The Crew 2: An In-Depth Review 

Don't worry guys/gals, the rest of FEAR is coming up shortly.

Wish they would include two things: Offline mode Re-start game option.

"But interestingly, the planes is where the game really takes off." Pun intended, I'd imagine, lmao.

The ideal open-world arcade racer would be Horizon with TC2's map and NFS's customization

4 years later, this game is still alive and costantly updated. With updates so regular you can actually measure time with them

I've been playing this game for two years and had no idea you could pull back to go faster in boats. I'm upset.

So few reviews seem like ‘actual’ reviews currently, this is a gem

I really enjoyed this review. Often times with reviews regardless of their length you can quickly make out whether or not the reviewer really likes or dislikes the game because the review has either a very positive or a very negative tone to it. This however is different, it goes back and forth between genuine criticism and praise and it always keeps its points in perspective of the greater whole.

Honestly, I haven't enjoyed racing games since Grid and Split Second. If most racing games are just going to be Burnout Paradise with a new coat of inferior quality paint, why wouldn't I just go and play that instead? Heck, why wouldn't I just play NFSU TO THE WINDOWS and TO THE WALLS if it's going to nosedive like it has done? If Trackmania can get it right, why can't a huge studio even get the same feeling? This is a wonderful review, but it just makes me sad thinking about my wheel and pedals gathering dust.

Looking back, this game has come so far now! It has fixed and added a lot. The drifting has been massively improved and I love the gold parts. Gold parts give you huge bonuses. I collected all the nitro gold parts so now I have x2 nitros. The Summits are super fun and addictive. The rewards you get from the summit are awesome! They also add value to the skills. I love The Crew 2! I think it’s a great game!

Time for quality content bois

Sweet, i love in-depth reviews of racing games. especially since they're so scarse in this quality. thanks mate

Lowkey I appreciate you saying "sears tower" instead of Willis tower. As a Chicagoan at least lol

36:20 This is something I think the first crew did really well imo, at least relatively. To be able to fast travel somewhere you had to drive there first. It also ties in with the progression of the story as it enhanced the sense of progression and discovery. There were a ton of challenges like in 2, and you encountered them very often, and since they also give you perf parts along with money, there is no reason to not do them. And since the map has more detail than in 2, it has the landmarks which is a quick way to earn some cash while also learning more about the USA, a good way to reward exploration and curiosity. The last thing I can think of are the hidden wrecks, similar to Test Drive Unlimited 2, which are pretty unique compared to the rest of the car list. You can tell that the first game took pride in it's interpretation of the USA (mostly, looking at you Nashville)

Love to see a short update on this now after 3 years of updates and patches, just to hear your thoughts and see if they've smoothed out any of the issues with it

The wait for your videos is way worth it

i have no idea how your reviews are so on point but they are always so precise. always get to the core of the issue. you should make a racing game and crowdsource it

"The planes is where the game really takes off." that was too good i hate you

33:43 That face, what a waste ;)

I bought Crew 2 on sale after playing Crew years ago. The game has its fair share of issues but most of them fade into the background when playing with friends. I love how driving in a Crew is encouraged both in free roam and events.

Finally a decent review. All i have to say though, >Loot did get fixed in the most recent patch 1.0.3 / update )You won't receive lower level parts than what you already have equipped in that vehicle) but yes it was a trainwreck at the start. >In my opinion, the leaderboards are just useless, specifically the FANS one (on PC that is, I don't know about consoles) of course it being the most important considering you can see how well you're doing compared to the rest in the amount of fame that you have. Sadly that fell short since before the patch 1.0.3 that got released there were numerous exploits regarding Freestyle in freeroam, the insane amount of fans that you could get. So seeing the Top 3 in that leaderboard be people that have abused such exploits was a bit dumb, since legit players can't get to the positions they deserve (and the exploiters didn't receive any punishment other than the Icon levels requiring more fans to level up for everyone). i'm just venting at this point but man. There are a lot of stuff on your review that i can agree and disagree with, it's so well done and amazingly explained. Guess i'll have to check out your other content!

