The Crew 2, 5 Years Later (Feat. Mitchell Diedrich)

Ubisoft's The Crew remains as the odd one out in the racing game landscape. The original game in 2014 was the last of an era. Gritty, dark, and unashamedly brash in its tone. 2018's The Crew 2 was a sequel in name, but switched up the series formula and mood dramatically. Did the streamlining of The Crew 2 dilute the series that we know? Or take Ubisoft's racer to new heights? Five years later, lets take an in-depth look at The Crew 2, and find out.
A massive thank you to Mitchell Diedrich for collaborating with us on this video! Please show the man some love and subscribe down below, he makes good stuff ;)
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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:18 The Crew VS The Crew 2 Featuring Mitchell Diedrich
5:49 A Stunted Campaign
9:31 Analyzing The Crew 2s Disciplines
17:33 The Crew 2s Fantastic But Flawed Vehicles
24:31 In Argument Of The Crew 2s Map
27:56 The Crew 2s Spectacular Evolution And Content Updates
37:53 A Look At Motorfest And Conclusion

[@hawken796]

Even though I'm really excited for Motorfest, I still miss the identity of the first crew, a serious tone, long campaign, unique missions, cops and a plethora of events to do. I wish they retained that identity instead of going the festival way.

[@Otherface]

Same here. I'm really excited for Motorfest, but Tc1 was at least unique. If they ever plan on making an actual tc3, they should take inspiration from this and combine it with Motorfest handling (because let's be honest. Tc1 physics were bad)

[@PlanetThrill]

Not to mention it had the summit too, and monster trucks, so it was more of a middle ground between NFS and Forza.

[@crisschan2463]

they just copy forza now

[@themaskedwander]

That's just how Ubi is. Watch Dogs was the same at the same time. Now Ubi just go "u can't do no wrong. Let's all hold hands and sing kumbaya as we all work as a team to succeed together and leave no one behind.

[@tomasburian6550]

For me, I also appreciated the presence of real monuments / known places, which didn't make it to the sequel because of licensing. A little, almost non-important thing, but I still appreciated it a lot, as I like the idea they were trying to recreate the real world.

[@nicolasgoncalvespereira655]

Just the fact that UltraViolet made a video on a racing game already makes me more than happy. Then, came the feat with Mitchell Diedrich... I'm having a happiness overload.

[@serperior2264]

WOW!

[@CatsAreKindaCool]

Lmao fr

[@Paragleiber]

Happy to see Mitchell point out that TC2 is a festival style racing game. It was so weird to me how many people argued that The Crew is now going in the Forza Horizon direction when Motorfest was revealed, even though they clearly already did that with The Crew 2, so the thematic direction of Motorfest is not really a new thing within the franchise at all.

[@metallicafan416]

It's because they clearly copied some things. The opening song on the launch screen even sounds like FH5's. Arrow exactly the same, gates on the track exactly the same, etc. Just the truth but having said that it is different in many ways too and I'm really enjoying it

[@Paragleiber]

@@metallicafan416 Are you talking about Motorfest? I think you didn't understand my comment. I never questioned if Motorfest is similar to Horizon. Of course it is. My point is that The Crew 2 was already similar as well.

[@wydua2049]

the crew 1 has one of the most epic trailers ever made

[@serperior2264]

TRUUUUEEEEE

[@haaxxx9]

"Last Night I Heard Everything in Slow Motion" Still give me chills to this day. It was so mysterious with it's setting and music!

[@derpedfox]

As per every Ubisoft games, they invest more in the trailers and teasers rather than the game itself

[@Suprasumo93]

The Crew might not be very creativity but it's sure it's fun and I love the fact that the devs. support it for soooo long.

[@Lukas-lp2fz]

its very creative compared to forza or nfs

[@BURZT_YT]

It's way more creative compared to forza or nfs.

[@danielllitpek2014]

The devs killed helicopter disciplines because some people cried 😭 It's my absolute favourite freeroam vehicle.... (still great devs though!)

[@derpedfox]

By support you mean adding more and more paid dlc for quick money?

[@serperior2264]

@@derpedfox what paid DLC? the only paid thing in this game is the season pass, end even then all the cars in that you can still buy with in game money

[@crisscrosscruz2034]

my biggest plus when it came to the crew games was the US map i did countless trips from the keys in miami to Seattle just by driving the cars and it felt great Same with the hypercar races going from one coast to the other

[@tomasburian6550]

This is a standard I definitely appreciate. The real world actually is quite exciting and taking its parts into the game was awesome since TDU. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this trend to go on instead of making up fictional maps. I hope that one day our machines will be capable of just throwing a while country at us, real scale. I know, it sounds insane, but the way the tech is going, it is possible in the future.

[@EmirOzturk14.]

Not the collaboration we deserved but the collaboration we needed.

[@Diamond-um6mg]

I played this game heaps back in early 2019 and I got pretty far into it and unlocked the Chiron carbon edition. It was really fun and the variety was welcome. Unlocking and purchasing vehicles in that game was honestly really satisfying. It gave every car a sense of worth that Forza could never hope to achieve and the fact that they’ll allow you to import them into motorfest proves that all the more.

[@ultraviolet_channel]

That's awesome!

[@tomasburian6550]

The fact that you had to work hard for your new car and deserve it make for a much more satisfying experience.

