The crew review of the game. The Crew review is the best is the enemy of the good. Coast to coast

Racing games, as if in spite of their dynamics, represent almost the most conservative genre, which has remained virtually unchanged for many years. It seems that the last big revolution was back in 86, when the creators of Out Run came up with the idea of ​​hanging a camera behind the car being driven.

No, small revolutions happened every now and then. Well, let’s say it’s not a revolution, but fashion trends have blown. Here, she taught us to love rally racing and off-road racing. instilled a tender feeling for spectacular accidents, chaos and destruction. gave birth to a fashion for street racing and tuning. But most of these trends lasted no more than a couple of seasons, and the entire racing genre eventually degenerated into a conveyor belt similar to games in the . How many of you buy more than one racing game a year? Same thing. And all because sometimes we just want to drive cool cars, and gaze at the surrounding delights through the prism of next-gen - dashingly, fun, without bothering our heads with new rules.

Best the enemy of the good

And so, Ubisoft, it seems, has decided not just to launch one of the first racing games for top platforms, but to follow in the footsteps of those same trendsetters in its attempt to forever change the genre as we know it. The development of the masterpiece was entrusted to the studio Ivory Tower. Moreover, this is their first project. But it is worth considering that at one time the employees managed to work on such lines as Need for Speed, Test Drive Unlimited and V-Rally, in a word, the team is new, but experienced. And in the game we clearly see this experience. We see that it has become a chance for them to realize all their ambitions and long-held fantasies.

However, my fantasy played out, and it played out badly, weightily, like an elderly, but still flirtatious lady who had drunk too much. EVERYTHING. At first glance the main problem The Crew The problem is that the game gives us much more opportunities than we actually need. For example, a player is released into a huge open world. The geography of the game is all of America. From the gray streets of Manhattan, to the sunny beaches of Miami, through the fiery deserts of Nevada. Cool? Damn! The only problem is that simply traveling around all the states, unlocking all the cars and, in principle, trying out all the experience that can be squeezed out of the game will take so much time that, probably, leveling up the elf to level 80 will be faster and easier. But in addition to the obligatory events, there is simply an incredible number of different side-quests and secrets scattered across the map. By the way, not everything is going well with the latter either, thank God. For example, to find secret cars you just have to drive back and forth on the map and carefully respond to the radar readings, which beep according to the hot-cold principle. Only the found cars are not marked on the world map in any way. All that remains is to print it out on a printer and make notes with a marker, otherwise the sacred mission of searching will have to be passed on to your grandchildren.

Hard to learn, easy to fight

The incredibly confusing game mechanics add fuel to the fire. It would seem, why is it so complicated? Pedal to the metal - and they won’t catch up with us! Yeah, just to get started, please kindly figure out how and why to switch between characters, how to earn and what to spend skill points on, why you need to join new gangs, how to open new tasks in a new location, what are the basic principles of tuning, what are the effects of configurations cars, how and why car levels increase, what classes of cars can participate in certain types of races, why there are two types of currency in the game at once, why the hell you can’t catch a friend online... All this is INCREDIBLY LOADING. Moreover, most of these frills are frankly unnecessary, and due to the complexity of the interface, all this micromanagement can cause almost physical pain. Be mentally prepared to open the map, teleport to the “base”, look for the necessary menu item with the profiles of gang members - and all this in order to increase the car’s handling by 1%.

The problem with honest money is that it is difficult to earn - profits are low... However, we will now explain about the two currencies. One is the usual in-game money, given for winning races and completing tasks, everything is simple here. But the second one... If you are an ardent fan of free2play mobile games, then you probably already guessed what we are talking about. Yes, yes, you are offered to buy the second currency for quite real money. Of course, with this monetization model comes fancy pricing. For example, a spoiler can cost 2,000, and a tiny sticker the size of a fist can cost 40,000. But what prices are consistently high for is brand new “horses”. It’s logical that when you arrive in a new city, the first thing you’ll want to do is visit the local dealer and update your fleet. But there’s a good chance you’ll succeed – the money in your account will be 2-3 times less than the cheapest nag costs, unless you saved on upgrades and repairs.

