Updated at 9/1/2015, Status update

There is a summary at the end if you are too busy to see through the whole review.
And just a kindly reminder, there is no R-35 in the game yet.

-------9/1/2015-------
Patch released at 7th
+ Car fix
+ Better connection

- No fix on AI
- Faction War still meaningless
- Still no rear mirror
- Little more bugs

Better than before but not enough
------------------------

Hate to say it, but if you are not a big fan of a free-roam racing game, don't buy it at this moment
Although I am not recommending this game, this doesn't mean I don't like this game, as you see I have thrown more than 100 hours in it

The Crew was a good game for people to driving around the states, it still is, but with tons of flaws atm.
Still, I should start on the good things first as some of you may still interested in the game.

At first, It has a biggest map for a racing game I ever saw, even I have spent more then 100 hours in the game, I still have about 1/4 to 1/5 of the map is undiscovered.
If you only drive to explorer the map and not doing missions, it should take you at least 12 hours, as you can drive 3-4 hours in a starting car just driving a lap of the border.

The game also provide various terrain and environment, with landmarks for players to enjoy and explorer freely.
In some of the story mission, it will even provide some environment effect like fireworks or plane flying over your head which is quite stunning when you see it first time.

There are 5 specs for cars: Street, Dirt, Perf, Raid, Circuit
For Street, Dirt and Perf, there are parts to let you to customize the cars, like front bumper, hood, rear wing, etc.
Just be aware not all the car has all 5 spec.
The interior of the cars are quite detail and you are able to customize the color of it in most of the cars.

There are also different activity like skill challenge or limited period mission that may keep you playing.


Bad things
First of all, lack of cars, there are only 40+5(wreck) cars if you are not buying the season pass, also, there are no Audi, Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Honda, Hyundai, Vovle and more.
And for each brands there are only 1-2 cars.

The handling are not realistic like GT series, it is acceptable but you may feel strange for the first few hours.

The things that can be driving through are also uncertain, you can drive through some fences in cities, and bounce off with others.

There are no technical tuning in this game, like suspension modification, angle of tires, etc.
The only thing you get is upgrading the equipment directly.

There is no rear mirror view when you are in interior mode

The mechanism of automatic transmission is flawed (Details in Full review)

The difficulty of this game is very hard in different aspect and it is not adjustable.
First, the Rival AI's car can be insanely fast, they will not slow down by environment unless crash.
For some casual driver with the staring cars, it is very hard for them to catch up.
And with the auto catch-up system, even if you are good at driving and lead the whole race, you make one mistake and you will be overtake then lose.

You can invite other players to the mission to try to decrease the difficulty
But the problem is you will need to wait for the game to connect to a random session before you can invite players you don't know
And with a maximum 8 people session, there is very hard to find one who actually willing to play with you

About the police chase, first, the police is as fast as rival AI's car in missions.
They have a circle radar around them instead of a cone vision which should be able to block by buildings
The police heli can see through the tunnels
Most ridiculously is that if you go too far from the police cars, the police car can spawn anywhere near you, and sometime in front of you
This make you need to maintain an approximate distance that their radar cannot catch you but no police car will spawn
To escape it should be always as fast as possible, I don't know why they need to make this system so counterintuitive

There is some perk in the game which can actually increase the handling, acceleration, speed, etc. in the game
Which mean even with a same car, a LV50 player still have a big advantage compare to a LV1 player, if the LV1 player haven’t bought any perk points using credit which can be obtain by paying real money.

Car level nearly mean everything, especially when doing story missions with others.
With my 1200 lv cars, I always outrun the guy who invited me to the coop mission in his/her first time attempt.
In my experience, the higher lv car you have, the higher position you will get in PVP.
And to get a car over 1000lv, you will first have to reach 50 lv at your character
Which mean you will have a big disadvantage before you reach 50 lv

In this game there is a faction war system but meaningless

The stability of the session can be very unstable
When you are in a crew, you select a mission and invite you crewmate, you can end up with your crew member playing the mission themselves and you get a forever loading screen
Similar things happen when you select public PVP lobby, you will be the only one who get into the lobby and your crewmate will continue finding a lobby.
Sometimes you crew member will not appear in your screen even when you are beside of him/her.