[@therunawaykid6523]

I would say one of my favourite things about the crew 2 is the map it’s huge and there are many things to do and many vehicles to drive around it’s just so fun to go exploring, I also loved finding all the different animals and photographing them to complete challenges. Flying over the us will always be a thrill to me

[@savvysnail4020]

Looking back at The Crew 2, this game was a big 180 in terms of my interest in it. I somewhat liked it when it came out, but it felt like it was missing something, and its best features weren't being used, and this is how I felt with the first game as well. When the summit came out, that made me played the game more and to this day, in my group of friends who have the game, I always earn the most points out of all them and sometimes I pushed them to beat me. When the Motorpass came out, the interest was there for me, but it started to decline, and I do agree Season 4 was the worst, and I didn't want to play it. Then, when Season 6 came out, I came back, and now I'm back square one with this game. With TCMF releasing in a couple of months, I do hope that my interest and my relationship with TC2 can carry on into TCMF.

[@samanthasoares4806]

I've had an identical experience

[@saabaton1692]

I find the overwhelming freedom the game offers refreshing. I can race, I can do stories, or I can drive around from LA to Texas. My only slight gripe is the wonky car physics.

[@johnbarnes5823]

So true, that’s why I hope that with motorfest, we see big physics upgrades that lay a foundation for amazing feeling driving for future content. My biggest hope is that future motor fear content post year 1 usual fixes and stuff will be map expansion, so we can do some of the crew 2 style driving trips with better physics and game mechanics

[@eneix22]

Hovercrafts were insanely fun, it's confusing to handle at first but boy once you get the hang of it you can pretty much just slide the entire race Sucked that they held back on adding more races for it, really.

[@therunawaykid6523]

Yeah I love the hovercrafts as well I hope they return in motorfest

[@Canvas12]

14:29 (Gets Vietnam flashbacks of the toxic reception that NFS Unbound had when it was first announced)

[@SidWaj]

Loved the video!

[@hmk-064]

Hi sid 😝 :b

[@serperior2264]

I somehow has a sneaking suspicion that this vid would finds it way to you 🤩

[@t.k3579]

Delighted to see you making racing games content after a while, great quality as always.

[@ultraviolet_channel]

Thanks a ton!

[@diecastreviewracing]

just to let you know, gemera is in Asphalt 9 ( 39:24) but was added into the game in late 2021. though not every player got the car (unless you had to complete the goofy syndicate event) ,other than that great video as always! I'm happy you're back at racing games retrospectives, keep it up!

[@ChlorineRaven]

My biggest complaint of The Crew 2 is restrictiveness of cars. We have summits, which are impossible to win unless you grind your life out on the game 10h/day to get golden parts, and up until a recent point we had battlepasses, until they realized the playerbase were NOT fan of that at all and just released gradually all cars to be bought in the shop anyway. Hopefully motorfest tackles this exclusivity issue.

[@sallbanjoman1790]

i love how you talk about the crew while playing Takemi's clinic music in the background from Persona 5, you deserve a like just for the music taste

[@DragonAoRazor]

I will always love The Crew for the long coast to coast races. More games should have sprint races that exceed 20 minutes

[@ultraviolet_channel]

strongly agree with this statement

[@Canvas12]

Around 22:20 to 23:28 I'm so glad you called out the annoying upgrading system that they had for this game. For me personally this is easily the worst thing about this game and it was actually the main reason why I stopped playing it 4 years ago. I'll explain why later tho. But I know people always say that the worst part about this game is the physics. And I've seen all the reasons why (at least the ones where people actually explained why it was bad rather than just complaining and bickering lol). But I still think having a terrible upgrading system is way worse than having "terrible physics" in a racing game. Because whenever it comes to racing games people like to go fast, and in order to do that they need to upgrade their cars, and if the upgrading system is terrible. Then you're gonna have a hard time tryna upgrade all your cars. I don't think things like terrible physics or a terrible story would matter anymore because at that point you're gonna spend most of your time just grinding out for parts (That's just my opinion tho). However the worst upgrading system that I have ever seen in a racing game was the "Pokémon Trading Card Upgrading System" from NFS Payback. Idk who thought that was a good idea because man that was horrendous The part where you talked about how collecting and upgrading cars gets excruciatingly annoying. I felt that one in my soul bro. Especially where you also mentioned how each car has 7 different slot parts. That's just too much for me personally. Because a few years ago I was trying to max out one of my F1 cars. And I spent a long time replaying the same race multiple times. But I never got that one last part. I think I was tryna play for like 5 hours straight. But I just gave up on the 2nd hour. And at that point I realized that trying to upgrade/max out every car that I had in the game was going to take a LONG time and I didn't want to grind anymore man! 😭And so because of that I stopped playing the game around May of 2019 and I haven't touched it since then. But as you know things change over time. I am thinking of going back into the game. I'm also thinking of replaying the old first Crew game. But I might go back to the 2nd game for mainly 2 reasons. 1) I wanna see what I missed out on cause 4 years is a pretty long time. And did they make the game better? 2) I also wanna play it to get myself hyped/ready for The Crew Motorfest. Because like I said the only issue I had with this game was its upgrading system. Everything else was fine. It wasn't perfect or anything like that. But it wasn't as bad as upgrading the cars imo. One thing I wanna see in the next game is make it to where you can just upgrade/max out your car at a garage. Or if that's too easy then at least have the races tell you which upgrades you are going to get instead of it being randomized every single time. Other than that. I enjoyed the video. I agree with almost everything you said here. And most of your hot takes and opinions are pretty spot on tbh. I can relate to most of the issues you were having with this game. Also I love the constant shade towards Forza Horizon 5 throughout the entire video 🤣. I was dying every time you called them out on something. I can tell that game didn't live up to your expectations. As it also didn't meet mines as well. Also one more thing. I noticed that for some strange reason I keep seeing a lot of toxic/rude comments for no reason. Way more than the last 2 videos you did. I'm not tryna make it a big deal or anything and I know its not my problem. But I just hate how people still act like that for no reason. I guess whenever you post a racing game video. Expect to be ambushed from both sides lol. But again great video. This was both very good and very hilarious to watch!

