The Crew 2 and Motorfest Shift Gears with New Offline Play Modes

For fans of open-world racing games, the recent history of Ubisoft's The Crew franchise has been quite a ride—and not always in a good way. Earlier this year, Ubisoft made headlines when it decided to shutter the servers for its original game, The Crew, effectively rendering the online-only game unplayable. Adding fuel to the fire, the company went a step further in April by revoking purchases and removing the game from players' libraries entirely. As you can imagine, this decision didn’t sit well with the community, leading to significant backlash. Now, Ubisoft seems to be learning from its mistakes by introducing offline modes to The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest, ensuring "long-term access to both titles."

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Ubisoft released a brief video addressing the community's concerns, stating that they are "currently exploring different solutions" and can "confirm an offline mode" for both The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest. While they haven’t elaborated on the specifics, it's clear that the decision to implement offline modes comes in direct response to how poorly received the shutdown and removal of the original The Crew was.

To sweeten the deal, The Crew 2 is currently available for just $1, which makes it an objectively great bargain for anyone looking to dive into its open-world racing experience. This move could be seen as Ubisoft's attempt to bring back players who may have been put off by their previous handling of the franchise.

It’s worth noting that Ubisoft isn’t the only company to face challenges with online-only games. Back in 2021, EA turned off the online servers for several Need for Speed games. However, unlike The Crew, those titles remained playable offline, offering fans some solace. By contrast, The Crew 2 has always marketed itself as a predominantly online experience, and the lack of an active community could lead to a rather lonely experience, even with the addition of offline play.

In a single-player review, John Walker of Rock Paper Shotgun wasn’t particularly impressed with The Crew 2, calling it "an awful lot of not very much," which doesn’t inspire much confidence in the upcoming offline mode. Unless Ubisoft introduces local co-op or some other new features, the offline version might still feel lacking. Walker's critique of the game’s multiplayer component was equally sharp, noting that while players could form a "crew" of up to four people, the co-op challenges were minimal and unimpressive. "The Crew 2, an online-only game, has no inherent multiplayer at all," he stated.

While I haven’t personally played The Crew 2, my recent experience with driving games is limited to occasional jaunts in Fortnite when they introduced Mad Max-style vehicles for a season. That said, the most engaging driving experience I've had lately was in Warzone's Armored Royale mode—a far cry from the more traditional racing games Ubisoft is trying to keep alive.

For fans of the series, Ubisoft's decision to add offline modes could be seen as a step in the right direction. However, whether it will be enough to regain the community's trust and interest remains to be seen.