It looked like a very interesting game of 2014 - here you were already provided with vast territories of the United States as a game world, here you meet dozens of large and famous cities, a very criminal storyline and, worth noting, a powerful social detail of the game. The creators of Test Drive Unlimited proudly unveiled their new game as the first true online car game. But as is usually the case with a company with debuts (at least look at the autumn release), the first attempt, as always, was not very successful, so this cannot be called a full-fledged game. Instead of the original racing blockbuster, the players received a "torn" and a couple of unfinished projects. In the game, almost every detail (from the stupid storyline and up to the multiplayer) does not work correctly or does not work at all. If it were not for the amazing scenery of the United States, then the game could have been put simply as a fat cross. As a result, it turned out that riding is much more pleasant than going through it at all.
Despite all the efforts in technical terms, the game looks like a project of the past generation, although here you can arrange a couple of excursions. Each of your trips will be fraught with some surprises: for example, during your first race you will stumble upon a huge statue of a cow in North Dakota, and on your second trip you will stumble upon a ghost village located in the south of the United States. In general, as in the case with the game, you are constantly drawn to go to Wikipedia and view all the historical places, which, as always, are many in the game. In addition, you can even learn about such details as, for example, Great Las Vegas looks like in the morning, or is Manhattan really constantly suffering from traffic jams, and is it true that in San Francisco all people travel only by trams. And the scale of the game itself is simply impressive: traveling from one end of the country to the other will take you about an hour.
The main problem lies much deeper than it might seem - the developers themselves simply did not understand how to properly use such game scales in the game. Instead of, for example, creating a race across the country, they simply created another standard game universe, with standard indicators. With a very ordinary criminal plot, the game is connected only by a couple of ring races, but no more.
Of course, the sheer scale of a game can't help it become as big a project as a recently released game or a very popular game. Everything went to the detriment of the game. The game map is so big that the racers are constantly lost and crawling around the map - in the end, you won't find them. Therefore, waiting in races lasts for a couple of 10 to 20 minutes, and a new problem is not only due to the poor quality of the online code (with which the game also has a number of problems), but because the players do not want to go from one end of the region to the other, just to drive a couple of ring races. Here the game probably looks more like an online game, because as a couple, collecting players in a raid takes much more than the passage of a dungeon itself.
Due to the fact that the developers did not want to support the players, to fight between each other - the game looks like a dull and dead one - in general, a complete offline, in which you will rarely even meet a player passing by. The already deplorable situation could be saved by regular online-specific updates, where there would be both short and larger races. But no, you will only be offered a PVP mode in which there will be a fight between people (the most common ring races), so this cannot bring any special pleasure. What can I say about the PVP mode, if there is not even a smart selection here - they just throw you anywhere, so usually your rivals will be multi-level players who will have supercars. As a result, it is very difficult for newcomers to the game, since they do not give any chances for a normal existence.
And that's not all of the problems listed in the game. also has a number of technical problems in the server. At the start of the game, a number of problems immediately appeared. On the very first day, the servers could not cope with the influx of players and simply passed out for the whole day. A little later, the studio admitted that because of this, some of the players stopped working with their saves. At the moment, the problems have been resolved, but the start of the game is unlikely to be called "successful".
The last nail in the problems was the disgusting interface. As a couple, you may not even find the elementary: how to leave the team and how to bring together the right people. in the version of the game it is still more serious - as it happens in games, the developers did not even try to adapt the game menu to keyboards.
There are problems in other elements of the game - for a game where there are as many as 12 huge cities, there are too few different tracks, tasks and other things. The game is not even saved by races from one city to another, but all because of a very "oak" model of the car's behavior. The last remark is extremely surprising in that the well-known guys from The Reflections took part in the development of the game, because they ate a dog in cars. But still, all cars behave like logs.
A very interesting fleet is trying to pull the game out of a deep hole, where you can find car models such as Ford Focus or Chevrolet Camaro, and there are even rarer types of cars, for example, Saleen S7 and LeFerrari. I was pleased with the tuning system, where you can not only improve the running parts of the car, but also radically change its design. In general, again, despite the bright statements of the game developers, there will be no significant changes when installing a new auto upgrade. Each improvement is primarily aimed at driving comfort.