[@serperior2264]

yoooo thanks for the super long comment! don't worry about the recent toxicity, we've braced for it, but comments like this are what motivate us to keep going!

[@johnbarnes5823]

I’m curious, by maxing parts do you mean the good gold affixes sets, cuz I def agree it’s annoying how they will give all but one part with the affix u want, but getting just any old max parts for cars is honestly all you need, and since u can swap ur set between cars with right joystick button, I find it’s a good mix of a grind but not too long of one. Although I’m icon 1000 so that makes it wayyyyy easier I guess. On a side note, looking back I think it’s easy to forget that this game was released half a year before fh4 and at the end of fh3 lifecycle. And for back then, this game certainly blew my mind. Going from a 10 square mile map to a big expanse of the USA was insane, combined with motorbikes planes made it super fun. And considering horizon supports games for 2 years and then releases a new one, the crew 5 year life cycle combined with the fact cars and vanities transfer to the crew motorfesrt, it certainly is a breath of fresh air to not get nickel and dimmed as hard as gaming companies are doing now.

[@averagebohemian5791]

Great review, one of the best on the channel so far

[@ultraviolet_channel]

Wow, thanks!

[@benjamincamp9608]

I remember getting this game in 2018 and I remember having fun with the different variety of vehicles like cars, planes, and boats. It was fun for a month or so and then the game started to get stale after I finished the exotic/hyper car series in the story mode. The progression started to feel bland because of the story mode, too many choices in the career mode, and I already bought some of my dream cars that made me feel like there was no more reason to progress. I thought this game was ambitious with having boats and planes, but after a while I wish there were more variety with having less complex tutorials and more focus on racing. I hope The Crew Motorfest is fun, because there is a lot interesting content, like Oahu, gas and electric vehicles, words about improvements to the driving physics, event variety, etc.

[@predator_7468]

26:19 Why you gotta do my hometown like that

[@ultraviolet_channel]

IM SORRY THE MEME OPPORTUNITY WAS TOO GOOD

[@predator_7468]

@@ultraviolet_channel It's all good, It was pretty funny lol

[@Benzo97]

Bro I feel the exact same way with the hovercraft events! They always felt much more involved for me. The monster truck events (especially the one in FH5) I pretty much always avoided and therefore, didn't finish The Crew 2. Some bits of the game was fun and others... Meh. Any air events I pretty much did 2 of each (racing, aerobatics, etc) and then never touched again. So much potential in this franchise that I hope motorfest will bring. I am very skeptical but I hope it can prove me wrong. It's awesome to see how much this channel is growing and I still think it's very underrated. 10+ minutes of this is usually something that makes my short attention span click away just a few minutes in... That you somehow effortlessly manage to keep my interest all the way through.

[@therunawaykid6523]

Man I love the hovercrafts I hope they return in motorfest, being able to drive on land and go straight into the water will always be so much fun to me

[@andipajeroking]

I get what you pointing at, you just drag race against a timer. In Pro street, you were racing against other drivers, with very different cars, that had different times every run. That was awesome.

[@censoredialogue]

at first i didn’t know who was popping up in my sub box and then i realized you changed your chanel name! happy to see you’re covering other games but still covering racing games too ❤❤❤

[@ultraviolet_channel]

Thank you so much!!

[@KurokishiOcelot]

Another banger, glad to see you guys cover a racer. I stopped playing racing games for a while with my last being Forza Motorsport 4 and TC2 was my first racing game since. I have a soft spot for it since it let me warm back up to the genre with it's "a little bit of everything" approach. I recently picked up the first Crew and immediately I understood the criticisms. Shoot off atmosphere alone I like 1 more than 2 already. But 2 still does something for me that I just don't get out of FH. I'm really glad to see a video that doesn't just bash on it because while, like many modern racers, it's not really the best in the genre, it is still a very fun and enjoyable game. And I hope Ubisoft doesn't make Ivory Tower butcher Motorfest because that game has potential to build into something better than 2

[@tomasburian6550]

After playing both series, I came to the conclusion that FH series only beats TC with graphics, nothing else.

[@KurokishiOcelot]

I agree. I still like both series, but I think TC2 does better than FH5 in regards to it's overall "feeling". While neither of them compare to the first entry in either series in terms of vibes and atmosphere, I find the inclusion of HUB spots, player homes that actually let you walk around and display your collection, and variety of events with physical booths to start them is an experience that no other series can give me. TC2 does have its flaws, but I think it's pros are worth it as a game that can establish a feeling of road tripping across the US in your favorite car. I love FH but I don't find it as immersive as I'd want it to be. Even if it is pretty, its lack of cities and peds doesn't let it live up to that road trip feel I love, and after experiencing player homes with full displays, Forzas menu homes just don't do it for me.

