14 DAY TRIAL // 
The Crew - Wild Run feels a little pointless at first because it fails to put the biggest part of the new content, the motorcycles, front and center when a player launches the recently launched expansion for the racing title from developer Ivory Tower and publisher Ubisoft.
There's some text, easily ignored, that talks about the features gamers now have access to, and a store where the new vehicles can be seen pop up on the map, but there's no big pressure to simply go and pick up one in order to see how it handles and how much fun it can deliver.
The developers should have put a motorbike in the hands of gamers who get Wild Run for The Crew as soon as they start the experience, forcing them to ride on the roads for at least half an hour to see how addictive the nimbleness and sense of speed that they offer is.
If the various types of bikes are taken out of the equation, the expansion seems a little bare, although for those who love the racing experience and have kept up with it since it initially arrived in early December of last year, there's plenty of new content to explore.
Wild Run for The Crew is offered on the Xbox One from Microsoft, the PlayStation 4 and the PC.
Story
The Crew - Wild Run is an interesting mix of open-world and story driven experiences, with gamers initially expected to deal with some narration-driven missions before finding a crew to run their events and races.
The expansion allows players to take part in secret underground events to infiltrate a very powerful gang that appeared in Detroit and now has operations all across the United States.
The story is not too bad, but there's nothing unique or innovative in the design of the missions associated with it and the lines that the various characters use fail to have any emotional impact.
It's interesting to move around the game world to take on increasingly capable opponents and constantly improve your car, but the entire story feels like an afterthought, an element of the game that the developers had to include but never found a way to make unique.
Wild Run has the potential to create very interesting stories for each event that a player takes part in, and it's great to play with friends who can get together after an intense racing session to talk about their experience and share stories of unexpected victory and defeat.
Gameplay
The Crew - Wild Run is designed to expand the appeal of the racing game to new segments of players, giving them more options when it comes to the vehicles they drive and to how they interact with the expansion world that the development team has created.
Motorcycles are now offered by shops and players can take them for a test ride before picking up their favorite to enjoy a driving model that gives players more freedom to weave through traffic and to express themselves than the classic cars.
Motorbikes offer a sense of freedom and it's a beauty to handle them on the varied roads that Ivory Tower has created, even the fact that they never crash in a spectacular manner can sometimes feel weird.
Wild Run also adds specialized options for drifting, drag races and monster truck events, each of them with its rules and some pretty spectacular moments.
Riding high above the ground on the huge wheels of a monster truck feels very cool and empowering, and the new events mean that players have more variety and can sink hours into the racing experience by switching between them to keep things fresh.
“Wild Run also introduces a massive event called The Summit, designed to showcase everything the racing title has to offer to its fans and to encourage buyers to compete constantly over the course of a few months.”
Those interested need to get three tickets to participate, obtained either by taking part in a series of qualifiers or by using in-game currency, and once they get in, the organizers will challenge them to show how well they master the various types of vehicles and the events associated with them.
The big draw is that the point leaders will get a special car that cannot be obtained in any other way.
Drafting, dragsters, monster trucks, motorcycles and the Summit boost the already extensive range of events that The Crew offers, making it a very deep playground for those who love racing and want their mechanics a little on the arcade side.
There's a lot of content to explore in the Ubisoft title, and it's easy for gamers either to find an activity they love or to try and become proficient at everything to try and dominate their crew and the wider leaderboards.
Graphics and audio
The Crew - Wild Run does deliver a significant graphical upgrade, which is available to all those who have bought the core game and will probably convince a lot of racing fans to at least give the experience a try.
The United States of America looks like a giant playground for vehicles of all types, with the improved use of light and the dynamic weather systems delivering some truly breathtaking vistas for those who are willing to move away from the major events and simply explore the virtual country in the cars or motorcycles they love best.
The improved engine is also very solid, making sure that players never lose an event because of the framerate or because of lag, which is very important for the genre.
The Crew also offers a wide variety of radio stations for players to tune into, making sure that they have a lot of choices when they want to create the perfect soundtrack for a ride from city to city using an expensive motorcycle or for the moment when they bring their crew together to run an important event.
Multiplayer
The Crew - Wild Run encourages players to group with friends to tackle challenges as a group, offering the ability to tackle challenges cooperatively and extra rewards for those who also engage in some friendly competitive events.
FreeDrive Challenges are introduced in the expansion, allowing a player to create his courses and to set his rules before sharing the event with friends, creating a new take on the classic features of the title.
Stunts are also introduced, giving each group a series of objectives created by the engine that gradually increase in difficulty and encourage planning and cooperation.
The Good
- The Summit event
- Drift, drag and monster trucks are in
- Motorcycles offer a new take on racing
The Bad
- Limited narrative appeal
- No innovations linked to the open world
Conclusion
The new content offered during the first few years of the title's life has been solid, and a community seems to have formed around the experience and its core features.
The involved companies are saying that in the coming months they are planning to deliver more vehicles and specs, improved community features and more reasons for gamers to stay engaged via The Summit.
Unfortunately, Wild Run feels a little limited when it comes to the new content it delivers, and it will only be interesting for those who love the idea of taking a motorcycle on the United States roads.
There's a lot of potential embedded in the idea of getting a superb motorbike to travel from coast to coast and see the sights from a better vantage point than a car can offer, but in the future The Crew needs to get expansions that add a little more regarding events and innovative mechanics.
The core achievement of the game, that it offers a map of the United States that gamers can explore and exploit however they see fit, remains impressive and racing game lovers should try the core package before seeing whether they are interested in what Wild Run has to offer.
