The Crew Motorfest is the latest iteration in the popular franchise. In the past, with the first two games, you have been able to race across the United States. The development team at Ubisoft Ivory Tower decided to change things up with The Crew Motorfest taking place in Hawaii. Being confined to one location like that removes some of the allure of the originals. However, I definitely get some Forza Horizon vibes while playing the game, which is a big compliment. When you start the game there is an opening sequence similar to those Forza Horizon games. Then, eventually, you enter the world.

Once you are able to do so, bring up the world map. This is the hub where you will find all of the events. Interestingly, the map is interactive as you can see cars racing down a road on the map as you are trying to decide your next course of action. The Crew Motorfest features several different activities that will keep you busy for a while. This includes activities with cars, boats, and planes.

For starters, there are the Playlists. This is the “story” of the game. Different playlists represent car cultures from around the world. Despite the game being in Hawaii, they found an excellent way to give this international flavor. One great example is the “Made in Japan” playlist. This playlist features different types of races and opportunities to see the world a bit differently. You have drag races, a drift trial, a standard race, photo opportunities, and more.

There are a lot of different playlists to choose from. In addition to the Japanese one I just mentioned, there is one for “Dream Cars,” another for “American Muscle,” “Hawaii Scenic,” “Rule the Streets,” and more. Each has its own vibe, with the “American Muscle” category giving you a history lesson on American muscle cars as you complete activities. The “Hawaii Scenic” playlist is more about showing the area’s beauty while racing through checkpoints and accomplishing different goals. Every playlist that is available in the game is available from the beginning. However, some of them might require that you buy a specific vehicle.

These playlists are only one part of the equation. You will also see different “feats” available as you explore the map. These include speed traps, slalom, escape, and more. I don’t remember a slalom event like this in a racing game. Still, I really enjoyed the idea behind it. Feats are a part of the free driving experience. They can begin automatically by passing through a gate with a suitable vehicle. This is also a method of competing with friends asynchronously. As I mentioned above, you can also find these within the context of a playlist.

In addition to those different “feats” available to you, there are also thematic challenges. If you are going through the Japan playlist, for example, you might encounter a challenge called “Nihon No Hashiriya.” In this challenge, you must drive 15 minutes above 150 Km/h in freeride at night. There are over 25 challenges you can attempt within each playlist.

Of course, there is an online component here as well. It is an “always online” game, meaning you need to connect to their servers, even if you are playing alone. If you want to test your skills against other players, you can do so with a couple of different modes. There is the “Grand Races,” which are races with up to 28 players. These are in three separate sections and will take approximately ten minutes.

The second option is the Demolition Royale. This is a battle royale for The Crew Motorfest. You “fight” in crews of four and have up to 8 crews, meaning there can be up to 32 players here. It begins in a Zone that will shrink as time passes until only one team stands. For accessibility concerns, the RPG system doesn’t exist here. All players will have the same vehicle level.

The Crew Motorfest is accessible in other ways as well. First is the difficulty level. You can have it on the easiest mode, where you don’t receive much of a challenge from the AI during races, and you can kick back and enjoy yourself. On the flip side, you can put it on the hardest difficulty available and have to fight for every inch as you battle it out to see who can cross the finish line first.

Other accessibility options include subtitles and controlling how they look. There is also a color blind mode, a high contrast mode, a chance to change the text size, and more. For the events where it is just you against the AI, you can choose whether you want auto braking on or off, auto steering, the ability to rewind during a race, and much more. There are a decent amount of options here to help customize the experience.

As I was playing this new game, there were some issues. The first one is that since you do have to always connect to Ubisoft’s servers, the quick resume feature on the Xbox Series X doesn’t really matter. You can boot up the game quickly, but it takes a minute to connect to Ubisoft. Another irritation for me was not being able to select your starting location. Ideally, I would like to pick up the game where I left off, but you always have to start in the same spot. 

That is incredibly inconvenient if my next challenge is across the world map, and I am forced to drive that distance every time. Unfortunately, you can’t freely use the fast travel system until after you have completed ten playlists, so you are out of luck for a while. There was an instance where the game got hung up and could not stay connected to the server, but that was a rare event in all of my time with this game. 

Another thing that got under my skin is that you can’t pause the game for long. If inactive for too long, you will get booted out of the game and sent back to the menu. I understand this is probably to manage server load. Still, it is incredibly inconvenient if I have to get up to do something. Chances are I will come back to find the game has kicked me out, and I might have lost my progress if I was in the middle of an event.

Overall, The Crew Motorfest is a fun game. It doesn’t reach the heights of its inspiration, but I generally enjoyed my time with it. There will also be new content weekly to keep people coming back to play it. If they could fix those issues I discussed with a patch, I would enjoy the game even more. I recommend downloading the demo and checking it out since this is a departure from the standard Crew formula. If you like Forza Horizon-type games, though, give this a chance.

Score: 7.5/10

Abbreviated version originally posted on GameCrate