Money is not mushrooms - you can find it even in winter

Also, by the way, a strange and most likely rudimentary solution. At the end of the race, you are offered to repair the car for N amount. Well, yes, we crashed a couple of times - that was the case. But the car is running and in perfect working order, why, one might ask, spend virtual money? “To quickly start spending real money,” he grins. Ubisoft.

However, it is assumed that you can earn this very second currency in multiplayer. And here it is - the main feature The Crew, that's what it all started for. Within one global map unite players from all over the world and give the opportunity to form gangs, organize single and team “battles”, play PvP and PvE. At any time, you can contact gamers who are passing somewhere nearby and arrange a race; you don’t even need to leave the “single” for this. But even here, be prepared that you won’t be able to “get the hang of” how everything works here right away. For example, in The Crew there is no common lobby. You can consider each location as a separate server. Are you and your friend lucky to be in different countries? So someone will have to take a ride. But the main problem is not this, but the fact that finding a company is not so easy. You can wait 20 minutes while the game tries to gather players for your race - and there is no guarantee that your wait will be rewarded.

And it seems that the whole game is such a huge array of incomprehensible and complex decisions. But once you delve into them, understanding comes. Do you know The Crew– this is not racing in its purest form. This is a timid attempt to create in a world of roaring engines and burnt rubber. That’s why, if you really love fast cars and the romance of the roads, you will turn a blind eye to the traffic that appears in front of the player’s nose, to the rear-view mirrors in which nothing is reflected, to the incredibly confusing interface and game mechanics that require lengthy study. You will close your eyes and be fascinated by watching your experience bar grow, painstakingly filling your garage with new models, paying real money, grinding again and again and - most importantly - hanging out online at night. Because for all its shortcomings, The Crew is much more than a racing game. It's a whole world for those who understand. That is why, despite the seemingly devastating review, we give this game a good rating. In advance. Because the journalist's heart tells him that The Crew in its current form is only the beginning of a long story.

We almost forgot to talk directly about the race. They are dashing and fun, yes.

We wind thousands of miles across the virtual United States, once again we are surprised by the scale of the game and try to get used to the sight of off-road supercars

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Two months ago, at IgroMir 2014, a representative Ivory Tower he said that it took the team about five years to complete the game. Apparently, the developers spent most of their time recreating a web of roads, fields, cities, mountains, forests, farms - everything that is found in almost the vast territory of the United States. Here you need about an hour and a half of real time to get from one corner of the map to another, and to get one of the “achievements” you need to drive five thousand miles (about eight thousand kilometers) without changing your car.

Everything speaks of gigantism and incredible scope. Forget about: her tropical island Compared to the territory, it’s like a coin next to a sewer hatch. Once in starting Detroit, you can start by completing tasks and exploring the city. Or you can open the map, place a target designator somewhere in the southwest, in the Los Angeles area, and get ready for a real trip. Highways, gravel roads with cows roaming the roads, big cities, gorges, tunnels - what’s there! I have to give it back Ivory Tower due: the developers’ territory turned out to be surprisingly large and diverse.

And here comes the second coolest moment after, in fact, the impression of the size of the locations. We can drive not only on the roads, but also anywhere we please. Roughly speaking, you can get from Miami to Las Vegas even diagonally. The only obstacles will be rivers, lakes and reinforced concrete fences of highways, which, however, are relatively rare. Otherwise, nothing limits us in the style of movement. When you realize the true scale of The Crew, you feel uneasy: there are five megacities alone, and they are recreated in quite detail, with key landmarks and buildings. It is impossible to call cities “living” even if one wants to. There are practically no pedestrians, little traffic, although this is even good - otherwise it would be very difficult to complete the races. Megacities serve solely as decorations. Large, beautiful in places, but dead.

It is probably assumed that the players will breathe life into the world of the project. After all, it’s a full-fledged MMO race, as the developers position their brainchild. It is designed for a long passage, teaming up, battles between rival parties, completing tasks together, increasing in levels, searching for rare parts... In general, everything that is in any or, only adjusted for a very real scene and automobile subject. It’s quite difficult to comprehend this at first, but we really have before us a race with all the attributes of MMO projects. For example, car upgrades gradually raise the level of the vehicle: a sports gearbox will give +3 points, and stronger brakes will give +5. Upgrading cars opens up access to more difficult races.