PVP sessions also contain connection problems
Sometimes when other player in your session have a unstable connection, the game will pause for 5 seconds
when the player have a really bad connection, you game can have more than 10 times pauses, which is extremely annoying
sometimes you can also getting left behind at the starting line when people already racing in front of you with about a hundred yards away


This is a nice racing game, and for some people it is still a masterpiece
but it is also nearly the worst racing online game ever, don't even know why they make the MMO feature as a selling point
The slogan of this game is "Never Drive Alone", but for me it is like "Never Drive Alone If You Want To Suffer"

Pros
Huge map for exploration
Many customization for some cars in some spec
Detail and customizable interior
Beautiful and various environment
Environment effects in story missions
Different activities that keep you playing

Cons
Lack of cars
No technical tuning
Handling/Physics are not realistic
Flaws in automatic transmission
No rear mirror
Difficulty is overall high and not adjustable
AI cars will not slow down by environment
Maximum 8 people session make players hard to crew up
Police chasing system is stupid and annoying
Perk system can provide unbalanced advantages
LV of cars nearly mean everything
Faction War system is totally unfair
Forced online with the server is unstable
Game statistics can be messed up by the game/server
Unstable connection among friends/crew member and to the sessions
PVP connection problem
Bad avatar system
Various Bugs

Mixed
Too much uncertainty on the road

Recommend to buy it if you
Love free rome style racing game
Have friends to play together and can tolerate to any possible fail from the server
Love customize your cars and show off

Not Recommend to buy it if you
Cares more about realism of racing
Are a casual driver and consider this game as a single player racing game
Don't want to use tons of times to climb the ladder (Cars LV, PVP, Faction)
Want to drive cars that doesn't exist in the game (find the list on the internet)
Want to race on 1:1 scale circuit
Have a bad connection

