Try as I might, I can’t play The Crew: Motorfest without comparing it to Forza Horizon. I’ve tried to ignore the similarities, but that’s almost impossible. The third game in Ubisoft’s series changes up the formula, setting the open-world racer during a festival on a tropical island, complete with an AI navigator who talks far too much, showcase events, playlist features, constant XP rewards, and much more.
If Motorfest maintained the quality of the first two games, the similarities with Playground Games and Turn 10’s would have been somewhat embarrassing. Thankfully, though, Motorfest is the best the series has been by a long, long way.
A beautiful open-world
Making the biggest difference is the fact that Motorfest’s version of Hawaii is gorgeous. I enjoyed the first game’s condensed version of the entire USA, but it was ugly and empty.
The third game’s map is colourful, varied, and huge. As you’d expect from a tropical island, it’s often drenching in sunlight, which only makes it nicer to explore. It’s not only better looking than the previous games, but arguably not far off the visual splendour of Forza Horizon 5. Also, shout out to the literal map you can open in Motorfest, which allows you to zoom in and out in 3D and is wonderfully detailed. Other open-world games could learn a lot from its design and how easy it is to navigate.
Much like Horizon does, Motorfest benefits from the festival setting, adding atmosphere to the map and every event. It allows the game to show off with balloons, fireworks, flares, and sometimes more unique items everywhere as you race.
I do think the balance is off a little. Hawaii is gorgeous, but every race route is surrounded by colourful barriers and signs, almost hiding the natural beauty of the island. With a world so beautiful, it should be shown off at every opportunity.
Excellent event variety
The festival aspect also ties into Motorfest’s other best feature. The playlist structure adds a bit more organisation to the game (I wish you didn’t start at the festival HQ every time you loaded up the game) and it does a great job of ensuring that most races have a quirk that makes them different.
In just the first few playlists, one event had a drone following me at all times; one asked me to complete five laps in cruise control without hitting a series of cones, with each lap getting faster, and another automatically took pictures as I was given a tour of the island.
It’s amazing what that does to keep each playlist feeling fresh. Just altering the race formula a little bit makes the progression so much more enjoyable. Events are also a good length too, with none lasting fewer than four or five minutes, and some stretching to 10 minutes or more. You do need to tinker with the difficulty for the lengthier ones, though, as it can be too easy to win at a canter.
With speed traps, photo opportunities, hidden treasures, and slalom events to interact with as you roam the open-world, there’s a lot to just get lost in.
Progression pros and cons
It also means there’s a near constant stream of XP and rewards coming your way, no matter what you’re doing. That makes exploring or playing any event rewarding, so I often found myself playing just one more event when I should really turn my PlayStation off.
The only issue I had with progression is the fact that the cars you earn and buy are rarely useful beyond exploration and online races. Most events are themed around a manufacturer or type of car, so you’re “loaned” a car for the event rather than using your own.
It makes buying the best cars or upgrading your existing ones somewhat pointless, as any improvements you make aren’t going to be relevant for most races. The upgrade system is pretty simple, with you needing to do little more than just equip the reward parts you get that have the highest numbers attached, but it doesn’t matter what brakes your Corvette has equipped if you’re never going to use them in an actual race.
Fun, arcadey handling
No matter what car you’re using, though, driving in The Crew: Motorfest is a lot of fun. It’s not demanding or tricky, or particularly realistic, but it’s fun, which is the one thing you want from the handling model in an open-world racing game.
Driving is neither heavy nor floaty, hitting the perfect point between easy to throw cars around corners and engaging enough that you can’t just hold accelerate at all times.
Much like the world itself, the handling is much improved on the previous Crew games. At the end of the day, a good open-world and enjoyable driving are what makes a racing game fun, and that’s where Motorfest’s biggest upgrades are on the first two games.
Away from the roads, the boat and plane events from The Crew 2 return. The aerial events are fun, if a little simple, but the boat races are the weakest part of Motorfest. The boats simply aren’t fun to drive, feeling heavy and unresponsive, with the sense of speed in those events being diminished significantly.
If you do enjoy them, though, it’s great that you can jump in and out of them whenever you want. Getting bored or driving around? Just jump into a plane and take to the skies.
It’s all part of putting fun at the forefront of the Motorfest experience. Whether it be the gorgeous world, structure and variety of events, engaging driving mechanics, or constant progression, it’s by far the most enjoyable Crew game yet.
The Crew: Motorfest was reviewed on PlayStation 5 with code provided by the publisher.