A review of the just released ‘The Crew Motorfest’ from Ubisoft

The game's additional content is quite detailed as there is a steady flow of it on a weekly basis, and it merges well with the overall experience.

Hyderabad: This week, we step away from the RPG heavy calendar of 2023 (featuring titles like: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate, Sea of Stars, and Starfield) for a vacation in Hawaii, to bask in the splendor and adrenaline that Ubisoft Ivory Tower can offer in the most picturesque scenarios that it can render. 

The third entry in the Crew franchise, Motorfest, offers some of the most beautiful vistas in a video game. In my first few hours, it left no stone unturned, serving me with a sensory overload as I raced a slew of cars, a speedboat, and an iconic plane.

---

However, it is pertinent we ask: how does Ubisoft’s Hawaii speed festival compare to Forza’s, and is the island paradise here as inviting and enthralling a ride as Mexico was in 2021?”

Most people have observed the Crew’s transformation into a competitor for Forza Horizon with Motorfest. However, despite the similarities, calling Motorfest a copy would be a disservice. I find the experience here to be more of a hybrid where the ease of a festival is combined with an interface that is more in line with games from free-to-play and mobile environments. If Hawaii resembles Mexico, the interface, the playlist system, and the classification of cars are more akin to Real Racing 3.

I found this combination useful to navigate my early hours in the game as I simply chose the lists that most interested me – I went with “Made in Japan” (being a Skyline and Mazda fanatic), “Hawaii Scenic Tour” (for the Ford GT 2017), “American Muscle Power” (to try out the Shelby Super Snake), and then delved into “911 Legacy: A Porsche Story.”

The inspiration from Horizon is not just cosmetic – Motorfest also employs a similar rewind and flexible difficulty system. While I began the game on intermediate difficulty, after a few events, I found myself closer to expert difficulty, and I found this steady rise quite comfortable.

The game’s additional content is quite detailed as there is a steady flow of it on a weekly basis, and it merges well with the overall experience. There is a lot to like in Motorfest, and if my first twenty hours with it are any indicator, I look forward to having a lot more fun with the game over the next year.

However, despite its many strengths, there are a few aspects where I found it lacking. For instance, the drifting here is enjoyable, but there is very little of it, and at times it is inconsistent. Flying is ridiculously slow, with most planes clocking speeds much lower than the planes they are based on and speedboats while fun, needed a whole playlist to themselves.

Lastly, much of the criticism here can potentially be addressed in future content drops. I believe that if its makers are invested, Motorfest could become a significantly better and more expansive game three to four months from now. It’s absolutely worth a try, and this one is simply a lot of fun