Updated at 9/1/2015, Status update [h1] Appearently I have written too much, please click [url=http://puu.sh/eipvZ/ca835ef51e.txt]HERE[/url] or [url=http://puu.sh/eipGl/873c2579b7.doc]HERE(doc)[/url] for the full review[/h1] [u]There is a summary at the end if you are too busy to see through the whole review[/u]. [i]And just a kindly reminder, there is no R-35 in the game yet.[/i] -------9/1/2015------- Patch released at 7th + Car fix + Better connection - No fix on AI - Faction War still meaningless - Still no rear mirror - Little more bugs [u]Better than before but not enough[/u] ------------------------ Hate to say it, but if you are not a big fan of a free-roam racing game, don't buy it at this moment Although I am not recommending this game, this doesn't mean I don't like this game, as you see I have thrown more than 100 hours in it The Crew was a good game for people to driving around the states, it still is, but with tons of flaws atm. Still, I should start on the good things first as some of you may still interested in the game. At first, It has a biggest map for a racing game I ever saw, even I have spent more then 100 hours in the game, I still have about 1/4 to 1/5 of the map is undiscovered. If you only drive to explorer the map and not doing missions, it should take you at least 12 hours, as you can drive 3-4 hours in a starting car just driving a lap of the border. The game also provide various terrain and environment, with landmarks for players to enjoy and explorer freely. In some of the story mission, it will even provide some environment effect like fireworks or plane flying over your head which is quite stunning when you see it first time. There are 5 specs for cars: Street, Dirt, Perf, Raid, Circuit For Street, Dirt and Perf, there are parts to let you to customize the cars, like front bumper, hood, rear wing, etc. Just be aware not all the car has all 5 spec. The interior of the cars are quite detail and you are able to customize the color of it in most of the cars. There are also different activity like skill challenge or limited period mission that may keep you playing. [u]Bad things[/u] First of all, lack of cars, there are only 40+5(wreck) cars if you are not buying the season pass, also, there are no Audi, Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Honda, Hyundai, Vovle and more. And for each brands there are only 1-2 cars. The handling are not realistic like GT series, it is acceptable but you may feel strange for the first few hours. The things that can be driving through are also uncertain, you can drive through some fences in cities, and bounce off with others. There are no technical tuning in this game, like suspension modification, angle of tires, etc. The only thing you get is upgrading the equipment directly. There is no rear mirror view when you are in interior mode The mechanism of automatic transmission is flawed (Details in Full review) The difficulty of this game is very hard in different aspect and it is not adjustable. First, the Rival AI's car can be insanely fast, they will not slow down by environment unless crash. For some casual driver with the staring cars, it is very hard for them to catch up. And with the auto catch-up system, even if you are good at driving and lead the whole race, you make one mistake and you will be overtake then lose. You can invite other players to the mission to try to decrease the difficulty But the problem is you will need to wait for the game to connect to a random session before you can invite players you don't know And with a maximum 8 people session, there is very hard to find one who actually willing to play with you About the police chase, first, the police is as fast as rival AI's car in missions. They have a circle radar around them instead of a cone vision which should be able to block by buildings The police heli can see through the tunnels Most ridiculously is that if you go too far from the police cars, the police car can spawn anywhere near you, and sometime in front of you This make you need to maintain an approximate distance that their radar cannot catch you but no police car will spawn To escape it should be always as fast as possible, I don't know why they need to make this system so counterintuitive There is some perk in the game which can actually increase the handling, acceleration, speed, etc. in the game Which mean even with a same car, a LV50 player still have a big advantage compare to a LV1 player, if the LV1 player haven’t bought any perk points using credit which can be obtain by paying real money. Car level nearly mean everything, especially when doing story missions with others. With my 1200 lv cars, I always outrun the guy who invited me to the coop mission in his/her first time attempt. In my experience, the higher lv car you have, the higher position you will get in PVP. And to get a car over 1000lv, you will first have to reach 50 lv at your character Which mean you will have a big disadvantage before you reach 50 lv In this game there is a faction war system but meaningless The stability of the session can be very unstable When you are in a crew, you select a mission and invite you crewmate, you can end up with your crew member playing the mission themselves and you get a forever loading screen [strike]Similar things happen when you select public PVP lobby, you will be the only one who get into the lobby and your crewmate will continue finding a lobby. Sometimes you crew member will not appear in your screen even when you are beside of him/her.[/strike] PVP sessions also contain connection problems Sometimes when other player in your session have a unstable connection, the game will pause for 5 seconds when the player have a really bad connection, you game can have more than 10 times pauses, which is extremely annoying sometimes you can also getting left behind at the starting line when people already racing in front of you with about a hundred yards away This is a nice racing game, and for some people it is still a masterpiece but it is also nearly the worst racing online game ever, don't even know why they make the MMO feature as a selling point The slogan of this game is "Never Drive Alone", but for me it is like "Never Drive Alone If You Want To Suffer" [h1]Summary[/h1] [u][b]Pros[/b][/u] Huge map for exploration Many customization for some cars in some spec Detail and customizable interior Beautiful and various environment Environment effects in story missions Different activities that keep you playing [u][b]Cons[/b][/u] Lack of cars No technical tuning Handling/Physics are not realistic Flaws in automatic transmission No rear mirror Difficulty is overall high and not adjustable AI cars will not slow down by environment Maximum 8 people session make players hard to crew up Police chasing system is stupid and annoying Perk system can provide unbalanced advantages LV of cars nearly mean everything Faction War system is totally unfair Forced online with the server is unstable Game statistics can be messed up by the game/server Unstable connection among friends/crew member and to the sessions PVP connection problem Bad avatar system Various Bugs [u][b]Mixed[/b][/u] Too much uncertainty on the road [u]Recommend to buy it if you[/u] Love free rome style racing game Have friends to play together and can tolerate to any possible fail from the server Love customize your cars and show off [u]Not Recommend to buy it if you[/u] Cares more about realism of racing Are a casual driver and consider this game as a single player racing game Don't want to use tons of times to climb the ladder (Cars LV, PVP, Faction) Want to drive cars that doesn't exist in the game (find the list on the internet) Want to race on 1:1 scale circuit Have a bad connection