The Crew

Presentation

The Crew is an open-world racing game developed by Ivory Tower and published by Ubisoft. It offers a condensed representation of the United States, designed as a huge continuous space that can be crossed from coast to coast.

The campaign follows Alex Taylor, a driver wrongly accused of murdering his brother Dayton. After spending several years in prison, he agrees to work with FBI agent Zoe Winters in order to infiltrate the 510s, a street-racing gang operating across the country.

His progression through the 510s takes Alex across five major regions: Midwest, East Coast, South, Mountain States and West Coast. Each territory features its own roads, landscapes, cities and missions.

The game combines traditional races, time trials, pursuits, destruction missions, deliveries and various activities integrated directly into the open world.

Vehicles can be adapted through several Specs. Alongside their Fullstock configuration, they can notably be converted into Street, Dirt, Performance, Raid and Circuit versions, each altering performance and appearance for a specific type of use.

Progression allows players to obtain new parts that improve different mechanical elements. Vehicles also feature numerous visual customization options.

The world can be freely explored between missions, with many activities and challenges spread across the entire map. Long-distance journeys form an important part of the game's identity.

The Crew was designed around a permanently connected world. Other players could appear directly in the environment and join different activities without a strict separation between campaign and multiplayer.

Up to four players could form a crew to explore the United States or complete missions and competitions together.

The Wild Run and Calling All Units expansions later significantly expanded the game with new vehicle categories, additional competitions and confrontations between police officers and street racers.

Key points

• An open-world racing game.
• A condensed representation of the United States.
• A map that can be crossed from coast to coast.
• Alex Taylor as the protagonist.
• An infiltration of the 510s street-racing gang.
• Five major American regions.
• Races, pursuits, challenges and missions integrated into the open world.
• Several vehicle configurations: Fullstock, Street, Dirt, Performance, Raid and Circuit.
• Parts used to improve performance.
• Numerous customization options.
• A world designed around a permanent online connection.
• Crews of up to four players.
• Wild Run notably adds motorcycles, Drag, Drift and Monster Trucks.
• Calling All Units expands police-versus-street-racer pursuits.
• The game has been permanently inaccessible since 2024.

Conclusion

The Crew established the foundations of the series around a particularly ambitious central idea: turning the United States into one enormous connected driving playground.

Its campaign centered on Alex Taylor gives a narrative structure to the cross-country journey, while Specs allow the same vehicles to be adapted to different forms of driving.

Wild Run and Calling All Units later expanded this formula, but the game's total dependence on its servers also defined its end: their shutdown in 2024 made The Crew impossible to launch, even for players who still own a copy.

Good to know

The Crew is developed by Ivory Tower and published by Ubisoft.

The game was released on December 2, 2014 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Its open world is divided into five major regions: Midwest, East Coast, South, Mountain States and West Coast.

The campaign follows Alex Taylor, who infiltrates the 510s after being wrongly convicted of murdering his brother.

The game relied on a permanent connection to its servers, including for the main campaign.

The The Crew Wild Run expansion, released in 2015, notably adds motorcycles, Dragsters, Drift cars and Monster Trucks, as well as Summit competitions.

The The Crew Calling All Units expansion, released in 2016, notably allows players to take the role of police officers and expands pursuits between law enforcement and street racers.

Ubisoft stopped adding new content in 2018, after several years of updates and expansions.

The game and all of its editions were removed from digital storefronts on December 14, 2023.

The servers were permanently shut down on March 31, 2024.

Since that shutdown, The Crew is no longer accessible on any platform, including for players who previously purchased it.

Unlike The Crew 2, no official offline mode was added to the first game before its servers were shut down.

This entry focuses on Alex Taylor, the 510s, the American open world, Specs, the crew system and the two main expansions, without detailing every vehicle, mission or activity.