Pit of Despair: The Crew

The Crew
Open World Racing Game
1 Player (More online)
System: Xbox One
Developer: Ubisoft
Year of Release: 2014

It's disheartening when you're playing a game and in order to keep yourself plugging along you find that you completely disregard the story and characters opting, instead, to substitute your own goals. So it was that The Crew, for me, was more about finding my way home from Chicago. How I got there, I'm not certain, but the Pacific Northwest was calling to me. The journey didn't take that long, but something was off. I couldn't find home.

Full disclaimer, I've only played a few hours of it, and I'm unsure how much more, if any, time I'll give to it. Remember, the pit of despair isn't a complete dismissal of a game, just my chance to outline some gripes with something I've played recently. Oh and gripes do I have! If you aren't aware, as far as I can tell, this is Ubisoft's attempt to Assassin Creed/Far Cry-ify the racing genre. Big open map, various missions to partake in, collectibles in the form of hidden car parts and monuments to visit. The one really interesting thing is that the map is, allegedly, the entirety of the United States of America. Allegedly.

The first major problem I noticed, is admittedly minor, but on Xbox One I expect a bit more. There is no weight to these cars. Get into a car accident, it sure doesn't feel like one. Scrape a wall for any distance, a few scrapes appear (and possibly fix them self magically?). Hit a pedestrian, they glide to the side. Hell, if you hit a tree head on, but not directly in the middle your car will usually also glide to the side and barely impact your speed. What the fuck? I know this is more car porn (something I admittedly do not understand and have no interest in) than it is an accident simulator, but it goes beyond that. Hitting another car takes me out of the experience immediately, this isn't what driving feels like. They also added drivers to the cars (something Paradise avoided) but slamming into them causes the driver to... not react at all. Just like when two speeding vehicles have a head on collision!

I have to imagine when making this game with the grandiose idea of making the entire USA your personal race track they realized they needed some kind of a plot to glue the story together. I kind of hope that's the case, because if not these people are horrible writers. Basically you play a Gordon Freeman looking bloke who winds up getting framed for his brothers death, five years in jail you're set free to hunt down the man who killed him, and the corrupt FBI agent who framed you (he very clearly wipes the gun of prints before turning it over as evidence). Just like that a man who's lifestyle revolved around illegal street racing is set loose to climb the ranks of an illegal street racing gang (by earning ranks until you're worthy of the top dog's attention, because racing is life) that is also involved in most forms of crime for profit. I've literally never heard this story before. It is groundbreaking.

Worst of all, for me personally, and I know this is completely subjective, but you have to realize if I look at this game objectively it is merely mediocre, with my personal bias though. Ugh. Funny story, I had to make the drive from Chicago to Seattle twice (just 60 some miles though!). The first time I was exhausted and fell asleep repeatedly, though I did manage to make it to Seattle without any problems thanks to the incredible invincible cars that are so readily available in the US of A. It didn't save, so when I woke up again I made the trek all over again. Fun fact, the west coast is actually just Seattle, and then it immediately becomes California. One of the few things that drew me to this game was being able to explore the USA, and the part of the country I just so happen to be most familiar with is completely ripped out. I don't know if you're aware, but the Pacific Northwest is a fucking beautiful place. Surely worthy of essentially a road trip simulator. For anyone who has drive it, the Columbia River Gorge is an absolute treat to witness. But no. Cali-fucking-fornia. Utterly disheartened all of my interest drained out of my body. Thank goodness this game was free.

Ultimately this game plays like a weak Burnout Paradise for me, both are open world racing games with a myriad of challenges spread across the map. Paradise just feels better to me. In every way actually. Graphically I think it looks nicer, there is more variety in collectibles (can't really say in regards to challenges, but that doesn't matter when...). Driving felt incredibly off to me in The Crew, I wound up fishtailing everywhere. I'm not the best when it comes to racing games, but I can usually control my car around a fucking corner, unless we're talking Grand Theft Auto IV. Oh jeez. For me The Crew fails in every way possible. It goes beyond being a bad game and instead is just a droll mess, that completely forgets about the existence of two fairly gorgeous states. Clearly, this game was not made for me though, so no real surprise there. Oh and the DLC looks like shit too.