The Crew Motorfest Review: A Genuine Love Letter to Car Culture

The Crew Motorfest is a curious title. For one, the studio’s clear love and passion for car culture is vastly apparent in practically every minute of gameplay with characters often dropping interesting facts and insight into the dozen subcultures represented in the game. On the other hand, The Crew Motorfest makes the attempt to deliver a pretty varied offering in terms of race types, but only a couple of them hit the mark as well as some of the game’s contemporaries like Need for Speed Unbound or the excellent Forza Horizon 5.

To the game’s credit, The Crew Motorfest feels like a joyous celebration of car culture - inviting perhaps previously uninitiated audiences to experience a sizeable vertical slice of car culture from around the world. From the drift-heavy, neon-drenched races of Japan, to the raw power and break-neck acceleration of American Muscle cars - there's a lot to like here. 

Ubisoft is one of the biggest publishers in the industry with a massive number of studios working on practically every genre and subgenre under the sun. While I personally have a decent appreciation for their biggest AAA blockbusters like Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, my favorite titles from Ubisoft have been the slightly smaller budget sports and adventure sports titles like Steep and Riders Republic. While these games exhibit their fair share of silliness and trademark 'rough around the edges' feel, it's easier to overlook those shortcomings. The Crew Motorfest feels like a much bigger affair than these titles, judging by Ubisoft's commitment to marketing on this scale and the easily apparent high production value.

To the game’s credit, The Crew Motorfest feels like a joyous celebration of car culture, inviting perhaps previously uninitiated audiences to experience a sizeable vertical slice of car culture from around the world. From the drift-heavy neon-drenched races of Japan to the raw power and break-neck acceleration of American Muscle cars, there's a lot to like here. The game introduces each subculture through "Playlists," which make up the majority of the game's experiences. Playlists are a curated set of races that let players try their hand at different kinds of vehicles and race types. While there is certainly overlap in race types, each Playlist feels fairly distinct to warrant at least one playthrough.

While Playlists are a great way to learn more about specific car subcultures and try out different vehicles and get money - they are secondary to the online co-op experience of racing your cars through the scenic vistas of Oahu and battling it out with rival Crews. 

However, this is where the problems begin to appear. One of the things that bugged me throughout The Crew Motorfest was that despite the change in scenery and selection of cars in every Playlist, they all start to blend together after a point. It is then that you realize The Crew Motorfest might value co-op and multiplayer far more than it does single-player. While Playlists are a great way to learn more about specific car subcultures and try out different vehicles while earning money, they feel secondary to the online co-op experience of racing your cars through the scenic vistas of Oahu and battling it out with rival Crews. 

With that said, it was practically impossible to enter matchmaking and find a decent Multiplayer race as access was squarely limited during the time of this review. So, stay tuned for a more in-depth breakdown of the multiplayer experience later this week. The Crew Motorfest impressed the absolute heck out of me with its bombastic presentation. Packed with jaw-dropping visuals and a thunderous soundscape, it is a bit of a bummer that Playlists can quickly become an exercise in tedium rather than something you actively want to engage with. 

The Standard Edition of the game comes with the base game and the Ultimate Edition gives you a leg-up with a decent selection of vehicles at your disposal from the get-go, including:

• Honda CIVIC Type R 2021 FITTED Edition
• Porsche 718 Spyder 2021 FITTED Edition
• BMW M4 Competition Coupe
• Chevrolet Chevelle SS
• Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody

Also included in the Ultimate Edition is the Year 1 Pass, which includes 2 cars every month for the rest of the year. 

The Crew Motorfest - A Celebration of Car Culture with Overtones of Tedium 

Gameplay

Lastly, the "bikes". I say "bikes" because they felt more like small rocket ships made entirely of steel coated with several layers of oil to guarantee maximum "slick". With little to no feedback on traction or weight, bikes were easily the most unruly of the lot.

Given how well-versed Ubisoft is when it comes to developing solid racing and sports titles, I went into The Crew Motorfest expecting a solid title where the handling and car customization is outstanding. For the most part, I was decently appeased by the cars, bikes, boats, and planes controlled but it never felt quite as good as some of the other great simcade racers I've played in the past year. For the majority of the game's runtime, you'll likely be behind the wheel of a car - so it dictates that it is going to be the primary focus of the studio, and it is. Cars definitely have received the most amount of love when it comes to attention to detail, handling, and general feel. Planes and boats, on the other hand, could have used some more time in the event.

Lastly, the "bikes." I say "bikes" because they felt more like small rocket ships made entirely of steel coated with several layers of oil to guarantee maximum "slick." With little to no feedback on traction or weight, bikes were easily the most unruly of the lot. While planes get a pass for their sheer ridiculousness and ability to make traversal across the map much easier, bikes never quite had a lot going for them. While Rally bikes will feel a tiny bit better, sports bikes like the KTM RC 16 feel thoroughly weightless. With that said, the speed these things could hit felt pretty great.

There is a good selection of race types on offer, including the likes of Drift, Circuits, Sprints, and the F1-adjacent sports race. While the race type themselves can appear limited. The game shines by combining some of these race types to deliver unique experiences. For instance, the Drift Playlist includes not just drift events but combines them with the circuit and sprint race to truly test players' skill. 