I bought The Crew 2 at Gamestop for $15 over the past week and once I finished it I came here wanting to hear your thoughts, so I figured I'd offer some feedback on a few of your points. 12:02 - YES, it took me an infuriating amount of time to realize I needed to pull back to increase runaway boat speed. I wondered why I had a vehicle +40 than the recommended and yet was barely scraping by in events, then a pop-up tip that I luckily saw told me what to do, never had an issue with boat events after that. 23:30 - I found myself in the vicious "Replay the same event because my crap vehicle isn't good enough to compete in any other until I get more loot" cycle in the touring car section and jet ski boat sections. I lacked the skill to pull them off with my cheap vehicle and thus barely scrapped by playing the same event 10+ times until I got enough loot to progress. It really does suck since there is no other plausible way to boost your gear other than playing with that vehicle. 33:42 - YOU BASTARD 38:28 - I disagree with you in the sense that I felt the Xtreme Events were actually some of the most enjoyable in the entire game. In my head I always went "alright I survived this bit, let's see what's next" until I realized you can preview what events are coming in the menu activities screen. I still thought they were pretty fun, tho as you mentioned having to see that same damn cutscene every restart was obnoxious. I also appreciated how you mentioned the vital point that once Ubisoft decides to stop supporting the servers, The Crew 2 will die. I personally feel it's a very solid 7/10 and that I 100% got my moneys worth with the wonderful open world. My biggest hope is that the car physics are improved (so it doesn't feel like gravity is SUCKING you down all the time and crashes are some of the most unexciting moments in the entire game, which is a big no no for an arcade racer). Nonetheless, great vid man!

I hope you see this: you can customize every vehicle's assists and setup, gradually unlocking new ways to do so when you level up. but popular gives you assists, and when you remove them the cars are a blast it's just the default distribution that is meh

*Excuse me, but most wanted 2012 was my introduction to racing games and I LOVED it. Taught me well on how to avoid traffic, too.*

Fun fact: Cars do slow down when you drift.

i picked up this game not too long ago, it suffers from the same thing every other ubisoft title does, every character feels like an on screen mechanic or button waiting to be used or pressed, the open world feels like a place you can travel through while moving from what feels like one digital lobby to the next. Also on a personal note they have an area I am quite familiar with in the game, although i do not expect them to do justice to every real life location you think they would keep shrubbery and grass out of a location that is historically in the middle of the desert.

The crew 2: an in-depth review: electric boogaloo

I remember being able to beat most street races with a Harly Davison lmao

Why should be the loading times in the open world benefit from the always-on-bs?

the rock station introduced me to my favourite artist and rock in general. clearly they did something right because those songs are still gems 5 years later

my guy, hearing your low tone voice and sweet european sarcasm is one of the most calming thing in the world to me to listen for a good while on a cold and lonely snowy nights ❤️ thank you

You spend as much effort in meticulously crafting these reviews as the devs themselves on their games. Massive respect. Massive.

I finished touring car and immediately tuned them for drifting, those things feel amazing to drift around a corner (just, not in a race, lol)

I havent an internet connection.

They made good decision to release it before Forza Horizon 4. I don`t see anything really worth to try over 1st one. And the biggest thing about The Crew series is bad handling model. This is why I played FH3 about 1000 hours and The Crew less than 100. FH3 makes you rethink about value of other racing games.

I appreciate these kinds of videos. I don't know anyone else who analyzes racing games - even though you do focus on arcade racers. Also, it would be cool if you did some Patreon Q/A at the end of your videos. I think Mandalore does it, and another analysis channel as well.

This is by far one of the fairest best reviews I’ve ever seen of any game. I am subscribing

Fun fact, the weird work warping thing originally didn't have the small cutscene thing and the reason they added the cutscene is because it just didn't work in gameplay so the idea was sort of half scrapped, the game also looked worse than the crew 1 in the alpha stage, also I don't think I'll get in trouble for saying this now as the NDA for the alpha testers would have expired long ago by now, the alpha was actually very different to the game at release

I really hope this game gets an offline end of life update when that time comes eventually.

I have no intrest in racing games and actively avoid them but this video still managed to captivate me the entire way though. Great job.