[@autozam01_txr]

Something else to add to the Motorpass system: Season 7 (Into the Storm; Blizzard Rush) was the first season where you can buy the premium Motorpass with in-game currency earned through normal events (Bucks), and previous Motorpass exclusive vehicles would start becoming available for everyone. Since then, this feature has been in through Season 8 (USST Cities; USST Next) to today.

[@serperior2264]

yeah I was meaning to put that into the script but I completely forgot lol

[@sylokthedefiled3047]

The fact of that we are going to be given the option to import our garages from TC2 to TCM really speaks volumes of how consumer-friendly these devs are becoming. For once in my life it actually seems like IVT actually *actively engage and listen* to their fanbase as a whole, add cars that people have asked for as well as some very unique and oftentimes unheard of cars, and care for their product and the face of the company. Given the fact of that they are French and it goes completely goes against the "all Frenchies are rude assholes" stereotype only makes it better to know this. I will probably buy this game day one of release if initial reviews are good. I've happily stuck with TC2 since about the half-way point of its lifecycle, and I couldn't be much happier with the direction the devs have gone, and the lessons they have learned. Amazing what following feedback and actually giving a damn about what your consumers ask for will do for you as a developer. I honestly can't wait for Hawaii. Hoping for even more rally expansion especially. If Subaru is there, I will be ecstatic beyond belief to rip through the dirt & dense forestation like an absolute yobbo.

[@RokkieSparrow]

Yobbo :)

[@Manan_K]

I recently bought FH5 and Crew 2 during the Steam Summer sale and honestly speaking, I'm having more fun in The Crew 2 than FH5 and the reason is grinding. You have to earn the vehicle, (which you mentioned at 24:00). When I first started playing both games after some time I had nothing new to do in FH5 except for doing Festival Playlist. However, in Crew 2, I have a lot of races and the grind element. plus it has Stories, Summit, and other creative races. Plus it has the whole USA to discover.

[@therunawaykid6523]

Yeah I agree I played forza horizon 4 before the crew 2 and I was like yeah it’s alright but I just wasn’t really having fun then when I played the crew 2 after it just felt like I had more freedom and I have put many hours into it on pc I would say my favourite things to do are ride the motorbikes and fly the planes plus that us map is absolutely massive and really fun to explore - very much looking forward to motorfest next month 😃

[@recur9245]

And after all it's about racing the whole games is about racing so some grinding is good really

[@laurentderrien]

Give me The crew 1 campaign, TDU car collecting and immersion, FH5 physics and tuning, and The crew 2 vehicle types, and we've finally got something great in that genre

[@madhunter6420]

fh5 physics suck

[@laurentderrien]

@@madhunter6420 lol sure, you prefer the crew or Trail out physics ?! Even better, NFS Unbound !

[@serperior2264]

@@laurentderrien why would you ever say this, that game gives me ptsd 😭

[@yourface2464]

@@madhunter6420 my man, TC2 might have some of the worst driving physics I've ever felt in a game. Singlehandedly makes me unable to enjoy it. It's silly.

[@laurentderrien]

@@yourface2464 same, I wish I could go past that, because the game has a lot of good things to offer, but I can't stand the car physics in TC2, it feels so disconnected after you played forza FH isn't perfect, but you can feel the weight, control the slides, countersteer, etc

[@zentarion.]

the crew 2 in my opinon have been a great game, one of the things i love the most about it is even 5 years down the road its still getting consistently updated every few months and due to this the game have more active players then ever, monetization in the game is honestly very forgiving due to it pretty much being limited to silly little cosmetics, you can ofcourse converte permium currency to ingame but generally isn't worth it if you have played the game for more then 10 hours due to how easy it actually is to make money in the game on top of that the game also allows you to earn premium currency orgianlly for the first few years by doing some small daily tasks and of recent years buy unlocking some of the tiers in the monthly events (battlepass thingy forgot the name tbh), i would also like to touch up on the part mentioned about the game moving away from street racing and going festival, the main reason games have been doing this isn't for monetization but instead licensing for car manufacturers since some of them does not want to me associated with illegal racing, a note worthy one of these would be toyota, but even tho the crew 2 shifted to be more festival they where still getting declined by toyota due to the game having one of its segments being street racing even tho the whole point of said segment is to go pro and move off the street, all of this is also why motorfest will be going 100% festival and would you have guess it toyota is in it.

[@taquito1561]

Ngl I forgot you changed the name of the channel and took me a few minutes to recognize your voice lol. Anyways, I'm glad you haven't completely dropped the focus on racing games; I probably would also watch your other videos on other types of games but your take on racing games is why I subscribed to this channel. Keep doing what you want regardless tho!

[@serperior2264]

thankies! cool pfp btw

[@sandstinger3454]

ivory tower have to be one of thr most supportive devs out there…… never abandoned their playerbase for 5 whole years

[@tomasburian6550]

That is kind of true, but the approach to the car list in this game is nothing but confusing. I'm a huge Bentley fan and making Bacalar available only in a short time window and then it's gone forever is upsetting to say the least. Seeing it in the car selection always pisses me off, knowing I'll never be able to get it.

[@G8ghtymanny]

One thing you forgot to mention that the Crew 2 did terribly was scrap the concept of racing as a crew. Literally in its name

[@ultraviolet_channel]

I recorded most of the footage for this video in a crew with my partner so, yeah no the crew aspect is certainly still part of the game

[@G8ghtymanny]

@@ultraviolet_channel I stand corrected 👍🏿

[@Christoph5782]

@@ultraviolet_channelId argue that ‘the crew’ aspect from the original game would have been more of a reference to the crew of people you assemble throughout the story of the first game rather than simply joining races together with your friends or the factions you join

[@TheMoonShepard]

I have no idea how much time I've put into the game, I'm at level 2100~ and I love playing it I do wish we could own properties like Test Drive though Can't wait for Motorfest.

