The Crew Motorfest is here and the weather in the UK starting to take a turn and what feels like every day the rain wants to make an appearance, you know I’m going to stay indoors and virtually travel to the lush island of O’ahu Hawaii. That’s right we’re back to the Motorfest for an adrenaline-filled ride. After covering the Beta back in July I was eagerly waiting for the full release and now the time has come for all of us to get the full experience that The Crew Motorfest has to offer.
The Crew Motorfest is the third instalment in The Crew series and was released on the Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows, and PlayStation 4 & 5 on the 14th of September 2023. We step away from America this time and venture to a scaled-down version of O’ahu Hawaii, which is a welcomed change. Like in the previous game, you can fly planes, drive boats, drive Cars, and ride bikes. The gameplay is very similar to that of its predecessors and features multiplayer features known as “crew”.
Motorfest doesn’t stray too far away from the usual The Crew formula and that isn’t a bad thing. It was a brilliant idea to switch the location of the map as if we went back to America again it might have felt too similar. The new map is smaller but that isn’t a bad thing, I prefer this size map as it doesn’t feel too big to the point where exploration and traveling around feel like a chore but not too small to the point where you can get from A to B in seconds.
It’s a nice mid-ground that I can find enjoyment in and know that there is something different in every corner of the island. I don’t use the Boats and Planes in Crew anyway as I prefer the Cars and Bikes but I did notice when using the Planes you can cover a lot of the map fairly quickly, which could help with the grind of Playlists when you are going from one to the other.
Find people to ‘crew’ with will make your time in Motorfest go from a standard arcade racer to a brilliant one. Everything is so much better when doing it with friends or other members of the community. I feel like racing against AI doesn’t have the same tension and excitement as when you are racing against another player.
The island exploration and journey is better when you follow a friend and discover a new section of the map or find that perfect location to stop and take a photo with The Crews in-game photo mode. It also makes races easier because you race as a crew and not alone. Meaning if your friends win you win. Obviously, for pride, you would want to come first but if it’s one of your crew then it’s a collective win.
The Crew Motorfest has gone all out with its huge collection of vehicles that will only get bigger as the game’s life goes on. There are currently over 600 vehicles in the game which if you have played previous Crew games will get instantly increased due to bringing over your old cars from the previous title. Ubisoft do amazingly with open-world games and like Riders Republic and the previous two crew games invest so much into them to keep the content flowing for the players long after launch.
There are 14 different Vehicle Categories in The Crew Motorfest spanning from Dragster, Rally Raid, Drifting, and Street Tier. If you don’t think there is enough then there is a problem as I think there is something for everyone in this game.
The Playlist is super fun and is based on different themes, my personal favourite is the made-in-Japan playlist. On top of these, you can compete in PVP challenges and races with up to 32 players which make for some wide and crazy races. This Crew feels heavily inspired by the Forza Horizon series but does an outstanding job at exploring and showing off car culture from all periods in time. From the 911 Legacy Porsches to the new electric-powered vehicles of the future. You will never feel bored or without things to do on the island as The Crew Motorfest has you covered.
For me, I like the upgrade mechanics that Motorfest has. Sure it doesn’t offer you full control over the upgrades and being able to fully customise to the fine detail but it does offer you the chance to change parts on your car to give you the freedom of changing elements of the vehicle to make them handle better or go faster. You get upgrade parts from winning races and various other things but it is great for someone like me who doesn’t know how to fine-tune a car but can still feel like they know what they are doing when equipping new parts onto my vehicles.
There is plenty to do on the island other than racing and this comes in the form of online multiplayer modes like Demolition Royale (which is a fantastic mode in itself and I could happily just spend all my time in this mode) but also there are activities dotted around for you to partake in. Things like Speedtraps, Escape the Area, Low Altitude flying, and various others.
These make exploration of the island more fun and help break up the gameplay from just racing all the time. You will even come across hidden collectibles that you will have to find by using the ping on your mini-map when you are close to them.
Graphically this is the best The Crew has ever looked. I think the vibrant setting has a lot to do with it. I love the sandy beaches and the jungles that you can race around. The wide array of vehicles all look fantastic and are a huge selling point for anyone who loves a good arcade-style racing game. The soundtrack is decent with a couple of songs I recognise but it sadly gets drowned out a lot of the time with the over-the-top dialogue that seems to keep coming up.
Not only that but most of the time it’s the same phrases after every race, it can get annoying. Some good dialogue bits help move the Playlists along and give you a nice feel for Hawaii life. The Crew Motorfest does a brilliant job at having standout locations, thrilling tracks, and races and above all ticks all the boxes when you look at all the cars and vehicles and how they come to life on the island. One of my favorite things to do is to drive through a tunnel in a muscle car and just hear that engine roar.
The Crew has a lot of replay value as plenty is going on with the different playlists, online activities, and hidden collectibles on the map. Not only this but the game does have a season pass which will offer more content as the year goes on which will help the game feel free and will allow for new content which will keep the game feeling fresh. If you have played previous Crew games you are even able to bring your old cars along for the ride which is an excellent feature.
I get most of my enjoyment with Motorfest when I ‘crew’ up with my friends and we tackle the different races and just go exploring. I always feel that there is something new that I stumble across when driving around this open-world environment. The Main Stage also offers monthly themes with unique limited-time rewards which gives me something to work towards apart from the main playlist.
Even though the playlist is like the campaign in a way you will still have some much to do once you have completed them. I also love the Custom Show feature where every week players get to show off their vehicles and the community gets to vote on which ones are the best. At the end of the week the vehicle with the most votes gets rewards, maybe one day I will be able to get a vehicle to the least feature in the Custom Show.
Conclusion
The Crew Motorfest is the best Crew game to date. It made an excellent decision to move the location to Hawaii even if it did take a downsize in terms of the map. However, it makes up for it by doing everything possible to celebrate car culture and offer a fantastic arcade racer. With the live events, Main stage, and Playlist to list a few, there is always something you can dive into and part take in.
Whether that is just going for a cruise around the island with your friends or taking part in the big 32-player online PVP events. The Crew Motorfest does feel like its predecessors but offers a more colourful and vibrant world to explore that in my opinion makes it a lot more enjoyable to race around and explore and for those reasons, I’m giving The Crew Motorfest a 9 out of 10.
The Crew Motorfest Trailer
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