The player himself also has a level that increases as he completes numerous tasks. If the number is lower than acceptable for the quest, please gain experience and only then start the mission. In general, if you do everything story missions and do not disdain additional ones, then the current level will more or less correspond to what is required for a specific assignment. But in the future, around the twentieth level, you will have to specifically perform monotonous side missions to gain experience: jump to the maximum distance, go around the gate, reach maximum speed, and others. As an alternative, there are PVP races, which award a decent amount of experience points.

Additional tasks are generously scattered along the roads, but they are often repeated. Doing them on purpose is quite boring, but they help kill time during a long trip. Let's say you have to drive a hundred kilometers - no matter how you look at it, it's pretty monotonous. And then one task comes across, then another. Unfortunately, while creating an excellent area, the developers did not add enough entertainment for the player. There are not enough little things like travel companions, accidents, road repairs and at least some natural disaster. Everything is very ordinary: traffic cars are driving somewhere into the distance, we look at beautiful sunsets and sunrises and drive towards our destination. At the same time, during the races you can see rescue operations with helicopters and rushing ambulances, but the problem is that these events occur according to scripts, and not randomly.

Despite the MMO genre, and even racing, a completely coherent plot was revealed. This is a cliché from the first to the last task, but the very presence of the story is already commendable. The main character, a street racer, has his brother killed, as a result we find ourselves under the hood of the FBI and work undercover: we infiltrate the trust of gangs of street racers and learn valuable information, and then hide them behind bars. You shouldn't expect colorful characters and unexpected twists. The maximum you will get is a short video before the mission, and then another race.

We change cars like gloves due to the alternating types of tasks. Either on rough terrain, or on asphalt, or all at once - one car is in no way suitable for such purposes. Or rather, one modification of the car. The fact is that for each car there are five options for different races. So don’t be surprised by the spare tire on the roof and massive plastic skirts on the “lifted” Porsche Cayman, which crushes sunflowers in the field with off-road tires and jumps over potholes.

And in five minutes we may well find ourselves behind the wheel of a beautiful Ferrari 458 Italia and fleeing along a six-lane highway from the police. By the way, chases and pursuits are the worst element in. The “catch-up” turned out to be unexpectedly difficult. How, pray tell, can ordinary Ford police sedans overtake the same Ferrari taking off? And not just catch up, but noticeably poke him in the rear bumper. This, if anything, while the supercar is racing at speeds of under 300 km/h. Your pursuers will not lag behind you anywhere: everything that your car can do, so can the enemy carts. Fields, forests, back streets of cities - they will follow you everywhere. It is difficult to escape from the police, and the choice of car for the chase decides little. The situation is the same with missions in which you need to catch up with a car and crash it. The first time, without knowing the enemy's route, it is very, very difficult to complete the task.

Modifications only change the appearance of the vehicle. At least, it was not possible to feel the difference in control. In addition, not all improvements are available immediately, which is understandable: the game requires a long playthrough. So, to get the racing and rally pack you must have high level. But there are a lot of external changes here, as long as there is enough money for them. Wheels, bumpers, different interior trims, vinyls, a bunch of colors. In a multiplayer game, everyone wants to stand out, and the developers have provided this opportunity.

It turned out to be a fresh and original race that feels good in the MMO genre. At the same time, it has a bunch of problems, ranging from weak graphics and rare slowdowns (on PS4), resulting in a dead world and monotonous races, even despite their number. Ivory Tower I spent many years on such a large project, and some of the disadvantages can be ignored. Now it’s too early to talk about success or failure: it is unknown whether the players will remain in the world of the project. If the developers continue to work on improvements and adding content, it will live.

The most affordable way to travel through the USA by car and visit the largest cities in America

At first it seemed like a very intriguing idea - the first since Motor City Online(and much less sensational) full-fledged network race with a huge world, emphasis on co-op and socialization. Also from people who had a hand in and Test Drive Unlimited.

But it turned out... strange. It is difficult to understand why numerous beta testing cycles were needed - almost all problems The Crew, noted then, remain relevant now.