[@ultraviolet_channel]

wow!

[@therunawaykid6523]

Well we could own properties in the crew 2 that is where we stored our vehicles but yeah I guess the tdu games give us many more different properties to purchase

[@The2horsemom]

Fab collab! Love it.

[@ultraviolet_channel]

Thanks so much 😊

[@MiguelBaptista1981]

Got it on a discount back in 2019, tried it with my wheel, no luck. Plugged into Assetto, unistalled this. Installed it again last year with my new SDD that allowed more forgotten games to be there on the run, tried wheel, got it to work a bit better, but drove like a boat, couldn't remap keyes, uninstalled. Installed again a few months ago when I was getting all my racing games installed with yet another SDD, tried wheel, got it to work 100%, could remap the buttons I wanted, finally playing this thing.

[@burningjdm]

This is gonna blow up, i can feel it

[@serperior2264]

NOOOOOOO DONT BLOW UP OUR VIDEO PLEAAAASEEEE

[@ianmitchell5979]

If you like the map in this game, you might like the map in The Crew 1. It's about as large, but with lots more landmarks, towns, and other details to flesh out the map, whereas The Crew 2 reduced this greatly in replacement for wilderness.

[@Vin80_]

In my eyes, you can fix the sense of speed with the far camera.

[@thickdaddymukbang]

The Persona background music is 🔥🔥🔥. The original Crew's trash sense of speed killed it for me! That is one of the most important aspects of a racing game.

[@crisscrosscruz2034]

speaking on post launch stuff i tbh hated when i played that alot of the "new cars" they released were just the same car but with a different paintjob

[@Shockblade95]

The Crew 1 E3 trailer is still the best racing game trailer I have ever seen beats E3 NfS Hot Pursuit 2010, Race Drivers GRID Intro, and even Blur's intro

[@TheRealYounavers]

Thanks for the retrospective UltraViolet!

[@serperior2264]

youre welcome!!!!!!!!

[@sambeezy007]

I just got it for $5 on sale and hopefully remember this being the best $5 I've ever spent on anything.

[@acropophia8857]

much needed video

[@serperior2264]

you're welcome!!!!

[@Peaceiscoming669]

one thing i absolutely adored about TC2 was I can take any car and set a point of destination and I can be guaranteed that i will be driving a new road everytime. I just put on some music, set a destination and just drive. I did not bother to play all the disciplines but the ones i managed to play, were really good. for me TC2 is a 8/10 game.

[@madhunter6420]

Just uninstall tc2 and play tc1, it is better

[@serperior2264]

@@madhunter6420 you need to RELAAAAAAAAAX

[@FeuchteGurke]

@@madhunter6420 For road trips, like the original commentator is talking about, I absolutely agree the Crew 1s map is a lot more detailed.

[@flying-toaster]

This is exactly what I do! Choose a car, put the music on, and get onto ‘stories.’ I get to unlock stuff driving to destinations.

[@Christoph5782]

The Crew 2 is a better video game, though its lack of any real progression system absolutely kills it; which is a shame as the story and its progress system is what truly made the first game. Like had this game had any actual story instead of “Hey, get famous on social media” and didn’t effectively force the player to fast travel around the map, it would have been an amazing game Like it does seem weird that The Crew 1 was such an inspirational game that Ghost Games effectively started to copy it with their entrees, only for Ivory Tower to turn around and make a discount Horizon game that somehow has less of a structured progression system

[@Christoph5782]

@@iluvmyoosik The Crew was released in 2014. The NFS game before its release was Ghosts first in Rivals, a game that had effectively no story and its main mechanic was being in a multiplayer world where you could play as both a Cop or a Racer and did not have individual car upgrade parts. Need For Speed (2015), the first game after The Crew was released, was a story driven game where you build a crew of people around you, drive in 5 different disciplines of events, with 21 different types of car parts to upgrade, where the player is limited to earn the parts equivalent or lower to their level in an always online server based game where players can see the world around them populated by other players in the area in freeroam (Which wasnt implemented in Horizon at that point in history). NFS Payback effectively doubled double in this to match the car part system and the free roam events. They didnt do anything remotely unique with this formula until Heat. At which point it was too late and EA pulled a Alphatauri and removed them from the project.

[@FabioGnecco]

The Crew 2 is Diddy Kong Racing for grown ups !!

[@StellarCosmic1]

Excellent video 👍🏻

[@ultraviolet_channel]

Thank you very much!

[@ducknorth8663]

I love that for a non major title game in the ubisoft catalog it still got frequent updates that added new content I would stop playing for a month and come back to new content and a new goal

[@moonshredder5181]

I'm hoping one day they'll go back to TC style, I really want them to make a story about Alex brother and how he got wrapped up with the "5 - 10s" iirc

[@YourFavoriteUrsine]

As I recall, V12 is a rank. The gang's name was 5-10.