Really great video. With Crew 2 on Stadia, and the deep sale price it's at, I wanted something properly in-depth...this was faultless, and exactly what I was looking for. I've subscribed to get more of your content. Thank you. :)

Loved the 'what a waste of a pretty face' 33:42 music reference. I've heard the rock radio so much that all the musics are engrained in my brain

For me the terrible driving physics and lack of attention to detail ruin it. One of the worst cases of this (imo) is tire marks appearing in front of the tires, as can be seen very clearly at 46:52.

great video breakdown of the game. one thing though, about what you said about the drifting slowing you down too much... drifting by its physical nature, as it is in reality, is the slowest way around a turn/corner and is why cars lose speed when they're drifting. this is why you don't see race cars drifting around tracks... they would lose too much time drifting around every turn. conversely, the quickest way around a track is to not drift, but to hit every apex in every turn at the fastest possible turning speeds. so you see, any racing game wherein your car slows down while drifting is at the very least a racing game based in reality and not one based on a racer like Mariokart where drifting nets you more speed.

10:00 camaro looks like both it's front wheel are gonna come flying off whenever it is turning wth

This is the best Review I have seen in my whole life and I was born in 1982.

Finally RU-vid recommend me something good

Awesome review! Yet again a well thought out and explained video explaining both the pros and cons in detail rather than other idiots on the internet saying "It's bad just because" or "It's good just because". Keep up the hard work! I'll try to sub to your patreon when I get some money because we need more people like you on the internet!

Dang this game has gotten a boatload of new updates after this

this is basically an alternate for test drive unlimited 2 you have a huge map you can buy houses Unfortunately, you can't make hot babes wash your car but honestly, with all the downs this game has I think people should really appreciate how they took the time to make the entire united states without loading screens i think that's something most people wanted and dreamed of at the same time and today they have just that, so i think the crew 2 gave everyone what they wanted and i think people should learn to be freaking grateful

Here's a tip for people who don't know. Boosting while in mid air with any ground vehicle, makes you go faster and farther. Also if you're gonna do a race when your vehicle score is low, expect to have a hard time coming in first place.

An extremely thorough and detailed review, love it. I don't play a lot of racing games so I'm constantly looking for the next "great" one. Thanks for your thoughts~

It could have helped the game if each vehicle type was following its own rules of physics instead of sharing them. Arcadey NFS physics for road vehicles, sim-cade Forza physics for track-ready vehicles like Touring Cars and Formula 1, tight GTA 5 Physics for boats, and the planes can stay the same since they already work great.

21:50 these little stats are pretty interesting when you have +22% boost power, double the boost amount, and double the boost regeneration

How about Reviewing this game in extreme detail again, 4 years after it came out? This Review can be considered a bit… well… outdated by some, if you know what I mean

"Every major city is here" *Kansas City cries in a corner, ignored by daddy Ubisoft twice now*

Crew 2 has one of the most annoying thing that is the Exhaust pop. when ever that happens i wonder is engine is going to pop out of the car.

Here in 2021 still very much attached to this game. The 2021 FREE DLC is fun as well but the PC life of this game is PACKED!

This was a nice review, but I think it's a bit too much focused on comparison to other games (Forza Horizon 3, NFS) rather than the prequel (The Crew). I did Closed Alpha 2 and Closed Beta, and I was impressively dissappointed when comparing to the original. Probably because at the very same time I was playing through The Crew for the first time. Original, while it has the downsides, is a pretty good game nowadays - handling feels really good (especially on a gamepad with "Sport" handling preset), you can drift and throw the car nicely; physics are arcade, but good enough (although the game, just like the sequel, HATES cars flipped over, or even trying to flip it on the side is hard) and AI felt decent, and overall there just was activities all over the place, in various roads, and various types (racing line, checkpoints, slalom, scramble, escape..). This game, though... Driving felt just bad, as mentioned (especially drifting), physics are wonky and AI is stupidly rubberbanding, not to mention the lack of off-racing activities. Either a "wait for sale" or "skip it overall" type in my books - if you want open-world racing, Forza Horizon or even NFS does the job better, in my opinion.