Results
Having a very attractive concept with it, the game is very upsetting for the entire gaming audience. If you consider it as an online race, then it is very much a mess, but if you consider it as a single player game, it has a very simple plot and a terrible model of vehicle behavior. The only real advantage is the size of the universe, but as far as interest is concerned, this is not enough. But what can I say, if the studio rarely new games are interesting. If they have the courage not to abandon this game after the first part, then the next part might be something better.
The Crew is an experiment by Ubisoft, known to everyone from the Assassin's Creed series. The game is a race, which is unusual for the company, but the familiar elements of old projects are present here - for example, an open world, lighthouses, etc. Details below.
Review of The Crew
Gameplay
The main property of the gameplay in the racing arcade can definitely be called an open world with multiplayer. So, racers will have a chance to travel around the cities of America, performing various tasks, learning secrets, and also participating in races. At any time, you can join the race right in the open area, and there is also the function of inviting friends.But first things first. Firstly, the game has a plot, but it is painfully banal. The protagonist is a guy unfairly accused of killing his own brother, who understands only the language of the engine and tires. What is called, hears the call of the roads. It follows from this that there are story races, but the trick is that you can go through them with friends. The campaign lasts about 20 hours, and upon completion, the same open world awaits you with a lot of activities around.
As you progress through, you will be told about all the intricacies of the game - about tuning, replenishing the collection of cars, about racing modes, etc. By the way, the modes are quite classic - there are ring races, and along the segment, and with teams of riders, and much more. Variety is essential to the multiplayer experience, and there's plenty of it here.
Competitive notes are further enhanced by the distribution of the world map into 5 regions, each of which has a ruling group. So, players can fight for their area, gaining influence points, which are necessary for the superiority of their grouping. This will subsequently give new rewards and tasks.
Not without the notorious RPG component, too, could not do. There are only 20 cars in The Crew, but each one can be improved. You can increase the characteristics of all cars, but it will take a lot of time, so it is always more profitable to choose a single car for pumping. Modifications also contribute to a change in appearance, so here, too, the variety item is ticked. And later you can color it to your own taste - dozens of prints, colors, as well as various decorative details like bumpers, spoilers and much more.
Car classes 5.
- street car- a street car that has a powerful engine, but bad turns.
- SUV- massive cars that will go in the mud and in bad weather like pretty ones.
- supercar- classic understated racing cars.
- rally- adapted for rally racing cars that will also cope well with off-road.
- Racing- cars with incredible speed, which are easy to dump from the cops.
In addition to all the races and the plot, you will find in the game details of a secret car, by collecting which you can create a unique car. Such details are secret for a reason, because they will have to be searched.
This is the very component of the game that all players relied on. However, the picture did not reach stunning quality, but it became quite high-quality and pleasant.
So, traveling to famous places in the United States is extremely attractive. Also, you can visit not only various squares or see the Statue of Liberty in New York, but also go into the outback. Especially for this, a camera was created right inside the game so that everyone could capture pleasant moments from the trip.
Let's summarize
The Crew is definitely an interesting project from Ubisoft. However, I don’t want to praise the game, because it had a lot of problems at the start - a non-permanent progression with secret cars, poor connection to other players, unresponsive multiplayer, etc. Now The Crew 2 has taken the place of the first part, so the multiplayer mode only makes sense for a cooperative game with a friend. PHILIP VOLNOVThe development of expensive games today is not complete without a string of marketing research and forecasts, which is why projects are overgrown with a mass of unnecessary elements in order to be in trend. , from which the authors sought to make an ideological continuation Test Drive Unlimited, was particularly hard hit by this. Paid in-game currency, obligatory internet connection, season pass, obsessive Uplay... Why this rubbish for those who are just crazy about adrenaline arcade racing? However, it’s worth at least once to ride through the virtual version of the USA created by the studio, and you will forget about stupid tinsel.
Test Crew Unlimited
Fall asleep in 60 seconds
The main character, Alex Taylor, earns a living by participating in illegal races. Dangerous acquaintances and risky activities lead to the fact that he falls into a trap set up by one of the members of the 510 criminal group and a corrupt FBI officer. He is accused of killing his own brother and sent to prison. Five years later, another special agent gets in touch with Alex, offering a deal: the opportunity to take revenge in exchange for help in catching criminals.
Alex Taylor looks suspiciously like Gordon Freeman from. They definitely bought their glasses frames from the same store.
