Above: I’m sorry, officer, I thought this was America.
The Crew
For The Crew, I interviewed lead game designer Serkan Hassan of Ivory Tower, which worked on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions.
The Numbers
Out Nov. 11 for PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Xbox 360 for $60.
Unique features
According to Hassan, The Crew is a blending of the traditional racing genre and the massively multiplayer online games. It uses the entire United States as the world. He called this a driving game with a few racing elements sprinkled in.
Hassan emphasized The Crew’s massive representation of the United States. Other racing games traditionally lock players into tunnels, he said, but The Crew allows players to drive on absolutely anything. Players aren’t forced to stay on the highways; the mountains, deserts and hills of America are also fair game.
Hassan added that you have multiple ways to get from city to city. He also encourages you to go off-road whenever and wherever.
Hassan also praised the American scenery portrayed in the game, saying that The Crew features 12 major cities, with many more small cities and towns. The team at Ivory Tower envisioned players taking long road trips across the country, stopping at major-car culture landmarks like Daytona Beach along the way.
Cars
Hassan didn’t come right out with a number but instead to focus on the customization options of The Crew’s vehicles.
The Crew features five different performance specifications, which each allow a player to take their chosen vehicle in various directions, Hassan said. These specs take into account 11 performance areas, such as the engine, tires, and suspension of a car.
Hassan detailed each one of these specs.
The first is the Street Racer spec, which is sort of a Fast and Furious model, he said. The Dirt Spec transforms the vehicle into a rally car, and the Performance Spec is for highways. Hassan added that the performance spec differs from the Street Racer spec in that it is tuned for straight, long distance races, like a cross-county trek from New York to Miami.
Hassan said the Raid Spec was influenced by Baja racing. Cars have a single seat, a roll cage, jacked up suspension, and massive off-road tires. These are used for going through mountains, forests, and swamps. Finally, the Circuit Spec is a basic racetrack tuning set.
Hassan added that each car’s look can be customized using an editor.
The number of cars in The Crew has sparked a lively debate across several forums. Most, including this one from Game FAQs, project the overall number to be between 40-50, which would place The Crew at the bottom end of the spectrum as far as car variety. The Crew’s car page lists 20 as of Sept. 19.
Why should people buy your game over the competitors?
Hassan: The first reason is just the sheer size of [our game]. If you want the largest open world in any driving game and potentially any game period, then you want The Crew. All of this is free for you and friends and your friends to explore at your leisure.
We believe we have something for car fans as well as someone who doesn’t typically play driving games.
Screenshots