Gone in half an hour

The beginning The Crew very reminiscent of the intro Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2005: the main character was framed, and now he is forced, at the instigation of the FBI, to infiltrate an illegal group of racers that actually controls the transport network of the United States. By completing tasks, we slowly level up and climb up the “rating table”, watching along the way the development of a formulaic drama, in order to eventually get to the main villains and bring justice.

But history plays a secondary role here - the emphasis is on the online component. "Under the hood" The Crew hides a classic MMORPG with all its pros and cons. Only instead of elves there are cars, and instead of armor and swords there are spare parts.

The similarity with typical MMOs is especially noticeable in the structure of progress - we complete “quests” in one location, move to another, and repeat the cycle. And all this time, other players are skating with you, doing the same thing. Most cars in The Crew are quite expensive, so you either have to complete the same missions of the same type over and over again for money, or buy in-game currency for “real money”.

The main character looks like a very famous drug lord. Say my name!	There are interactive elements on the tracks - for example, this crane, which at the most inopportune moment drops a heavy container onto the road.

American dream

But The Crew far from hopeless. It’s worth saving up for cars at least for the interesting customization system: if you want and have the necessary parts, you can make, for example, an armored SUV from the nimble Porsche GT 911. The only pity is that the car park is not very extensive.

The stories that the game will allow you to travel literally the entire territory of the United States (albeit on a reduced scale) turned out to be true. Megacities, forests, snow-capped mountains, white beaches of Miami, swamps of Louisiana, deserts of Nevada, green valleys and meadows of California - all this diversity can be explored far and wide.

Each region differs in the type of tracks and the range of cars available for purchase. In the central part of America, it is better to use and buy SUVs, since the roads here are mostly unpaved, full of potholes and hills, so it is better not to drive a Lambo here. But in large cities like New York or Chicago, fast supercars are just the thing.

Thus, in different locations you can improve certain classes of cars, unlocking new spare parts and available models.

For each completed task, you receive new spare parts, thanks to which the level of the car increases and new races open up.

World The Crew not only big, but, more importantly, alive. Pedestrians walk the streets, NPC cars get into accidents, causing traffic jams, planes land and take off at airports, and proud eagles soar in the skies over Nevada. To the intersection of the entire map The Crew diagonally takes approximately fifty minutes of real time. It's a lot.

Journey to the West

For the sake of experiment, we decided to organize a full-scale motor rally across the USA. GPS plotted the route from the extreme northeastern point North America to Los Angeles, and now I get to drive across the country in my brand new Camaro.

Passed Salt Lake City. Thank God the autobahn was clear.

As I was entering Nevada, some guy (or girl) in a Challenger caught up with me and let me know with a long horn that he wanted to compete. Well, let's fight. There's nothing else to do in the desert anyway.

We arrived in Las Vegas. That guy in the Challenger still overtook me and turned south a couple of minutes ago, but the race turned out to be fun.

My route through California lies through Sequoia National Park. I spent ages following the blue NPC Ford. Every single one of the tourist sedans obeys the speed limit, and trying to overtake them is more expensive.

Got to Los Angeles. The sun is beating down mercilessly and there is a traffic jam at the entrance. A group of racers just drove past me, followed by about forty patrol cars. I recognize the city of angels!

Wrong turn

But all the joy of exploration is spoiled by the failed mechanics. The physics of the cars and the controls are depressing: the cars behave like oak irons glued to the road, which is felt in every turn and every maneuver. You don’t really want to delve into the designer and study an interesting configuration system when you understand that when you leave the garage, you will have to control the bulky, clumsy colossus again. After the recent Forza Horizon 2 It’s impossible to look at this without tears.

Also in The Crew for some reason there is a damage system that does not affect anything except appearance cars. Scratches and dents miraculously disappear after some time - the cars here, it turns out, regenerate.

We're running away from the cops. So far it's not working out very well.

The Crew is very far from its competitors.");" style="width:318px;">
The game has a view from the interior, but in terms of detail The Crew very far from competitors.	You can take any car for a test drive before purchasing.

Added to this is the brutal AI. Even if you are speeding along the highway at a speed of up to 300 km/h, during a chase the cops can easily catch up with you, give you a good “bump” a couple of times and take you into a neat “box” in a couple of seconds. If you stop it, it’s a disaster, it’s almost impossible to escape. Hello again to physics - move someone else's car from its place in The Crew It's still a problem.