This uncomplicated bike is stretched for as much as 20 hours, and almost before each race we are shown a plot scene. Sometimes there are funny jokes, but you should not expect more from the writers. Unfortunately, you can’t escape from Alex and his problems - new races, cars and “pumping” are opened only at the behest of the authors, as in (which is not surprising - she also worked on the project).
Worse is the case with police chases. The most interesting "cat and mouse" was in the same one, when we masterfully smashed entire teams of pursuers. Everything is much easier. Heavily armored patrol cars with the only tactic "box and brake", unpretentious road blocks that hardly interfere, and a helicopter - that's the whole arsenal of cops. Fights with them are monotonous - as soon as you destroy one, two more will immediately appear out of thin air. In addition, psychics are sitting behind the wheel - they predict every maneuver and easily dodge shocks. It’s better to immediately turn on the “nitro” and run away. Having lost sight of the offender, after 20 seconds the police abandon the search for the offender.
Well, when Alex himself becomes a "hunter", he sometimes cannot overtake the victim until a certain point, and the damage is counted according to a very strange formula: a weak touch can take away half of the "health", a furious butt - a funny couple of percent. But the rest of the competition is peppy - the authors rhythmically shuffle the types of cars, tracks, modes and conditions, not letting you get bored. It’s a pity, it’s completely unclear how the reward for diligent zeal is calculated - the game can bestow both gold and modest bronze.
Stillborn MMO
It should be noted that in my memory this is the first race where you can go through the entire campaign with friends. To win the races, it is enough for one of you to take first place. Unlike, "co-op" here is not just a publicity stunt. It is much easier to play together, and you will also have plenty of laughs in voice chat over an idiotic plot and measure your strength on the road.
If you don't have friends who also bought The Crew, - it's okay: the game will automatically start a session with a dozen riders. Or rather, it should be so in theory. In general, the connection works very crookedly and every other time. My buddies were regularly unable to connect to me, and in the end, without waiting for the patches, I spat and decided to stay alone.
So it's time to review the MMO racing simulator The Crew. Quite a lot of information was disclosed even before the release, and some data on upcoming additions was also announced, but it's much easier to see, play and understand once, although reviews are sometimes enough to make a decision to buy a game if there was no confidence at the moment her release.
In 2007, the Ivory Tower studio first appeared to the world, consisting of developers from different companies. Their idea to create an online multiplayer racing game was supported by Ubisoft, which eventually resulted in such a large project as The Crew.
The plot of the game is replete with standard clichés and many hackneyed tricks, but does not concentrate on them, which does not cause discomfort. The intro video is pretty short. In it, we learn that the main character's name is Alex and see a general view of his car. Then the game starts.
The player receives a Ford Raptor as a starting car, which positively distinguishes The Crew from most races, where you have to start on the weakest and most difficult to drive cars. In principle, there are no bad cars in the game. It all depends on the purpose for which they are used.
From the very beginning, all progress is automatically saved on the game servers, so any error is not solved by reloading, but only by trying to replay the mission.
Map of the area - all of the United States, except for Alaska. Americans love their sights, so the landscapes and buildings in the game are depicted with considerable zeal and are often more beautiful than in real life. For beautiful rendering of trees, meadows, fields, lakes, mountains, etc. is worth to be commended. Of course, the main pressure is placed on the main characters of the game - cars, and the roads, of course, without cracks, asphalt patches and open manholes. True, there are off-road and country ruts, but it's normal there.
A lot of pressure has been put on the physics of accidents. Cars easily roll over and repeatedly somersault in the air and along the cougars, then accelerating centrifugal, then slowing it down for a better visual effect. Of course, after this, your iron horse is in the trash, and the mission will have to be replayed.
In addition, the eyes are happy to look at the plausible transmission of sunlight with all its glare and rays passing through the gaps in the foliage or clouds, as well as the various shades of sunsets cannot but touch. Video clips that tell us the storyline are also made with a bang. Although the voice acting and the plot are far from excellent, you want to watch the videos to the end.
Management is made easy to understand, where is which button, but difficult to get used to. Thus, apparently, the developers have kept the balance, since only those who have spent more hours behind the controller will be able to more masterfully control their sports car.
Mistake came out in the transmission of a sense of speed. Perhaps this was done on purpose to be more realistic (apart from the absence of a vibrating car seat) and to be able to see what is happening on the side of the road, or perhaps by accident, in which case, after numerous requests from the players, an add-on will be released that will fix the script.
