Ubisoft’s racing franchise The Crew has always had the eagerness of a younger sibling. It’s undeniably got the spark for it, offering up a genuinely impressive variety of vehicles, and has its heart in the right place with its earnest celebration of idealised racing culture. But just like that little sibling, it just as often trips over itself trying to do the cool things it watches its older brothers and sisters do in the genre. With The Crew Motorfest, that same energy still radiates, but in growing older and wiser the latest entry has started to find its own sense of self, even if the echoes of its contemporaries are still evident in its style.
We recently had the chance to go hands-on with about half an hour of Motorfest thanks to Ubisoft and got a taste of a few of the racing modes available to players when the game launches later this year. During our preview session, we got to play several different races via the game’s exceptionally perky opening act before being thrown into a mode of our choice for a couple of races from both early and late game. Across these modes, we saw a glimpse of what Motorfest is trying to offer up, a mix of unique choices and genre staples that meld the slick bombast of the Forza Horizon series with the ambitions of Ubisoft’s racing darling.
Motorfest continues the expansive open-world approach from The Crew 2, this time taking racers to the picturesque islands of Oauh, Hawaii. Here, the Motorfest event has effectively consumed the land itself, crafting an all-inclusive race course that lets players race across vast stretches of road, jungle, beaches, and harsh volcanic slopes. It’s a gorgeous playground from what we saw, perfectly capturing the postcard interpretation of the natural beauty of Hawaii. The game also splices in some absurd iconography from Tokyo for one of the new racing modes that celebrate the history and aesthetics of the Japanese car scene by erecting recreations of the city on the island.
At a glance, the different racing modes, called Motorfest Playlists, all felt distinct and relatively enjoyable, though your personal preference for race types will obviously impact which ones you gravitate toward. There were a couple of more standard racing experiences, general open-world city loops and a tighter, track-based mode that emulated the circuit experience. The latter was more fun than I had anticipated, requiring me to strategically choose time for pit stops to get my tyres fluffed (I’m not a car guy, I’m terribly sorry). Motorfest is also celebrating the legacy of the Lamborghini in a dedicated mode that sees players behind the wheel of a variety of iconic luxury cars in flat-out speed races. Again, not a car guy, but the craft that’s been put into these models is evident and the roar of those engines as you careen past the competition is a fun thrill.
Where Motorfest starts to get more interesting is its more esoteric modes though. It very much seems like a game developed with a deep love of cars in mind, and offers up a vintage vehicle mode that allows players to drive much older, classic models without the fancy additions of boosts and power steering. This race was the trickiest of my time with the game, forcing me to be more considerate with my speed and steering as I couldn’t rely on the stunts that newer models allowed me to abuse (my precious drift). This also pushed my use of the game’s rewind feature, which allows you to push time back to a certain point in the race and continue from then on out. Where the other races felt a little too easy, I was pleased to see this vintage mode push my skills.
The Crew Motorfest is a celebration of cars from all eras
Elsewhere, the offroad mode offers up freeform racing across incredible vistas with only the loosest possible checkpoints to keep the race going. In an open canopy Jeep, I flew off mud-soaked hills and crashed into dense foliage, skidding around opponents and praying to whatever god there is that my wheels would stay even a little stuck to the ground. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to play more than a few minutes of this mode but it is burned into my mind as the most fun of the available race options. The freedom promised is ambitious and given that the developers have confirmed more than just cars in the full release, I can’t wait to see how loose we’ll be able to get in this mode.
The bulk of my time with Motorfest was spent with its Japanese-love-letter mode though, in which your fully customisable character is initiated into a street racing crew and needs to prove their mettle in a series of escalating races. It’s a strange premise, bolting Japanese iconography onto the island, but the celebration of these specific brands and builds is a welcome addition to the race rotation. It’s a little heavy-handed, what with its neon-light dragons and hypersaturation, but the races are pretty enjoyable from what I saw. These are more focused on city streets, drifting and choke points that the game’s built-in driving guidance line will warn you about by changing from green to red (this can also be switched off for the purists out there).
Broadly speaking, and with an admittedly small sample size, Motorfest controls well. Depending on the chosen mode you’re more likely to get either a more arcadey or sim-style feel out of the cars, with off-road and circuit representing the extremes from what I can tell. Playing with a controller gave a solid sense of feedback on turns and impacts, but I’m most keen to see how the DualSense plays with adaptive triggers and acceleration. My only real concern is the difficulty; our demo was set to standard difficulty and I found almost all races a little too cruisy to win. The Tokyo tracks in particular saw me spend the last minute of the race in an unchallengeable lead.
Racing electric luxury vehicles through neon-lit spectacles is pretty fun
All of these disparate modes are tethered by the overarching Motorfest branding and signature Ubisoft Vibe. The island is overrun with precision-modelled, mid-20s Kenner dolls, each of whom will espouse the importance of racing but never at the expense of just having a good time in this beautiful paradise. I struggle to call it earnest, the majority of the true flairs of passion only found in the lovingly-crafted cars and vistas, but it’s undeniably trying for something. Whether that ends up being a “how do you do fellow racers?” moment for the game remains to be seen, but I can’t escape the feeling that the game could be much cooler if it chilled out just a little and trusted the vibes to flow naturally.
The Crew Motorfest releases on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on September 14, 2023.
