harder than others and the suggest vehicle level is not always right, making it a frustrating experience at times.

TC2's design and UI is honestly pretty amazing. The menus and game design all look absolutely stunning, but sometimes they can be a bit confusing. There's a lot going in and tons to do, and some of it is hard to find and isn't explained well. I keep discovering new stuff randomly and I'm 24 hours in. Probably not the way it should be. Races start in a weird way where you're forced to drive to the start line slowly while some really mediocre, empty dialogue is forced before the gates open. It's unnecessary and ruins the pace at times. The game tries to tell a story, sort of, but does it really really messily. You never know which events advance this sort-of story and it's very incoherent. It would've been better off without it, honestly.

All in all, TC2 is an amazing open world racing experience. No other game lets you drive through this massive world, switching to a plane on the fly(ha), doing some crazy stunts before transforming into a boat and tearing up the seas. Once you're used to it's very arcade handling and the odd game design choices here and there, TC2 is sure to give you tons of enjoyment. I know I'll be playing it for years to come, probably until the inevitable server closure.

I misjudged The Crew 2. I played the beta a long time ago and cast it aside but decided to give it another shot in the recent sale. I looked up the Steam reviews and saw very much a mixed bag of bad and good reviews. After sinking 24 hours into the game in a matter of days, I can say that I'm slightly addicted. Now let me start off by saying that the driving in The Crew 2 is mediocre at best. At first I hated it, but a few hours in and with a few upgrades on my cars, I started to appreciate it at least a little more. It is véry arcady, with most regular cars having basically endless grip in corners. I say cars, but there's quite a lot more than just cars in this game. The variety is insane. Street cars, drift cars, hypercars, track cars, motorcycles, two types of boats, two types of airplanes, monster trucks, demolition derby cars, helicopters and even hovercrafts. This adds tremendous variety to the game, especially with the quick swap that lets you transform into a plane, boat or car on the fly. Realism is completely out the window in TC2 and I love it. It's pure unadulterated fun. TC2 rarely tries to be more than it is: just an over-the-top arcade vehicle funfest. Handling isn't so much based on the vehicle's power, weight and tires but more on it's class. A hypercar always has crazy grip whereas a driftcar will slide even at 5 miles an hour. It's quite fitting for TC2's almost RPG-like game design. This RPG style isn't always a good thing. Upgrades for cars are really tedious because they're in loot format. You get loot for every race you win, but that loot is only for that specific class. There's green, blue, yellow and pink loot all with different stats. It doesn't feel fitting for a racing game at all and I would've loved to just get a nice garage to upgrade your vehicles similar to a Forza game. Visual modifications are quite diverse, at least on cars, but the mechanics behind them feel really outdated as they are unchanged since The Crew 1. This means you get to scroll through 50 bumpers all with slightly different headlights instead of just getting a seperate headlight and bumper selection. It's easy to compare TC2 to it's rivals like Forza Horizon 4 and Need for Speed Heat... So I will! Handling doesn't even come close to Horizon, which has absolutely mastered the arcade handling. However, as much as I love Horizon, it has some major flaws, mostly in it's game world. Horizon has tiny maps and refuses to give players what they've been begging for for years: proper mountain roads with bends to touge and drift on. Sure, there's a few, but they're done within 20 seconds. Whenever you go cruising in Horizon for an hour, you'll definitely see the same spot three times. The entire game actually brought back memories of Test Drive Unlimited more than it did of it's modern rivals. The big gameworld, the way you can walk around and arrange cars in your house, the way you meet actual other racers in the world, the way you buy cars and even the handling feel similar. The Crew's game world is immense. Driving from one side to the other takes over 40 minutes in a fast car. And that's just the fastest route. There are thousands of little roads in between, including some absolutely amazing touge and drift roads. Endless hairpins and fast corners combined that really get you in a proper driving flow. I rarely had more fun than when I drove my Pagani Zonda through the Grand Canyon, blasting a good playlist while perfectly linking the corners, enjoying the amazing sound design and the brilliant cockpit view. It definitely makes you forgive the mediocre car handling. Despite being much much larger, TC2's world actually feels more alive than Horizon's or NfS' game worlds. Not only because of the brilliant map design, but also very much due to the addition of pedestrians in cities, animals in the wild and decent traffic density. Cities feel like they're actually populated. Obviously you're not gonna get real LA traffic in LA, but at least it's not a wasteland like NfS:Heat's city. While driving through the forests, you see deer crossing the road, moose running alongside it, birds flying over and even alligators running for the water as you pass. It's amazing how much these little details make the world come alive. As for other players, the balance feels just right. In Horizon there were more hypercars flying past than regular traffic. In TC2, you meet another player every now and then but it never feels like a weird fantasy world where there's more Ferraris than VWs. The community so far has been amazing and I have had lots of fun joining random people while free roaming, just roaming the map together. So far the sound design seems decent. Cars sound good for the most part and backfires and exhaust crackle is nice and exaggerated as it should be in an arcade racer. The music is okay, but it suffers from the usual lack of tracks making it repetitive quickly so I recommend switching the radio off and booting up Spotify. As for content, there's plenty. Dozens and dozens of races in all classes, lots of small little events in the world and my favorite: the long hypercar races that can take over 30 minutes to complete. Mostly though, I spent time in free roam,picking a nice road on the map and taking a long drive over there just to repeat it over and over. Now let's move to the bad news: TC2's economy is f'ed and the worst thing about this is that is is deliberate. Most events pay around 15k 'bucks' and cars usually go for several hundred thousand if not millions. This means you'll be grinding and grinding just to get that one car you want. Oooor you could buy 'Crew Credits', Ubisoft's premium currency. Yes, there's microtransactions and Ubisoft loves reminding you. It's obvious they made the economy deliberately grindy just to get you to buy these credits. TC2 also suffers from major problems with it's difficulty. It's all over the place. I'm quite decent at racing games, so in most races I took the lead within seconds and stayed there easily, sometimes with more than a minute lead, but other were randomly impossible to beat. These races had insane rubber banding, sometimes shamelessly respawning opponents behind me and making them corner at impossible speeds. There seems to be no sense in which races get this rubber banding and which don't. Some classes are also a lot harder than others and the suggest vehicle level is not always right, making it a frustrating experience at times. TC2's design and UI is honestly pretty amazing. The menus and game design all look absolutely stunning, but sometimes they can be a bit confusing. There's a lot going in and tons to do, and some of it is hard to find and isn't explained well. I keep discovering new stuff randomly and I'm 24 hours in. Probably not the way it should be. Races start in a weird way where you're forced to drive to the start line slowly while some really mediocre, empty dialogue is forced before the gates open. It's unnecessary and ruins the pace at times. The game tries to tell a story, sort of, but does it really really messily. You never know which events advance this sort-of story and it's very incoherent. It would've been better off without it, honestly. All in all, TC2 is an amazing open world racing experience. No other game lets you drive through this massive world, switching to a plane on the fly(ha), doing some crazy stunts before transforming into a boat and tearing up the seas. Once you're used to it's very arcade handling and the odd game design choices here and there, TC2 is sure to give you tons of enjoyment. I know I'll be playing it for years to come, probably until the inevitable server closure.