Tuning focuses on design, where you can change the shape and color of any part of the car up to the clown type, as well as change the leather upholstery of the cabin with the dashboard. The choice of icons is dark, though the most important thing is missing - the ability to draw independently, at least within some framework and on certain parts of the machine.
In the game, most of the events take place at night, so there are not enough people on the streets, but still there is someone to scare with a horn or even try to shoot down, if desired, although the latter will only attract the police to you more, and this is very fraught, not to mention the fact that people are all some kind of supermen, able to escape in any situation. So far, no one has teamed up to drive a negligent pedestrian into a corner and move in a crowd to check how well the developers have done and where they cheated, so for sure nothing can be said about the immortality of the bipeds.
However, if the police did start chasing you, you just need to throw off your tail, which is quite simple, and then go beyond their radars, which are shown in a special window. After waiting a few minutes, all the pursuers are covered by a mass psychosis with a side effect - amnesia, and they disperse about their business.
As in any MMO, there is an opportunity to upgrade skills by going to your headquarters. How important and useful this is, or whether it is useless and inappropriate, only time will tell.
With all the vastness of the map of the United States and the beauty of the scenery, breathtaking at first, it is difficult not to recognize the monotony of the flickering views. It seems that the wind never happens, or the trees stopped swaying and began to hold the gusts with an effort of will. Therefore, over time, you have to look at your own and other people's cars, which are worked out in much more detail and better, and when you get bored, they change colors. You can also switch to the view both from the windshield and from behind the car, as well as from inside the cabin, when the dashboard is visible.
So far, there are very few people in the game, so it becomes incredibly difficult to assemble a team for co-op. This is a very significant drawback of the huge size of locations and the inability to instantly move from city to city.
To the good news, we can add the fact that the used nitro fuel is restored automatically. Apparently, each machine has a built-in matter converter, for which cold nuclear fusion is the last century.
Playing on Uplay is mandatory even though you still have to play on your own without the support of a team of the same car enthusiasts. In addition, the server sometimes freezes, which causes the game to go to the main menu.
Of the game modes, there is only a standard set, known to any virtual racer. This is a race on a looped track, delivering an expensive car in the shortest possible time over a long distance, so as not to scratch, chase (to catch up with the target and destroy - the mode is called "elimination"), racing in a straight line, driving from one checkpoint to another, and so on Further.
For all of the above, the conclusion follows that the game sooner or later brings boredom. And with all this, the developers also set for many missions a level limit for participation. For example, a mission is available, but they don’t let you pass it, because there is not enough level. Then you have to spend hours on missions similar to each other, earning racing experience points.
And all this costs 1300 rubles for the regular version and 2000 for the extended one. Either the developers have no conscience, or there is a zombie device that will provide them with frantic sales, by the way, the game has already been hacked by pirates and it is easy to download it on torrents.
Game tested on PlayStation 4
Among the players there is an opinion that Ubisoft gets everything right the second time. Say, if the game of stars from the sky is not enough, its sequel will certainly be much better. By and large, this happened only with Assassin's Creed 2 and (and, perhaps, will repeat with The Division 2), but many expected the same from The Crew 2. Unfortunately, the second part is worse than the first, and it is hardly even possible to fix this very active support after the release.
⇡ Again and again
The problem with the sequel is that it takes a few elements from other Ubisoft titles and lacks personality. If the predecessor could boast at least some kind of plot - about a guy who went to jail for killing his brother (which he, of course, did not commit) and ruining an illegal group of racers from the inside, then all this gloom was removed from the second part. Now there is no story at all - you take on the role of an ambitious racer who wants to prove to the whole world that he can do everything: win races in a car, drive boats, and perform incredible stunts on an airplane.
For the sake of such locations, you can put up with mediocre physics
For each race, you get fame, which is also passed off as a dashing ride in the open world. Something similar was in Watch Dogs 2, only there we collected as many “followers” as possible. Here, fame is required to gain access to new disciplines - for example, you can’t immediately jump on a motorcycle. Fortunately, there is no need to replay old races - there are enough races in the world to earn fame as you progress through all the available content.
And so you go to the menu, scroll through the list of disciplines, select the desired one and start the race. It loads, then some completely uninteresting characters say something to you, you listen to it all and see a countdown on the screen - in three seconds you will have to drive, fly or swim forward. And at first all this is even exciting, but with each new race you begin to understand more and more clearly that the physics of transport behavior cannot be ignored even by those who rarely pay attention to it.