[@moonshredder5181]

@@YourFavoriteUrsine thanks

[@bodivanbodivan3668]

This is the most fun racing game I've payed since Most Wanted and that says a lot. The pvp is ridiculously fun and actually competitive

[@ultraviolet_channel]

Me

[@robsolf]

I picked this game up during the $5 sale last week. I'd played it before in beta and found its attempts to do so much not particularly well a net negative, since at the time there wasn't as much content and to have it spread out amongst several things I had no interest in doing made it very not worth 60 bucks. No one in history has ever said, "I can't wait to play a third of this game!". I actually enjoy the street racing and find it to be far better than the last NFS game. The main issue I have is that if there IS a story in this game, IT IS NOT SERVED AT ALL by the way the content is presented to the player. I'd go through all the street races in the order of the menu and I'd hear some dialogue from the mentor character or a rival about every 4th or 5th race: "If you want to make 'your rival' mad, beat him at this race". And you do, but nothing happens. That's a helluva price to pay so they can spend development time to... I dunno... build a set of time trial races for tricked out Vespas? Here's to hoping Motorfest is far better focused... and for the love of GOD, give us a map that is even moderately useful.

[@DoVe_7]

I really wanted to like this game but going from the first game that had an okay-ish story and grittier atmosphere to this game just felt really off

[@ryoasuka4686]

Well with the recent trial to test the game . İ gotta say i don't like the handling, sense of speed and for me the reason why i always be careful with Ubisofts games is , is because they don't usually improve on there next titel Wich makes me always kinda sceptical and usually predicable.

[@vagrantender]

That crazy to me because all cars in the original crew handled poorly and didn't have admiration for cars. The crew 2 and now motorfest are still the ultimate car playgrounds where I can build and drive cars and feel like I worked for them

[@Americansn1per]

Great timing

[@serperior2264]

THANKS!

[@ArthurLopes39]

Crazy how people back in the day complained that there was no point in playing FUEL since there was just a big map, bunch of vehicles, and half-a-dozen of game modes yet this is how a good chunk of the genre feels like nowadays.

[@The.Player]

Fantastic video! Thank you so much for the very interesting and professionally made material! After 300 hours of Motorfest I started to play The Crew 2 just now :))). And I must admit, The Crew 2 is far superior than it's successor.

[@arbisangria8933]

Is it? Why is that

[@The.Player]

@@arbisangria8933 Probably this is just my personal opinion. I just like better the atmosphere of TC2, overall styling, the vibe, huge American territories, beautiful landscapes, famous landmarks. It is just a pleasure for me to travel through it's huge map with various terrains / bioms, from swamps of Louisiana to snowy forests of the North. Of course, technically (graphics, physics) TCM is more advanced, but to my taste, TC2 wins because of its atmosphere. This is my personal opinion.

[@arbisangria8933]

@The.Player yea seems like they put it a lot work into this game, so much to do, digging the different view options, tuning, cool destinations, chillax cruisin, wide variety of vehicles, etc

[@The.Player]

@@arbisangria8933 yes :) I believe within some time Motorfest will be better with subsequent updates. But still, the Pan-American setting of The Crew 2 is better.

[@xnotasweatx]

Super pumped that my cars will transfer to motor fest, I pre ordered

[@ultraviolet_channel]

Same here!

[@newtownyard1317]

I was really excited when Demolition Derby was added, as some who spent a lot of time on DiRT Showdown, only to see it be executed so poorly was really upsetting.

[@epicdude3659]

35:18 finally, someone else who considers American Legends to be good shit seriously, not just getting those cars (and sometimes vanity items, clothing, or just straight up cash), but also driving to each location with other random people also doing the same legend story.

[@serperior2264]

honestly yeah, when writing the script that completely skipped my mind, but the fact that you run into a bunch of other players while doing the objectives all following the same route as you is something I've only ever really seen with this update

[@gravyjames4897]

Hi lad, really enjoying your content. You have made me want to pick back up forza and even made me try out nfs unbound. I started the crew few years back but I could never get into it. Maybe it’s time to pick it up once I finish Forza H4 dlc.

[@ultraviolet_channel]

Go for it!

[@icarusgaming6269]

The Crew has always been about freedom! The edgy aesthetic, crime procedural narrative, and wanted system were awkwardly form-fitted to what, at its core, is a caRPG party game. The marketing was all about the complete United States map and social systems, and the structure is all about building your own garage and charting your way across the US. Never do you have to defeat a rival to unlock something or gain someone's trust to race in a new area. All the most interesting multiplayer events were totally decoupled from the campaign, I guess because they knew you wouldn't want to play this game without your friends. So they made it optional, and I immediately lost interest, went on road trips, held car meets, and screwed around with the drag spec to break the game lol. The DLC did the right thing, and added even more ways to party with new specs and events. Never was the story expanded, and even the cops and robbers game mode was a plug and play dynamic competition with Mario Kart-escque attacks. The gameplay never made sense alongside the presentation, so the festival makeover was an obvious choice given what genre this series is

[@derpedfox]

Perfect example of quantity over quality

[@shawklan27]

That's the Ubisoft slogan after all!

[@VortexStory]

8:20 A Driver Reference, yes!

[@namelesknight7840]

Midnight club will always be my favorite racing game series

[@florisvideler]

i know for sure that smaller game studios will take up the street racing game genre eventually, it might be years away but im sure it will

[@Homicidal_text]

34:49 little note: the ktm racing spears edition was possibly the best car in the game and was completely locked behind the motorpass which at the time wasn’t purchasable with bucks :))

[@HikaruDaisukii]

Ong, the iwatodai dorm ost from persona 3 hit my nostalgia like a truck.