Moreover, the AI ​​is not above obvious cheating - for example, opponents can re-enter the track after an accident a couple of hundred meters ahead of you. And even if you are participating in a race in a top-end car, and low-level Nissans are against you, you will fight on equal terms. What then is the point in developing and searching for new cars, other than for the sake of beauty, is not clear.

Adding to the happiness is the interface, overloaded with assorted menus, inconvenient navigation through them and antediluvian graphics. In terms of detail and overall picture quality The Crew reminds me rather a lot good game for PS Vita than an expensive AAA project for current generation consoles. And yes, kudos to online roots: The Crew requires a constant connection to the network, and if there is the slightest problem, you can say goodbye to the progress in the current race and enjoy the view of the main menu.

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Behind The Crew It's a shame. It would seem that now, when the fashion for co-op, multiplayer and huge worlds dominates the industry, such a game would easily achieve success. But Ubisoft failed to cope with the task: the beauty of a large, diverse, spectacular North America is undermined by artificially delayed development, worthless driving mechanics and AI opponents who compensate for the lack of skill with cheating.

Just waiting for the next one Need for Speed: already from the reboot it was clear that EA was also moving in the direction of an online “social race”. Well, to the owners Xbox One there is nothing to worry about at all - they have a wonderful Forza Horizon 2.

I would like to start my review of The Crew not with the traditional and tedious introductory paragraph, which will describe which studio worked on the game, a story about its past projects and something else like that, but with impressions. The Crew is simply a storehouse of impressions and generally resembles an encyclopedia dedicated to the USA. For example, I had absolutely no idea that near Miami there are such colorful swamps that are so nice to drive an SUV through. Later I remembered that I had seen these places, like many others, in a bunch of American travel films. Now everyone who has bought or will buy The Crew will have the opportunity to take a virtual tour of interesting places USA, you can do this quite easily and playfully. I want to pay tribute in advance to the game designers who managed to charm the player and give the racers the opportunity to visit the most colorful places in America.

Well, now it’s time to come down to earth and dismantle The Crew to its bones. You take on the role of Alex Taylor, a street racer who loves to torment cops, dragging them into yet another chase and leaving them with nothing. Alex's brother is the head of a huge group of racers called "5-10". These bandits make money from everything: smuggling, street racing, theft and much, much more. Alex is tired of racing alone, and he decides to become part of this big network, after which he immediately loses his brother, who is killed in front of our hero. After several years in prison, Zoe, an FBI agent, comes to Alex, wanting to expose her colleagues covering up participants 5-10. To do this, you need to infiltrate the gang and grow from an ordinary six to the right hand of Razor - the leader of the group. The path will be short and thorny, and Alex will have to travel the United States from East to West and from North to South.

The game is divided into five zones: Midwest, East Coast, South, Mountain States and West Coast. We will have to go through them in the order listed. Along the way, Alex will visit: Chicago, Detroit, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and a bunch of little-known cities. He will have to overcome a variety of natural landscapes: swamps, deserts, plains, forests, and finally salt marshes. Throughout the entire game, my eye never got tired, because it didn’t have to look at the same picture all the time. During your travels, America will surprise you and present you with new beauties. And this became the most memorable part of the game for me.

Throughout the journey you will be accompanied by an interesting story. In principle, it could already be seen in several parts of Need for Speed ​​and in the films of the Fast and the Furious series, but for some reason such a light narrative fits perfectly here. In addition, it is the plot that will give incentive to study the United States of America and make you drag from point “A” to point “B”. There are few types of tasks: win a race, catch up and crash an opponent’s car, meet the allotted time, deliver the car with the least damage, evade the police. There are also quite unusual tasks like: defeat your opponents in supercars while driving an SUV. I will explain the delicacy of the situation: the first ones reach speeds of up to 400 kilometers per hour, and your car, at best, up to 230. To win such races, you will have to cut corners in every possible way, go into the wilds, that is, to places where a supercar would never go in its life. . At the end of the game, however, it becomes somewhat sad that during this entire 12-hour dashing action game there was not a single shootout.

