The Crew Wild Run – Meet Me at the Summit
The open world is your playground in The Crew, and the game’s first expansion offers up even more ways to explore and enjoy the massive map. The Crew Wild Run features three new specs, each of which represents an iconic piece of car culture, plus a totally new family of vehicles for you the try out. The new motorcycle family is a huge departure from the game’s classic four-wheeled vehicles, but what better way to take a road trip through the U.S. than on the back of a bike? On top of the new rides, Wild Run also invites you to take on the Summit, a massive monthly tournament made up of tons of different PvP and PvE challenges. Work your way up to the top of the Summit leaderboards, and you could earn some exclusive prizes. While you wait to test your mettle, we spoke with Ahmed Boukhelifa, managing director at Ivory Tower, and got all the details on the new specs, the Summit and the newly introduced FreeDrive activities.
New Rides
“The initial offering in The Crew was really meant to bring all the different kinds of cars with all of their different behaviors and handling to this open world,” says Boukhelifa. “We delivered that, but we didn’t feel like we had delivered everything driving has to offer in real life. The question wasn’t ‘Should we add some stuff?’ It was ‘What are we going to add?’”
In the real world, I drive a 2011 Nissan Sentra. In The Crew Wild Run, I drive a massive monster truck capable of steamrolling every obstacle in front of me. It’s a dream come true for people like me who get stuck in insane amounts of traffic every day on the way to work. It’s also a huge part of car culture here in the United States of America. I guarantee most folks living in the U.S. can’t hear someone say something is happening on Sunday without mentally adding the announcer’s “SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY” from every monster truck ad. And that’s what The Crew is all about – taking the essential pieces of U.S. driving culture and letting players run free.
“We wanted to really inject all of driving culture into The Crew, and in order to do that, we had to ask ourselves, ‘what are some of the driving experiences we’re missing that really make sense for the US and the game?’” Boukhelifa explains. “And when you really look at driving culture in America, you see monster trucks and you see dragsters and you see drifting. All of these really made sense for the game. They all provide very unique sensations. Ultimately, they all enhance the experience, because they really push the boundaries of the gameplay we have, and fit in well with the idea of driving in the U.S.”
And they certainly do provide very different experiences. In one Summit challenge, we tore through an open arena full of ramps as we flipped our monster trucks through the air, trying to rack up as many points as possible. From there, we went into a drift race, where the goal wasn’t so much to beat your opponents to the finish line as it was to drift for as long as possible. Another challenge sent us flying down a short track in a dragster, where timing was everything.
Each of these new specs is uniquely suited to The Crew’s world, and will provide brand new ways of completing challenges as well as exploring. In fact, Boukhelifa assures me the Monster Truck spec is a particularly awesome way to travel. “The monster trucks are a great way to rediscover the world,” he tells me. “When you do the FreeDrive activities with the Monster Truck spec, it allows you to be even wilder. You just drive like you never have before. It’s a very good tool for exploring the world.”
On top of the three new vehicle specs, Wild Run also adds a whole new vehicle family to the game. Boukhelifa says the motorcycles felt like a natural fit in the world. “What comes to mind when you think about driving in America and going on road trips?” he asked. “For us, the bikes were a big part of that answer.” These bikes can be tuned with various specs, like the Street or Dirt spec, so you can take the bikes out on (or off) the road. You will even be able to trick out your bike with the Raid spec, so you can take more of a beating. With all of these new options, how will you take on the world?
Welcome to the Summit
Do you have what it takes to rule the Summit? Put your skills to the test in the qualifying rounds to see if you can take on thousands of other players from around the world. If you do well in these qualifying rounds, you’ll earn a ticket. You need three tickets to go to the Summit, but let’s say you don’t manage to rack up enough. You can spend some of the in-game money you’ve earned by completing challenges and missions, and buy your way in.
Once you make it to the Summit, you’ll take part in every kind of challenge the game has to offer, using both the classic specs and the new Wild Run specs. All of the points you earn through the various Summit activities – both PvP and PvE – will go toward your final overall Summit score. Every two months, the top Summit players will receive a very special prize in the form of an exclusive vehicle. These vehicles will rotate with every prize cycle, so you’ll have something really cool to show off in the world.
Drive Free with FreeDrive
If you want to step even further off the beaten path, try making up some challenges of your own. With the FreeDrive Challenges, you are given the ability to craft your own missions and put them out there for your friends to try out. Set the location, make up your own rules and engage in a little friendly competition with your buddies to see if they can beat you at your own game.
“We want the players to see the world and everything in it, and we also want them to be able to do that in any way they want to,” explains Boukhelifa. “With the FreeDrive Challenges, we give players the tools to create their own playing conditions.”
Then there are the FreeDrive Stunts, a series of very brief challenges randomly presented to you. As you complete more of them, the challenges get harder and harder, pushing you to work with your crew to meet your objectives. One minute, I was racing the wrong way down a crowded street as fast as possible, trying not to wreck. The next, I was slaloming through the desert, kicking up dust as I drove faster and faster. Each of these quick challenges are meant to last no more than one or two minutes, and you can stop at any time. If you just keep going, the game will continue to randomly generate Stunts for you and your crew.
There’s a huge open world out there waiting for you to come discover it. Whether you just want to take a leisurely cruise across the country or let your competitive spirit loose, The Crew is ready for you, and with the Wild Run expansion, you have even more opportunities to explore and have fun. The Crew Wild Run will be available for download on November 17 on Xbox One, PS4 and PC, or you can pick it up as part of a retail bundle with the full game. Those playing on PC will also have a chance to check out the Summit early in the Closed Beta, starting on October 15 and running through October 18.
For more on The Crew, check out these stories:
Head to “The Summit” in The Crew Wild Run’s Closed Beta
The Crew – Building Your Dream Car
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