The developers of The Crew 2 could not make either realistic or good arcade physics - they got some kind of mess, which, as they probably thought, should please both yours and ours. But when you do not have the opportunity to master the art of driving, learn how to carefully enter turns and use acceleration correctly, interest quickly disappears. In this game, absolutely all cars drive like irons and do not receive any damage, and the direction of driving can be changed right in the air after jumping from a springboard. Artful twists? Why, if you can pass them by ricocheting off the wall.
All transport is controlled exactly the same. Planes sometimes do not crash, even if they crash into a tree - their wings are so strong that when they come into contact with five pillars in a row, nothing happens. The handling of motorcycles deserves a special mention - they ride in much the same way in Ride to Hell: Retribution and other similar crafts. The only outlet is the boats, which bounce great on the waves, but that's where the difference between them and ordinary cars ends.
⇡ Nice and empty
A bleak picture is brightened up by a variety of tracks and locations. The giant open world, as in the first part, adds a few points to the final score - it is truly huge and in some places very pretty. If you go through various races without returning to the old ones, you will again and again find yourself in never-before-seen places in various American cities, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas and others. I especially liked to drive in rainy weather, when the screen is covered with drops, and the cars leave trails on the water.
But outside of racing, you don’t want to explore the open world at all. The entire list of races and tests is available in the menu, so there is no desire to waste time on extra trips - you got tired of looking at beautiful backdrops and taking screenshots even in the first part. They tried to revive the cities by adding passers-by, but this does not affect the perception in any way - the world remains just as empty and dull. Therefore, very quickly, I stopped riding from one point on the map to another, but simply opened the list of races and completed them one by one.
It is very easy to emerge victorious in the vast majority of cases. A few races (especially on boats) seemed difficult to me, but many races are completed without any problems on the first try. Still, no one demands to take first place - they won’t even really reward you for this. With the exception of some events, it is enough to get into the top three - then the test will be passed, the main character will receive a lot of fame, and at the same time earn extra money. The currency is needed to buy new vehicles - the starting car and plane are given out for free, and to participate in additional disciplines like drifting and dredge, you need to pay a lot of money.
One of the main drawbacks of the first The Crew seemed to me the pumping system - certain parts were given out for obtaining specific medals in races. Here they got rid of this, turning the game into a kind of Destiny and The Division: the transport has several elements that the player can change for better ones. For the successful completion of the race, parts of different quality levels are awarded - the cooler they are, the greater the increase in performance they give.
The vehicle will not necessarily become faster, it will just be a little better - its rating will increase, and therefore it will be easier for you to take part in high-level races. However, there is not much sense from this system - old parts cease to be needed when new ones are received, so you just waste time going into the menu over and over again and replacing each element one by one. At the same time, on the track, on the water and in the air, there is no feeling that something has changed significantly - the control is still the same oak, and the races are still too similar to each other. The difference is slightly felt when using rare parts - with their help, the amount of money or fame earned increases.
You can list the cons of The Crew 2 for a long time, as you constantly stumble upon them during the passage. You start to miss dialogues and videos on the engine very soon - listening to nonsense about cool cars and crazy racers is just as unbearable as in. Many tracks are literally strewn with jumps, for which the developers have some kind of unhealthy love - with such physics, it was clearly not necessary to force the player to “fly” in cars so often. During races, it doesn't always make sense to get ahead as soon as possible - opponents cheat and comically pick up high speed, overtaking you and complicating the task.
If we compare The Crew 2 with the Payback mentioned above, then it is a little better and not so annoying. After a couple of hours, I didn’t want to touch the last Need for Speed at all, while entering The Crew 2 is much more pleasant. But she quickly gets bored. It is enough to complete a couple of races, fly a plane, even try switching between vehicles on the go. For some reason, this "trick" is not used in the races themselves, which is strange - in GTA Online, such entertainment has already been introduced, and they worked well there. Here, what Ubisoft boasted about so much at exhibitions turned out to be a useless option.
The new The Crew surprises in how a game can be ambitious and empty at the same time. It offers as many as fourteen disciplines, but none of them has been brought to mind. The physics leave much to be desired, the world is boring, the races are identical to each other, and attempts to build a story around this turned out to be a failure. This arcade is very reminiscent of