Story events are not the only thing the game has to offer. The Crew will have to start on a weak street car, which, of course, needs to be prepared for new battles through many improvements. But here's an interesting thing - parts that increase the power of your car cannot be bought in a store. They must be earned by participating in challenges scattered throughout the map. What’s nice is that improving a car in this way is suddenly unobtrusive. I received new details simply by driving around the map and admiring its beauty. Having seen the test, I began it. Realizing that I could complete it better, I pressed the restart button, realizing that the task was beyond my capabilities, I simply drove on. No one will force you to improve your car on purpose. Just keep in mind that the lower the level of your car, the more difficult the next mission will be for you. More difficult, but more passable.

As the pilot gains a level, he will receive skill points, which can be spent at headquarters to reduce the cost of various spare parts, increase nitro power, increase experience gained, and much more. At any time, the accumulated skill points can be reset and redistributed. For this, however, you will have to pay a small amount of in-game currency. I write in-game, since there are also funds purchased for real money. These are the so-called “Team Points”. After joining the group (I will return to this later), Alex will receive 100,000 team points. I recommend spending them wisely, since you will not receive any more team points - they can only be purchased for rubles. Therefore, I recommend saving this amount for buying a cool car or buying skill points (the latter can only be done with team points).

If The Crew simply has a huge choice of where to go and what to see, then with cars the situation is somewhat sadder. There are about 30 cars, which is somehow not enough for a racing game. However, there is a point that many vehicles can be changed beyond recognition. The Crew has the ability to turn an ordinary sports car into a car for street racing, an off-road or rally car, into a real supercar, as well as a racing car. And all this from one car! For example, my Nissan 370Z, which I drove through the entire game, looks simply unrecognizable in the “Rally” and “Racing” modifications! If you put them side by side, you won’t immediately be able to tell that they are based on the same car.

Until now I haven’t said anything about physics or controls. I'll start with the last one. The controls in the game are specific and quite simple. You instantly get used to it and master it, and soon you even begin to criticize it for its simplicity. Only the sports car will have to be truly curbed and racing car. The latter has the most specific controls, by adopting which you can firmly establish yourself in the first place of the winning podium. As for the SUV and the rally, these cars are the same in mastering, except that the rally mod maintains a stable 200 kilometers/hour on any off-road.

What else I would like to criticize The Crew for is their level system. The maximum level of 50 is taken very quickly, this can be done already halfway through the campaign. The point here is that you get experience for literally everything: you completed a mission - experience, completed a test - experience, overtook a car, even just one, but - experience. After that, it’s kind of sad to see that your level bar no longer grows. Somehow I got used to the fact that after beating the game and doing a little grind along the way, you are far from the last level and have something to strive for.

The highlight of the game will definitely be the ability to complete missions in the company of friends, who instantly turn into your partners. This makes it much more fun to complete missions to destroy cars and avoid being chased. In the latter case, only the head of the gang escapes from the police, and everyone else must ride alongside and drive away the cops. In regular races, the goal is still for at least one member of the group to finish first. In this case, the mission is considered completed for everyone. The only strange thing is that both you and your friends will play as Alex Taylor, the story campaign is also designed for a lone wolf. Who all these racers are, why they are clones of the main character and help is a mystery.

The saddest thing comes when you decide to go to PvP races. More Alex Taylors await you here. I want to emphasize: there is no character customization in The Crew, even in online battles. The only thing that has to stand out is the car, since there are so many options to customize it. Choose a color, a vinyl sticker, choose a cool hood cover, choose a bumper, side mirrors, interior color and install a more fashionable spoiler. What you can love about The Crew is precisely the possibility of good old-fashioned car customization, which racing fans are already desperately hungry for.

The Crew has a pretty nice picture, but it doesn’t smell like a new generation of graphics. The game designers did their best, and the natural landscapes here look very beautiful, but not high-tech. But the urban jungle is inferior in detail, probably to the same GTA 5 in the version for the PlayStation 3. The musical component is presented in the form of three dozen compositions, settled on several radio stations. Available in rock, indie, electronic and... classical music. The latter is a real savagery for me, since I simply can’t imagine how you can have fun racing with this.

