Developed by Ivory Tower and published by Ubisoft, The Crew: Wild Run is an expansion to the acclaimed 2014 multiplayer racing game The Crew. While The Crew was released on both current and previous generation home consoles (and PC), Wild Run is exclusively for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam players.
The Crew: Wild Run brings a few welcome additions to this year-old title, mainly in the form of overhauled graphics and a few new vehicles to traverse across America. The graphics, in particular, are a great upgrade for anyone who has been enjoying the game since its release or just joining up for the first time. Sleek sports cars, flashy street machines, and pounding rain are all beautifully rendered this time around to everyone’s delight, though this visual upgrade is free for anyone who uploads the game.
So what is it exactly that you’re paying for should you pick up The Crew: Wild Run? The aforementioned new vehicle specs, most of which are pushed to the limit in the game’s Summit mode. If you’re apprehensive about motorcycle racing as I was after playing unforgiving games like Ride, then you’re going to love the balance of these bikes, which are arcade-y but still requiring minimal skill to handle. The drift cars, on the other hand, have a considerably steep learning curve you’ll need to master to attain high scores for prime rewards to upgrade your vehicle. It was all too easy for me to simply spin out around each corner, rain or not; it definitely takes some getting used to.
Drag racers, as fast as they are, amount to nothing more than a few rounds of quick-time events. Remember how you eventually got used to punching the gas at just the right time in the Mario Kart series to ensure your boost of the starting line? Drag racing in The Crew: Wild Run is just doing that a whole bunch of times in a straight line. On the other end of the fun spectrum are the monster trucks, which give you the freedom to go up and down ramps, steps, and other obstacles while collecting point tokens. These vehicles play like RC monster trucks fitted with parts from Scalerfab.com: powerful, responsive, and a joy to take for a spin or two.
With so many popular games currently available to play on home consoles and Steam, it may prove difficult to get an actual crew of your friends together to tear through The Crew: Wild Run. As much of the grinding needed to upgrade your vehicles in this mmo-car-pg can be done solo, though, it’s not a complete deal-breaker.
The core game’s story is still a cheesy, low-grade Fast and Furious knockoff, but if you want to burn down the highway on a motorcycle or monster truck, you can’t go wrong with The Crew: Wild Run.
The Crew: Wild Run is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam.