The Crew Motorfest Review – Bring Me The Horizon
The Crew Motorfest is a game that comes across a whole lot like Forza Horizon, except it also has bikes, boats and planes – and oh yes, you can also play this on a Playstation 5.
It’s still mainly a driving experience though, and its actually brought to you by a lot of people who made the grand daddy of open world driving games, Test Drive Unlimited, and in many ways feels like a bit of a spiritual successor, especially since like TDU, its also set on a condensed but jaw-dropping version of O’ahu, Hawaii.
Watch the video review or keep reading below:
A Crew-Sade
I never quite liked The Crew’s first two titles all that much. The sequel was an improvement, but they just fell a bit flat for me and the driving never felt quite right.
The Crew: Review “Mediocre gameplay prevents The Crew from being as impressive as its huge map and large list of activities”
The Crew 2: “A jack of all trades, master of none”
Under Control
No matter if I’m on a wheel or a controller, driving around in Motorfest feels great, especially as someone who likes to turn off assists and enjoy the raw handling of the cars. The team at Ivory Tower have really done a great job of making the car weight and tyre grip feel visceral and grounded, and gear shifts even feel particularly unique, especially when paired with the great sound design.
They also behave correctly. The first time I had to use a 911 in the Porsche 911 playlist I came out of a corner, feeling the weight loaded on the outside wheels and put my foot down expecting the rear-engined Porsche to provide its trademark balance and grip on the corner exit, and that’s exactly what it did. Try that in a Dodge Charger and you already know you’re going for a trip into the bushes.
It’s Tricky
The Crew Motorfest does have a few tricks of its own though, and those tricks come in the form of nitro boosting, different vehicles types like bikes, boats and planes – and even the ability to walk around in some areas. More importantly, it has fantastic playlists that provided a host of events that really focus in a specific experience, like previous decades of classics, a dive into Japanese car culture and innovation, a celebration of Porsche 911s, Open wheel racing with pit strategy, and of course, boat races, plane events and a bit more.
I found that the races themselves also had a nicer pace to them, sometimes reminding me of older Need for Speed games where it felt more like a high speed cruise through long sweeping corners rather than highly technical, tigher turns.
Written Off
It’s not all sunshine and donuts though, as there’s some room for improvement. The maps also not that big when compared to its rivals and previous titles, controls can be a bit strange at times, and it reeaaaallly does feel way too much like Forza Horizon at times. I mean like… an almost legally questionable amount – what with the young hips kids, visual style, festival setting, AI assistant… and worst of all, a system that feels like it really, really, really, wants you to considering spending extra real world money to get stuff faster. The graphics come in quality and performance modes, and while there’s no real reason to switch to 30fps for the 4K image, the performance mode is smooth but looks awfully low-res and sometimes even strangely… pixelated at times.
I honestly went into The Crew Motorfest thinking it was going to be a sort of so-so immitation of Forza Horizon – and I was wrong. As a lover of Test Drive Unlimited and Forza Horizon, it feels like my open world driving experience has come full circle.
Being available for Playstation 5 may end up being the most important feature of The Crew Motorsport. If you’re an Xbox or PC owner there’s not much here to convince you to spend full price on Motorfest when Horizon is a subscription away.
If you’re a Playstation 5 gamer feeling like they missed out on the Forza Horizon fun – The Crew Motorfest has its top down and door open, all you gotta do is hop in.
Verdict: The Crew Motorfest does feel overly familiar at times, but it has a great feel to it, and in some cases feels like a spiritual successor to Test Drive Unlimited. I went in thinking this was just going to be a Forza Horizon knock-off, but I was wrong.