If someone decides to take platinum in The Crew, then they will have to spend a lot of time on it. The game will have to be played through twice. The second time you will need to achieve a platinum result in all story missions. It is also necessary to hack all satellite stations. Unlike the series Assassins Creed, here this is not some kind of tedious activity, but quite useful. Thanks to this, you can quickly learn about the location of parts for the secret car (for which you can recreate a trophy) and various tests that will help improve the car. Well, I also can’t help but mention the trophy, to win which you need to complete a race lasting three and a half hours in the company of one or more people. By the way, the game has the following trophy: “Spend 24 hours in a team.” In fact, it is not difficult, although it is time-consuming, the problem here is different. The Crew somehow carelessly keeps statistics and shows, for example, that I played it for 0 hours and 0 minutes. The statistics are reset to zero with each restart of the game, which makes it very, very difficult for trophy hunters to obtain a number of trophies. We can only hope that this will finally be fixed in the coming patches.

The review was written based on the disc version of the game for PS4, provided to our editors by the developers.

Company Ubisoft at the end of the year it fired a salvo from all guns at once. Several games were released: , and . Standing apart from this list is a new IP in the racing genre - which was presented with fanfare at E3 2013, then postponed, and now, finally, appearing on store shelves.

The game was developed Ubisoft Reflections and company Ivory Tower. The latter arose in 2007 and consisted of immigrants Eden Games, which are known to fans of duology racing and PS1- versions Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed.

At the core The Crew lies the story of a former street racer who is incredibly similar to Gordon Freeman (except that the glasses have changed a little, and the hairstyle and beard have become more fashionable). His brother, who, by the way, does not look like him at all, is killed in the prologue of the game, framing the protagonist. The accusation and several years behind bars - all this remains behind the scenes, since it turns out to be background history.

The action begins to actively develop around the group “ 510 ” - street racers who don’t put their words under the hood. These people are ready to threaten, kill and smash cars if this is necessary for the prosperity of the gang. A car crime group has gained control of all major US cities. It is clear that this situation does not suit the country’s authorities, so a sexy secret service agent approaches the main character, offering to become their undercover person. Wanting to avenge his brother's death and years in prison, main character agrees and now his goal is to become the head of the gang “ 510 ”, defeating all the leaders, and at the same time feel like a detective on wheels, having found a connection with the “rats” from the agency who have been covering the group all this time.

To say that the plot is banal is to say nothing. We saw similar “moves” in “ Fast and Furious” and in single player campaigns Need For Speed(same ). But since the time E3 2013, everyone's attention was riveted by one idea - the location of the action. All America on huge map no downloads, large cities with recognizable streets and monuments. Realists said that Ubisoft It’s unlikely that they’ll be able to do everything very reliably; they’ve set the bar too high for themselves. What happened in the end? Let's figure it out.

The first city, Detroit, is almost extinct in reality, but in the game it appears to us, one might say, as polished as it was during the heyday of auto production. Having completed several not very diverse tasks, gaining the trust of the leader of the local “ 510 ” and once we got into the group, we moved to St. Louis. At this moment you understand that there can be no question of authenticity. The distance between St. Louis and Detroit is almost 750 kilometers, but in the game there are only 20. The path from New York to Los Angeles is 4000 kilometers, but in The Crew limited to 120 kilometers of winding roads and changing landscapes. Just for fun, we drove the last route, spending about 40 minutes of game time on it. It would seem not bad for games, and the local world can be called truly huge, but the scale of 1:30 is hardly comparable to the big words from the announcement of the game about the map of all of America. Moreover, the chosen proportion not only reduces the distances between points, but also the cities themselves. IN New York, for example, only a couple of blocks separate Central Park from Times Square, instead of 10-15 “blocks”. The scale can still be accepted, but it is impossible to accept the many shortcomings.

For example, every car, of which there are about sixty in the game, has a view from the cockpit, which is very commendable, but the mirrors “don’t work”, they are dead. And we're talking about racing game in 2014 on new generation consoles! The cabin is a separate issue. It would seem, how can you screw up the gear shift? Just! The animation starts a moment after you hear the sound of the gearbox going up or down. As a result, it looks like the player is tapping the steering wheel. At the same time, the gearshift shift paddles remain motionless. The on-board computer also does not work in the cabin, which can be classified as an unpleasant detail.