'The Crew 2's Transforming Vehicles Make It the Weirdest Racer in Years

On the surface, The Crew 2 may look like a pretty standard racing game, but Ubisoft’s new release features one big twist. In the new video game, which launches this Friday for PS4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows, lets you switch between cars, planes, and boats on the fly — literally.

The Crew 2 pulls this off by offering what’s basically an open-world driving game with a compressed version of the entire United States as your playground. You’re free to explore the entire map, which could mean driving off a huge ramp in the middle of New York and landing right in the middle of the river. In any other racing game, that would probably be a guaranteed game over. In this one it’s a different story,

To make the switch all you have to do is press down on the thumbstick and pick between one of three vehicle options. It all happens in just a few seconds as your vehicle disappears only to be replaced with another one. So you could be flying through the air in a small plane at one moment only to switch to a boat and drop down into the ocean. Or drive straight off a cliff in your sports car and transform into a plane just before you crash into the ground.

It’s a very cool concept, though the animation could be a little more detailed. I’d love to see a Transformers-style switch where each part of your vehicles moves and rotates to become something new. Instead, it feels more like you’re in some virtual world like the Holodeck from Star Trek or the Danger Room from X-Men where objects and change and disappear at a moment’s notice.

Maybe by the time The Crew 3 rolls around Ubisoft can figure out how to make that work. Until then, this weird, futuristic racing game will have to do.