>every major city >no mini-Austin, the capital of Texas

"And parked cars weights more than aircraft carriers" Hehe. You know, this is a thing that keeps repeating itself in games. I remember back in the days when NFS Most wanted was new, and I had so much fun raming through a road block of police cars, cause they did barrel rolls to the point where you would get dizzy. It felt like I was actually driving that fast when I hit a car, but in today's racing games, it's like parking your car in the leg of a tree, and it's killing the fun. For a game like this, it should be a little unrealistic, but in a entertaining way, and not in a boring way like this. Also, good work in the details of this video.

The fact that I own this game and I actually plan ahead for things to do in it is very telling that I have a serious problem.

"they didnt want 9/11 remakes" 1st of all, chicago wasnt the victim of 9/11. new york was 2nd of all, THEY LITERALLY INCLUDED THE ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER IN THE GAME LMAO

What is the music at around 40 minutes? Amazing track!

thank god they changed a few things to make it more real and this why i call it the No Man's Sky racing game

Subscribed! Just discovered you I've been looking for good comparisons between the Top 3 car games, I've never seen such in depth review aside from SkillUp. I Appreciate the effort you put into them good job, and I think I'll get Crew 2 *Steam Sale $15* can't go wrong with that 🙂👍

Nice! Very happy to see a review of The Crew 2 from you.

Sick video dude, loved the way you presented you opinions, wish more review videos were like this. I was on a roller coaster between "I would love that game" and "I couldn't play this shit" back and forth.

It's already been 4 years since this game came out? Jeeesus...time flies. thx for another great review.

I agree with most of you arguments in the video but personally I feel that only a part of the game physics fits the game and the reason why I am saying this is the "crash" physics. When you hit another car on the road the reaction of the car is entirely random, for example, I would prefer for it to be consistent and whenever I hit something I would lose a large portion of my speed rather than just praying that you get lucky and maybe escape for some reason.I understand that the reason for the wanky crash physics is the fact that they have planes as well. Also I believe it wouldn't hurt if they had added an "explain" button while in the pro settings but that's just my opinion cause I don't know all of the "car terms" yet.

That's gotta be the most accurate spot on review of that game I've ever seen. Nice job.

This was the best review of Crew 2. You have earned a subscriber.

I personally really enjoyed the Touring Car races. Great review!

R2: The tippy-toe button

I have played this game for 2 months. The progression is to fast. I am at icon 250, I was icon 200 a week ago. It upgrades way to fast Already all of my vehicles are max upgraded. The loot can upgrade till legendary (gold). And the tuning can make a shitty car become the fastest. Once you go in depth you can find so much small details in tuning. Once legendary parts are gotten, you have to keep getting them until you are able to get the same type of legendary part which can make you have 2x as much boost for example. Though they listened to this review.

Would love a Crew 2 X Years Later, a lot has changed since launch and I think it holds up... okay, for when you get bored with Horizon 5 or want to road trip across a bigger world.

I just want a Midnight Club 3 PC Remaster, that's all I ask from the force I was hoping The Crew 2 would fill in that gap, and it totally could have if it wasn't for the depressing handling mechanics

Damn that was pretty good, solid, perfectly edited video! And completely agree with you.

Should I buy this game? It's currently $59 AUD for the deluxe edition at my local game store. I mostly want good engine sounds and nice scenery. I would mostly just roleplay in this game. I don't really care too much about doing the races.

I thought forza 5 horizon was hot shit because of the graphics and reviews. I wouldn’t even give heat or crew 2 a chance because of their age. Finally tried heat and was super impressed! It was fun and i enjoyed the driving mechanics more than forza. crew 2 was recently on sale so i decided to buy and oh man! So happy i did! Yeah it’s graphically inferior to the other 2 however it’s by far the best game of the 3 for me. The map alone on crew 2 is worth it and i love how it zooms from the street level all the way out to map view. Watching this review is making me more anxious to play!

Good video, you should do a follow up on how it is now and if that "Spring Cleaning" as you said ever happened

Definitely needs another review. Much has changed

I'd love to see an open world racing game with realistic physics.

