OVERVIEW
 
When Ubisoft announced this title at E3 2013, giving a taste of things to come, all fans of the genre racing were excited to see that we would have a huge world to explore and we would not be running around circuits. Also during E3 that year, it seemed that Ubisoft would be giving much to talk about with the inclusion of online mode, making the adventure reached new levels, or that one could achieve.
 
Ubisoft is a company with a very good record and with a wide fan base that can do virtually whatever they want in their games. Although this year has been nothing good for the company, there are still many successful franchises under its cloak. With the new division, Ivory Tower , Ubisoft helped create another very ambitious project of immense size. The simple act of putting on a map the United States in which players can traverse from coast to coast gives us a sense of effort and the proportion of the size of the project. 
 
I'm just going to cover the gameplay aspects of the game this time around.
 
GAMEPLAY - A-
  
If there is something that has never been good in a racing game it is the story and The Crew does not provide anything new or different in this section. In fact, it is full of stereotypes found in many games in the genre that try to tell a story. You take the role of Alex, who has been accused of the murder of his brother, so from the first minute we know this is a vendetta against it was your gang and you'll have the support of the FBI covering your back. To accomplish your mission, you will travel across the United States, beginning in Detroit and doing work, or rather, completing races to completely forgettable characters. Nothing memorable and enjoyable about the plot, especially when you have the character to which then compete constantly talking during the race in which you participate. Even among missions have Zoey, your contact at the FBI, reminding you that you have missions to do or that people close to you so that you will be able to join and there is no way around it.
 
If you want to hone your skills and cruise by the United States with your friends, you need to have spent at least five hours in the game where get things start  to get good. Still, progress can become very slow and can not unlock all challenges and thus earn money to buy better cars. Joining a faction will help speed things up a lot since you will be rewarded with a considerable amount of credits to buy new cars, but I would recommend getting used to the car you acquire early in the game and you'll be a long time on it and have to use in the first two cities.
 
Speaking about the structure of missions, The Crew offers what we expect from a modern arcade racing, just that there is constant emphasis on the functions online the same. There are point to point races, demolition of cars, collection tasks, time races and tracking missions. For a game with sixty five main missions, you'll meet a constant repetition of quests. But it must be said that there are some that are memorable with everything and repetitions, how to get to Las Vegas running on pure dirt. On the other hand, escape the police, either in missions or alert her accidentally, it can be a real pain because it is too aggressive and always reached. Yes, even at high speeds. Play missions in solitude is not entirely good. The game is constructed to have a base of 4 players and if you decide to ignore this probably will not have the best experience we can offer you the game. However, to join a group of 4 players can be very entertaining for a couple of minutes, whether playing cooperatively or competitively.
 
Outside the season you will find many challenges scattered on the map. These can meet the challenges to perform various tasks, such as driving precisely between your goals, maintain a high speed, jumping ramps and more. This will constantly be distracted and will help you unlock parts to enhance your car, but can quickly get tired of them. There is a wide variety to keep things interesting, and being scattered across the map will eventually become many points without any progress. There are also missions factions and they require a large amount of time and patience to complete. While most missions last from one to five minutes, factions missions require much time. I'm not exaggerating when I'm saying that there are challenges that last up to four hours. All this is great or at least sounds like. The problem is that these events are simple point-to-point races, and if we put on the table how easy it is to lose control and crash probably not be long in despair and unable to complete the challenge.
  
It does not help much that the game requires a constant connection. Currently there are still many problems with the stability of the servers. Many times the game was loading infinitely returning to the main menu or just disconnected in session or during the race. The social aspect is very important in the title and experience, but there is no justifying Debas always be connected when you're playing on your own, especially when this may jeopardize the progress much in the game right.
 
True to their word, the people of Ivory Tower has created its own version of the US for which we can travel, with extenuating circumstances, of course. We are talking about a video game, so the scale of the country is not represented 1:1. There are only 6 major cities with some smaller around the map that make this 100% populated. No doubt the ambitious part of the game is to recreate the American mainland, and succeeds in delivering an extensive map and changing landscapes as we move from side to side.
 
Although the setting is very varied game graphics are not on par with a game of this generation, we could spend many times for a type graphics experience Midnight Run or Test Drive Unlimited . I will not say they are the type of graphics, but there is something that really stand out. Even the cars have different effects unfinished regarding the excessive use of anti-aliasing so you'll notice, if you're fussy unfinished models altogether.
 
From Niagara Falls to Los Angeles there are 80 miles of road and is a journey that will take about forty to forty-five minutes and that's just in one direction. It certainly helps that the scenario is varied so you will not get bored with your surroundings. Unfortunately begin in Detroit works against the game and that's going to take a while to see the magnificent panorama, unless you go on your own. It does not help that can generate traffic AI. We know the city traffic behaves in a way a certain time of day, but it often seems that only has to be an obstacle in racing even when there are events that take place at night.
 
Despite the focus on the online world, The Crew is not different from other games and feels mechanically less impressive than others. There are sections of the game designed specifically for certain types of drives, so if you have a vehicle with good capabilities dirt, this will go much slower. The emphasis on skidding in curves and simplifying auto parts give you a good sense of arcade but management leaves much to be desired, especially in the early hours of gameplay. Not saying it's a poor game, but if this is the best thatUbisoft can offer in the racing genre, I fear that he has nothing to compete with other titles that came out this year.
 
The RPG elements that were included in the game are good and it would take hours to bring your vehicle to a satisfactory level of driving, especially if you decide to drive in the third-person perspective. Another point to note is that you can collect up to forty vehicles, a very small figure for a decent game today. Of course many of them are equipped to deal with inclement different way but for a game that is widely placed in a connected world, the choice is simply too short.

OVERALL
 
The Crew can be fun in certain circumstances, but unfortunately they are few. Not a bad game, there is much to enjoy in the complete package, but there is also much to prevent him stand out and be on their own. The US version of Ivory Tower is very beautiful, with many ways to go, but the lack of variety in missions there is something to worry about. It does not help much that the online component is something fundamental when there are so many flaws and're returning to the main menu often. Traveling the roads with unhurried friends is one of the most rewarding moments, but only if you have a group of friends to enjoy. The game is designed to play with other people, if you do it alone for long experience will be most tedious. The management is not good, but neither reaches alarm levels are required to re doing things over and over again until gradually begins to feel slightly handling well. The Crew is a very ambitious project that simply does not crystallize well and does not give the best of themselves.

This was a good review, with plenty of details to show the main elements of the game. However I would have like more details so you could compare the game with others of the genre/of the era for graphics, gameplay, music...