[@SiMBol10]

I loved the crew, it felt big and the exploration was truly rewarding. The car customisation was amazing. The progression through the corny plot was fun. The post purchase monetisation was a bit gross but manageable. The crew 2 did admittedly do a few things better but mostly it just felt like live service tripe

[@ultraviolet_channel]

Couldn't agree more!

[@MCPunk55]

The cars list is 50 Shades of Italian Supercar, Bugatti and Koenigsegg. You have repeats in different categories. Same make and model, just a different label. The additions followed that trend as well.

[@derpedfox]

Motorfest judging from the trailer is the purest definition of creative bankruptcy

[@serperior2264]

thanks for your insightful input

[@benn8793]

I loved the first The Crew. The Crew 2, on the other hand, never really clicked with me. I pre-ordered the game expecting to get more of the first part. For me, the game wants to do too many things without doing any of them right. In the first one, I loved uncovering the map and discovering the landmarks. That's why I was very disappointed that in The Crew 2 the map was completely uncovered from the beginning and you could go anywhere right away. So I personally have no incentive to explore this huge map.

[@ultraviolet_channel]

Fair enough!

[@XGPLAYZ]

Yikez such potential

[@rafalst]

I honestly cant get hyped or even a little bit excited for Motorfest. I played the Crew 2 on launch, "finished" it (beat every race had all cars and soo on, but the end game was such a chore and the physics were soo weird that i played almost forcing myself. I still cant get over how heavy the cars feel when you take a jump, they, it feels soo wrong. Then i started played FH5 and yeah, its barely different from FH4, but i dont mind, it felt soo much better to play. And the most recent dlc (the rally focused one) was soo goddamn good and every monthly update of late has been great too, that when i tried to come back to TC2 i couldn't. Firstly i felt lost, second, i felt that all my work at launch felt useless, there was soo many new stuff that i didnt knew what do to. The driving still felt as it was at launch, still inferior to FH5, so i quit and never even touched the game again. And imo, them insisting on adding planes and boats doesnt help, because imo, it makes the cars get less time to get better and instead of getting one WOW car driving experience you get 3 meh (car, planes and boats) experinces. Not counting the other "sub classes"

[@sandjayderoche6157]

don't agree at all, aerobatics is one of my favorite disciplines because there is much more freedom to move and finish the event

[@serperior2264]

I genuinely want to know how you enjoy this, like not in a demeaning way I just cannot see anyone having fun with this discipline

[@sandjayderoche6157]

@@serperior2264 in this discipline I try to beat my own scores thanks to several techniques, and I regret that there aren't enough events of this type.

[@serperior2264]

@@sandjayderoche6157 yeah that's solid enough, glad you can enjoy an event type that I can't

[@mclarenbruh.]

As a big fan of the Crew franchise i honestly dont really care about the game's buggy physics and the game's bad side since its not so bad in comparison to other racing games and its really easy to get used to althought i do hope motorfest releases with a bit more realism to the physics and car sound i still think The Crew 2 is a great game for what it is. Also this was a great video summing up pretty much everything about The Crew, very well done!

[@therunawaykid6523]

Yeah from what I’ve heard people who played the beta they have said the car sounds are better, the handling is improved and also I’ve seen that vegetation like grass and bushes details are way more realistic in this game whereas in the crew 2 you vehicle just went straight it like it wasn’t even there - in motorfest the grass and bushes actually react to your car like the grass folds back as you drive through it you can even break branches off of trees

[@ddrevm]

The crew motorfest has joined the chat

[@tobiasl8262]

Im excited for crew motorfest but I really want the crew series to go back to the illegal street racing theme where you outrun cops across the whole USA and take down criminals

[@natha9745]

14:11 Thank you, finaly someone with common sense, Hovercraft are fun drift machines

[@SynthAir]

I got The Crew 2 near launch, and enjoyed it for awhile, but didn't put nearly as much time into it as The Crew 1. The change in atmosphere and the lack of story I think is what made it less engaging for me. Seeing this video with all the updates does make me regret not having at least played it from time to time though. I'm wondering, if I were to start playing again now, can I access most of this stuff, or was much of this limited-time events and the like? The hunt across the country for the exclusive cars sounds especially fun to me--like a better version of Forza Horizon's Barn Finds.

[@tomasburian6550]

I also have to ask, does anyone play this with a steering wheel? Or are you planning on playing Motorfest with it? I was trying hard to play TC2 with my Logitech and it didn't handle well at all, no matter how I tuned the controls. I sincerely hope they'll fix it in Motorfest as Forza Horizon had a fantastic wheel driving in FH3 and quite OK handling in FH5 (which they improved over time).

[@ultraviolet_channel]

LOGITECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@smiley6229]

I can see drivers influence in the crew and watch dogs

[@robsolf]

If you've ever been stuck in traffic because some buck-twenty chode in his BRZ wanted to do donuts in the middle of the street you're on, then you totally understand why racing games go the festival route, these days.

[@jamieoconnor1916]

Great informative piece guys thanks keep up the great work 😊I miss the days of the illegal street racer NFS Underground was fantastic and the police 🚔 chases in NFS Most wanted were tense and existing, there's something fascinating about the illegal street racing 🏁 scene 😀and on a different note a racing games without direction or progression is not a good idea for any game just look at the horizon franchise and GT7 😊

[@ImNotJust]

I hope Ubisoft makes an offline patch when the servers inevitably go down. Its not my favourite racer but boy is it fun driving thru all the states sightseeing.

