Ignite your engines

The Crew Motorfest, developed by Ivory Tower and published by Ubisoft, was released on September 11, 2023, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series S and X, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Amazon Luna. 

The Crew Motorfest has already been visited by our team during its preview, and today we return to analyze the final game.

Motorfest is the third game in the Crew series, a highly successful franchise, only this time it's more dynamic and immersive. 



A season in Hawaii 

First of all, it's important to note that the game has come to compete strongly with Forza Horizon 5 and Need for Speed Unbound and does so in an excellent way. Compared to The Crew 2, the previous title in the series, there have been huge changes in graphics, gameplay, and pace of play, which I believe is very welcome. 

The character customization part is a very interesting point, but it doesn't have a direct impact on any other aspect of the game apart from the visuals. The real highlight is the gameplay, driving, and tuning of the cars. 

First, we take a tour of some of the playlists offered by the game. Playlists are a series of themed events, completely different from each other, that feature a short story and stunning scenery. 

I'd like to highlight the Made in Japan playlist for its visuals, with a Cyberpunk and Neonwave vibe, focusing mainly on the legendary world of Japanese drifting, with races in the mountains and usually at night. 

The Crew Motorfest does an excellent job of highlighting the most iconic cars in each playlist, whether it's a Toyota Supra or even a Lamborghini Revuelto, in its exclusive partnership with the brand, as we pointed out in our previous review. 

The highlight for me, as a fan of the automotive world, is the construction of the vehicle sounds, which are surprisingly similar to real-life models, unlike Forza Horizon 5, for example, where most of the engine sounds are generic.



The roads just got smaller 

The Crew series is already known for mixing races and competitions between land, water, and air, and here it's no different. Although the beginning of the game is basically focused on cars and an introduction to playlists, at a certain point, after a few hours, we start to compete in boat and plane races, with their own gameplay that is very different from each other. 

This variety of game modes and vehicle types directly implies a large number of models to choose from, from simple cars to luxurious supermachines, hypercars, and various models of boats and planes. 

It all fits together when you realize that Motorfest is a huge automotive festival, with the playlists being financed by a local billionaire, who even lends his cars for the races.

One curious thing that caught my eye is that the event's presenter tells us on more than one occasion that the festival is about having fun and not having to win, a fact that is confirmed when we enter races where the aim is not to come first but to finish in the top three. 

Graphically, the game is very beautiful, the landscapes are wonderful, the vehicles in general are very good,   and the themes of the playlists add a lot to the immersion of the game. Overall, compared to its competitors, the graphic quality, although beautiful, is still a little behind, especially for Forza Horizon 5. 

In any case, the game as a whole is excellent, with the engine sounds and the wide variety of cars and customizations standing out once again. 

What I also consider to be a negative point is that it's practically compulsory to play music on the game's radio stations all the time, and there's no option to turn it off. The only way I found to lower or stop the music was through the sound settings, lowering or completely silencing all the music in the game. 

What's more, the artificial intelligence of the bots is a bit mean; the existence of clean races is practically non-existent; the bots hit you, cut you off, and throw you against other cars and obstacles, even on closed circuits. I believe that, for a better experience, there should be an option for the artificial intelligence's personality, since it feels like we're playing Need for Speed and our opponents are the police. 

Despite these details, the excellence of the game must be emphasized. Personally, I was completely hooked while playing. The gameplay is very good originally and can be improved even more in the control settings, not by changing shortcuts but by changing the sensitivity of the steering, brake, and electronic assistants. The fluidity of the driving is impressive, and the transition between land, sea, and air vehicles has been much better explored compared to the other two games in the series, which I didn't like very much, especially during this transition.

The optimization of The Crew Motorfest is a very positive point, although there is a limitation of 60 frames per second maximum, which in my opinion is a huge setback. Despite this, the game is very well optimized, but a newer PC is necessary to have a satisfactory experience. 

The controls are well programmed, following the basic pattern of racing games, and if played on the controller, the experience is even better compared to the mouse and keyboard. As I said, there's no need to change any commands, just the sensitivity, if you feel it is necessary. 

The audio is also excellent, the dubbing is great, the music, although quite invasive for my taste, is very good and has been well selected, and the noise of the cars, turbines, and tires is a show apart, as I said earlier. 



An open world inspired by standards but full of personality 

My experience with The Crew Motorfest was excellent, and I was very surprised by the quality and fun the game gave me, mainly because it's a racing game and does it very well, investing heavily in the characteristics of the cars and the details. Despite the negative points I've mentioned, I was very involved with the game and had a lot of fun, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is also a fan of motorsport. 

The Crew franchise has become much more interesting since Motorfest; the game's qualities far outweigh any negative points, but never forget that everything can be improved and some details can be changed to further enhance the players and the game certainly has its value and is already a great success. 



For this review, the game was experienced on PC, using the Ubisoft Connect platform. Thanks to Ubisoft for providing the access key.