Adding a whole new vehicle type to a game full of different vehicle options is daunting. The Crew Motorfest is doing just that by adding RC cars to its live-service game. RC cars aren’t just added as smaller vehicles to drive around. They’re unique to everything else added to the game to date and show Ubisoft and Ivory Tower’s creativity still has a lot left in the tank. Particularly when adding new features regularly that harmonize so well, like RC cars and the recently added track builder mode.
When RC cars launch, it adds a fourth “motor” sport to the Motorfest circuit in The Crew Motorfest. It’s not a fourth pillar, like one you can transform into at will. The RC cars fill up the car slot while being quite different than anything else you’d drive around Hawai’i. They take some finesse, like any RC car you’ve probably played with as a child. Turns are sharp, which require tight handling to get right. Even with some of the normal vehicle features, specifically boosting, RC cars come with a new feature. That being jumping.
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In The Crew Motorfest RC car update, you’ll learn how to control and jump with your vehicle.
As part of the RC car racing circuit in The Crew Motorfest, you’ll learn all about how to control the vehicle, including jumping with it. Not just off ramps, but over obstacles. Additionally, RC cars can drive across water at speeds above a minimum threshold. With this not entirely specified, just driving normally will be sufficient to let you skate across the water. What this combination of controls equals out to is a wholly unique driving experience. Not just for The Crew Motorfest, but most modern racing games. Plus, all of these features carry over to free driving.
What is odd is how the RC Cars are represented in the open world. They’re not only driven by a cute little mechanical robot avatar, but they also aren’t as tiny as a normal RC Car is. They look more like a shrunken car reduced to like 75% of its normal size. When approaching this update with just a historical experience with RCs, the size was jarring at first, but it also makes sense that you’re not driving a tiny vehicle through Hawaiian streets.
The circuit in The Crew Motorfest features common racing types.
Going from the top to the bottom of the map would take way longer than necessary if they were just little remote-controlled vehicles. Yet driving around to each race in the RC course is a quick way to show that these cars will be far from the slowest vehicles in your livery. As for the races themselves, they’re varied enough to keep you entertained while learning about how to control an RC car finely.
The circuit in The Crew Motorfest features common racing types, such as point-to-point and time-attack laps around a location. It also has races that you’d expect from playing with RC cars: a top-down view of cars driving several laps around a tight track, chaos and all (like a Mario Kart Baby Park race).
Once all the RC races are completed, the true potential of this update becomes clear. Especially, why is the RC update a part of the same season as the track editor? In the right hands, the track editors in The Crew Motorfest can easily create courses that may rival the zaniness of another Ubisoft title, Trackmania. Like the RC Cars don’t feel too great in a normal race. But one with tricks, obstacles, and one that quickly turns into a bumper cars race, top-down can result in some amazing (and hilarious) moments.
The Crew Motorfest’s RC car update is full of creativity.
Ultimately, The Crew Motorfest‘s RC car update is full of creativity. It adds something fresh to a game that’s already quickly approaching 3 years (nothing to scoff at for a live-service game). The RC cars are unique enough from standard vehicles that they quickly push the limits of what people can do with the Track Editor feature.
Ivory Tower nails the feel of off-the-rails RC car racing and eases you into that level of racing at a good pace. They also understand that RC car driving is quite unique, and the update shows that their creativity hasn’t reached its limit for Ubisoft’s tentpole racing experience.
The Crew Motorfest RC car update is available May 6th as part of the Season 9 line-up on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Ubisoft Connect, and Steam.