[@tomasburian6550]

Even though I liked the first game and missed some of its features in the sequel, The Crew 2 appealed to me a lot by making it a bright colorful race festival-like setup (which they sorta ruined by putting snow in Miami and Los Angeles). But racing in anything but cars didn't appeal to me that much, I mostly used a plane to explore or get to points where I'd switch back to a car and boat races to get money quick as they had some good time/reward ratio. I think they made boat and plane races only because they wanted to give us the ability to explore the world in all forms so why not also make some races for them while they're there?

[@therunawaykid6523]

One of my favourite things to do in the crew 2 was probably the hill climbing missions I particularly loved using the Ariel nomad I even made a custom Simpsons livery for it that thing was so fun to drive

[@timo99nl]

I had no idea that the crew 2 had that many free content updates. I played rhe game for 2 weeks when it came out and then never touched it again.

[@LexusLFA554]

I am probably one of the weirdos that actually enjoyed driving to the event gates instead of teleporting there. I also did the same in Watch Dogs 1 xD One afternoon I spent just driving around the whole map with a wheel and shifter, somewhat "close" to the speed signs, if there were any - One of my major critisisms of the game. I also found it strange that the KTM X-Bow (Crossbow) was a F1 car (apperantly that is its name). Especially because there is a street version of it - that was actually very solid! I know what feeling you mean with the Cross Bikes. That was fun indeed. TBH, I sucked at the hovercraft missions, but they were fun xD The boats I hated in general though. There was something very fun about a Hummer H1 Alpha monster truck, but you are right that they were MASSIVELY underused. What I really liked about the game was the tuning of cars, and how it affected them. My friend and I had a list back then when we still played it that had the ideal tunes on them. Awesome, and great for multiplayer, we got a lot of cars that way. Owning some of the slowest cars was also great because they are dirt cheap and have some very unique ones. Not every racing game has a Chevy Silverado or a Cadillac Eldorado :)

[@serperior2264]

but do you like fortnite?

[@LexusLFA554]

@@serperior2264 No

[@serperior2264]

@@LexusLFA554 aww...

[@therunawaykid6523]

@@LexusLFA554the only thing I like about Fortnite is the creative mode I have zero interest in shooting people - but I would much rather play the crew games and rocket league

[@andipajeroking]

Interesting that although i miss the outlaw/cops games, underground, most wanted, tdu, one of the first games with focus on the festival subgenre, Prostreet, it s easily one of the best. Maybe the focus on realistic upgrades, based on horsepower and not levels like the crew. I am playing crew again after a 7 years brake, and it s a good game, i hate the fact that you cannot start from scratch.....

[@ElysiumGD]

I knew u were previously Moses B when I heard that voice :)

[@MCPunk55]

Illegal street racing and customized vehicles is a trend as old as motor vehicles themselves. It will never die. The shift is political, not social. The fact that the Black Box Need for Speed games are played and modded to this day is more than enough to prove it.

[@michaelw6277]

Call it cheesy but one thing I appreciated about NFS:Unbound is that it has an actual story.

[@ultraviolet_channel]

I think you need a serious evaluation if you consider *t h a t* a story

[@michaelw6277]

@@ultraviolet_channel did I offend you?

[@ultraviolet_channel]

I didn't do SHIT I know one thing imma be a one man cheeseburger APOCALYPSE

[@SaturdayIsMyBae]

Ik this may sound weird but i feel like the crew 2 has existed forever

[@Old-world7]

Bought it on ps4 in 2019. Played it for 1 hour. Never launched it since.

[@wildanrahman1333]

I love racing game. Until TC2 made me realized that i love racing game... In general, one time i really enjoying rally car, then i got bored and switch my focus on pro racing. In other game, i can't explore and feel this 'freedom' to enjoy racing game.

[@ultraviolet_channel]

thats so nice!

[@damattboii5495]

The crew 1 and 2 continue to be favorite games especially The crew 1 it just feels so relaxing on wide highways and weaving In and out of traffic on the highways feels AMAZING but it makes the high-speed feel calming not boring not exhilarating just... calm The crew 2 makes high speed more exhilarating while still being calming sometimes. While it lacks traffic abit that ok cause the vehicles (at least in the hypercars I don't really use the others all that often) feel heavy and a bit slow to respond with the crew 1 feeling a bit snappier BUT. Its consistent and you can really control the car how you want. The crew motorfest took all of that looked at forza horizon hit copy and paste (at least they tried too) and threw all of that calm consistent physics and predictable controls and threw it RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW. and called it "more realistic" Dont get me wrong I love sim racers like asseto and motorsport (they even took the motor thing from forza oh my God how obvious can they be) Even the in-between I love what they tried to be forza horizon 5 I don't care what you guys say to me the crew is supposed to be an arcade racer through and through also they completely gutted any fun from the airplanes they mightaswell just removed it from the game it was such a disappointment

[@ChadSpittingTruth.]

The real 'the crew' it's the first game, not these two hot garbage (according to motorfest) It's deserved why the upcoming the crew motorfest get more criticism towards, Also "Trust Me Bro"

[@TheElusiveWolf]

Im a crew 2 player, I have around 300 hours in the game and have just played the closed beta for Motorfest and I can say its damn good. There are some things I dont like, like mostly stuff that is being borrowed from forza horizon. But all in all its gona be a fantastic racing game, it feels fun to play and truly different from the crew 2 it feels like an upgrade, Im excited!