While the handling and feedback on the controller weren't lacking, they weren't great either. The Crew Motorfest, for the most, isn't quite as arcadey as, say Need for Speed Unbound, yet it is not quite as tight and sim-adjacent as something like Forza Horizon 5. This leaves the game in this weird middle ground where it often feels like it is trying to be a dozen things at once without refining any single aspect. Repetition and tedium make their way into the game fairly quickly around the 3-hour mark and it's hard to shake it off without dropping a ton of in-game money on new vehicles to try out other playlists.

Despite accruing new vehicles as you play, new Playlists quickly become tiresome as race types remain pretty much identical, save for some really quality Drift tracks and Off-Road races. The F1-like sport races were easily my least favorite of the lot as even though they introduce things like Tire Wear and Pit Stops, they are simply fluff. Those gameplay elements rarely ever came into play even on the highest difficulty, which really begs the question of why they needed to be included in the first place. The race mode feels much more like a GTA Online game mode, which if you've been playing GTA Online, isn't really a compliment.  Despite the game's shortcomings in the handling department, something that really deserves massive kudos is how great the game feels on a Dualsense controller. The haptic feedback and adaptive triggers worked to near perfection. The feedback on the controller on sharp turns, drifts, and off-roading felt better than perhaps any other racing game I've tried on the PS5 so far. 

Most upgrades can only be won through the completion of events. The game keeps customization and upgrades fairly simple and I have to commend Ubisoft for not pushing players toward microtransactions. In all my time with the game, The Crew Motorfest rewarded me adequately for completing events with money and XP, letting me get my hands on new stuff through gameplay alone. While this should be common practice, it has become increasingly rare in games such as these (I'm looking at you NBA 2K). Upgrading your vehicle is pretty straightforward and most upgrades can be won by finishing relevant events. While it is slightly weird that I rarely ever got to drive my own vehicles in Playlists, it is a decent trade-off. 

Graphics, Visuals, and Sound

The Crew Motorfest is one of the best-looking and sounding racing games I've played in the past couple of years, and that is saying a lot for a game that is competing with the likes of Forza Horizon in that department. 

While I had my fair share of complaints in the gameplay department, The Crew Motorfest is nigh untouchable when it comes to the presentation side of things. The game looks drop-dead gorgeous across practically every inch of its sizeable map and sounds twice as good. Ubisoft considers music to be a vital part of The Crew Motorfest experience and it shows. The selection of eclectic tracks across a wide spectrum of genres is a breath of fresh air. From riff-heavy rock music to deep trance and ambient techno, there is a lot of music here. A lot of good music. 

The soundscape extends far beyond music with absolutely impeccable sound design and mixing. The tracks never overpower the deep rumble or high-pitch screech of the engine and the dynamic destructible environmental stuff is placed pretty well in the mix. All of the vehicles sound great, especially the muscle cars, and the little video packages for each car always did their job to perfection. I've tried the game out with a soundbar, a home theater setup, and standard 7.1 headphones. I found the game is best experienced on a set of great speakers (subwoofer highly recommended) and a decent 4K monitor to get the full breadth of detail and lighting. 

The Crew Motorfest is one of the best-looking and sounding racing games I've played in the past couple of years, and that is saying a lot for a game that is competing with the likes of Forza Horizon in that department. The game's performance never took a hit when it came to performance even when racing against several NPCs in detailed terrain. In my 16 hours or so with the game, I felt more drawn in by the visual and aural experience of The Crew Motofest than I did with the gameplay (which was just fairly decent).  

Special shotout to that one drift event, the Dream Spiral.

Final Word - The Crew Motorfest

The Crew Motorfest is a love letter to car culture and it shows in practically every minute of gameplay. While I could have used a slightly better handling system, what the game really could benefit from is shorter Playlist length.

The Crew Motorfest is a fun arcade racer with sim elements that has a lot to offer in terms of a bombastic visual and sonic experience and can offer up to 5 solid hours of racing fun. Beyond that point, only perhaps the most hardcore of racing and car culture fans will stay tuned to the game. The tedium and repetition of the Playlists are bound to start feeling grindy after a few hours. While some of that tedium is alleviated by the fantastic sound design and art style of the game, The Crew Motorfest is a game incomplete if you don't jump into co-op or multiplayer.

This review will be updated once the servers are decently populated and matchmaking is possible with other players and friends. As the name of the game suggests, The Crew Motorfest feels like a game designed fairly and squarely with the idea that you will be tagging along with friends and other players to take to the streets of Oahu in all manner of races.

The Crew Motorfest is a love letter to car culture and it shows in practically every minute of gameplay. While I would have preferred a slightly better handling system, what the game really could benefit from is a shorter Playlist length. While it is admirable that Ubisoft wants me to try out every single custom track, the tedium of it is simply too much to look past. Overall, I would recommend The Crew Motorfest to budding car enthusiasts and those on the outside looking in as this is a solid primer for those looking to learn more about car culture. If anything, you can just repeat stuff they say in the game at a party and everyone's going to assume you're a big "car guy."

Review key for The Crew Ultimate Edition provided by Ubisoft and reviewed on a PS5.