The Crew is reminiscent of a classic werewolf from teary movies / TV series for girls. During the day - a beautiful, with pumped-over "graphics" torso, a fun and carefree race. At night - a smelly and flea ghoul trying to suck blood money out of a player and mocking him during every second race. For the first three to four hours, the online game is desperate to please. But then, abruptly and without warning, he jerks the brake valve: and now, dear, you will see me naked! And this is a terrible sight.
The main achievement of the online game is its world. From Los Angeles to the sultry south, from New York to snow-capped mountain passes, The Crew features every major region of the United States. The trip from one point of the map to another can take more than an hour, and during this time you will see both Yellowstone and its hot springs, and the never sleeping Las Vegas. You will drive along numerous rivers and lakes, as well as small, godforsaken farms. If you have never been to the United States, you can get at least a postcard picture of the country.
I remember the first time I entered a mountainous region. My street car immediately began to wear from side to side - accelerating to 220 kilometers per hour was a mistake. Every now and then some moose ran out of the forest and literally threw themselves under the wheels. I climbed a steep serpentine road, drove up to the roadside fenced with a metal bumper, looked at the opening panorama - beautiful, damn it! It's a pity that after that I had to go back to the abandoned storyline campaign halfway.
And then the werewolf woke up. The plot campaign tells the story of Alex Taylor, who goes to jail for allegedly killing his brother. He is pulled out of the camp by a nice little FBI agent who offers freedom for cooperation: you help to destroy the criminal organization of riders 510 from the inside - you get a new passport and a chance to start writing your life story from scratch. Branches of 510 are located in all major cities of the United States, so Alex, along with other team members, will have to go around them all, simultaneously participating in illegal races, avoiding police pursuit and even "killing" opponents.
The other day I stopped by to just ride around the world, and in response - a connection error, the server is unavailable. After an hour, the situation has not changed. After two, I was still allowed into the online game.
I want to make a reservation right away: you can play alone, but The Crew requires a constant connection to the Network. The other day I stopped by to just ride around the world, and in response - a connection error, the server is unavailable. After an hour, the situation has not changed. After two, I was still allowed into the game. In addition, even if you go through the game alone, then other racers will coexist next to you - and sometimes, bastards, ram for fun. However, in the end, out of boredom, I did the same thing, so it's not for me to judge my “colleagues”.
On the other hand, if you want to find players for multiplayer races, then there are problems: the average waiting time for a group gathering in the first days reached fifteen to twenty minutes. And it doesn't matter when you entered the game - the situation did not change either in the morning, or during the day, or at night. The latency was gradually reduced, but many still complain about the duration of the connections.
Another problem follows from this - the search for money. The Crew has an interesting vehicle development system. You buy a base car, and then you can "upgrade" it to the level of a street car, SUV, supercar, rally or race car. Each step costs more and more money. And the basic models are expensive too. At least those offered by local dealers starting in the middle of the game.
I thought: if you complete all the storyline tasks, as well as additional ones, then not enough will be enough for all top models. If you want to expand your park, look for money. The only chance to earn them is to actively "blur" multiplayer races. But for this you still need to find participants. The authors of The Crew offer an alternative - to buy premium currency for real money. I am not against the shareware model, but not if I have already paid for the game. And if in Unity you are offered to buy some scarves and other elements of "decor" for real money - this is one situation that has a right to exist. In The Crew, however, we have to "pump" additional funds into the game just for the sake of a comfortable game.
As a result, most of the time I spent in single races with opponents controlled by artificial intelligence. Frankly, the ghoul drank a lot of blood. Especially on killer missions. This is a type of duel racing in which you have to destroy the enemy's car with your car in a few minutes. Firstly, the enemy's car is always more powerful than yours, so you can catch him only ahead of time. Secondly, during each such race, the enemy behaves exactly the same. For the sake of interest, I went through the same race several times at first: the trajectory of the enemy's movement does not change. Therefore, the only rational decision - for the first time just to ride on the tail of the target, see where and when it will turn, restart the mission and "kill" him in a minute.
Roughly the same problems arise in pursuit races, when cops or representatives of another criminal group rush after Alex. Their cars always go faster, they are much more maneuverable. But here's a riddle: at some point they seem to let you go, give you a head start in a few seconds, allowing you to hide from the radar screens. I spent several hours on one of these missions in order to understand the principle by which the intelligence of the pursuers works. It turned out that there are invisible borders, leaving for which the command is triggered - "we slow down, guys, we give him a chance to hide."
This is what catches the eye. But there are deeper problems with artificial intelligence as well. For example, if the enemy crashed into a tree or you deliberately knocked him off the track, clearing the way to victory, he will definitely appear in front of you. Sometimes - literally out of thin air. At such moments, to the abusive accompaniment, you either twist the steering wheel in the other direction, or urgently brake so as not to fly off the track. During the campaign, I came across this five or six times, but only because over time I learned to predict the crazy antics of the local artificial intelligence. But should I have foreseen this?
But I'll try to drop all of the above and answer the key question: what's wrong with The Crew? I have been thinking about this for several days and came to the following conclusion: apart from the world in this online game, nothing works the way it was originally intended. Let's say each car has a level that grows as the level of the hero increases and new parts are installed. But enemies, whose car level is lower by 60-80-100 points, still accelerate faster, and their nitro is "thermonuclear", and the braking system works more smoothly. Or here is a "closed" map, for fast movement along which we first have to drive on all roads. But it doesn’t work - it’s enough to use the "teleport", and in ten to twelve quick movements you will open a new region. And after that, you won't have to travel from one mission to another: you can start directly from the global map. I do not consider this a disadvantage, but why then initially close the map from fast travel, if this prohibition is bypassed in 10 seconds?
The Crew is not a failure. It's just not right here. All wrong.