In-air monster truck physics have been wonky ever since the first game. It has nothing to do with planes

every major city is there Austin:whimper Houston:laughs*

day 1 buyer, the game was such a letdown, years later theyve added stuff but still haven't fixed basic issues that will affect the player, decided to reinstall the game and check out the newest patch, still broken imo, same roads and on/off-ramps are broken with busted traffic flow....an issue thats been there since release, how do devs miss things like this?

I couldn't do the first race , i had to upgrade it buy getting those random part reward things out in the wild

i definitely agree and it has its faults and being a big fan of drift, rally racing, drag racing, street racing, offroad racing, and long fun journeys on massive and in detail open worlds it fails at a lot of realism and detail and some things are ridiculous, it's absurd how one second I'm smiling from ear to ear having fun and the next im chucking my controller at a wall but i will say, being a fan of the old need for speed games me and my friends used to play like underground and undercover honestly this is the first game that gave me that feeling of being a total badass at driving in different styles and also having a good feeling of every minute of practice counts, seriously, just when i thought i was amazing at drifting and street racing i unlocked the harder activities and wow, just when you thought it was too easy now you're screaming it's too hard lol and i kinda like that sort of challenge

i can't help but think that you're wrong on saying the photo mode is the best. It's obviously your opinion, but Take a look at gt sport if you can. There are dozens and dozens of adjustable sliders, preset filters, image proportions (16:9, 16: 10, 4:3, 1: 01 and more), camera movement settings, motion blur, rendering settings, preset scenarios, camera angles, shutter speeds, chromatic aberration, bloom and, essentially, a never ending list of features that go well beyond basic effects and colors.

Need For Speed: Underground was the first game I ever played, I was like 4 or 6. I’ve spent my whole life lookin for something similar to it, and NSFHP is the closest thing I can think of. The crew 2 is fun, and being a geography dude I love driving around the USA, but after 20+ hrs the physics still feel way off. Will probably keep playing though, it can scratch the itch but isn’t perfect.

Offline / Solo play are my reason to stick with Forza Horizon instead. I have fond memories of Test Drive Unlimited and almost made Platnum on Alone in the Dark 5 (not worth it, I'm weird). Eden Games was a highlight in "Euro jank", not perfect but I remember them still. I was glad that they reformed as Ivory Tower. But I can't buy into Ubisofts business model and services. I played AC:O on Xbox, but I will not install uPlay and stick with alternatives that support offline. It's also kinda sad, that The Crew replaced the Driver franchise, when it was just finding it's identidy with Driver: SA. My highest hope for Crew 2 is the long term support, which hopefully improves console performance and bring interessting new content. The Crew Wild Run seemed to be a good expansion. A Canonball Run story seems to be the perfect frameing for a racing game story. Or is it too obvious?

In jetsprint you can actually move your controller to the front left/right to turn tighter and it helps you make up a lot of time and it makes turning fast/sharply way easier.

Love your reviews they are straight to the point

WHITELIGHTS BACK BABY

6:40 the song that plays here, please be soo kind to tell me the name? Been looking for it and can't find it, love your work btw.

I love this video a lot because of a lot if things, but mostly because its fair. Its great, keep it up.

Just watched your Need For Speed and now this review Im pretty much sure you love arcade racers take a look at: Asphalt 9, Horizon Chase Turbo, Ridge Racer Unbounded Asphalt is Free, Horizon and RRU are $11 and $3.74 on sale

This is a great review and I enjoyed watching it, as I enjoy watching all of your content. I personnally prefer the first one, I believe the driving sensations were much better. When I tried The Crew 2, it felt too arcady for me to like it, whether it be the cars, the planes or the boats. I'm also not a big fan of the graphics change, as everything looks like it's made of plastic now, espacially the roads. You made a lot of comparisons to FH3, which I didn't play so I can't say anything about it, but not so much to the first one. And while the game improved in some areas, I believe it forgot some of the strenghts of the first one : the driving (which is, at least to me, the most enjoyable arcade driving experience since Hot Pursuit 2010), the exploration and the variety of the content (skills, story missions, faction races, PVP, Police chases, Summit activities,...).

Awesome review! it's on sale on the ps store right now, gonna get it

Love the vid, but just fyi, I think the drifting feels bad for you because you have the assists on. Turn off traction and stability control and the drifting in this game becomes a lot more enjoyable.