The Crew 2’s offline mode is now live, ensuring that the racer “remains accessible for years to come”. Well, assuming you’re not bothered about playing online, which would still be deep-sixed if Ubisoft opted to shut down the game’s servers, as they did with its predecessor. Odds are that won’t happen at least in the immediate future, due to the player feedback the publishers have credited as the impetus behind this addition.
That acknowledgement very much looks to be a way of nodding to the Stop Killing Games campaign, who rose to prominence following Ubisoft’s shutdown of the first Crew’s servers – thereby rendering it totally unplayable – without naming them directly.
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This offline mode, dubbed hybrid mode because cars, has taken a year to leave the garage following its announcement. Jumping into The Crew 2 now sees you offered a choice as to whether you want to play online or offline, with the latter not boasting the mandatory internet connection which led The Crew’s shutdown to play out how it did.
As you might expect, playing offline’s a rather stripped-back experience, with the likes of the race creator, livery editor and custom liveries, leaderboards, ghosts, and the stats menu being sliced away in addition to the more obvious online bits. Any vehicle packs, season pass stuff, or Ubisoft Connect rewards you’ve bought or unlocked have to be claimed in a house or HQ in online mode before you can use them offline.
The online and offline modes have separate save systems, allowing you to carry online progress into offline play by exporting your online save to offline mode, but not letting you bring any progress you make while playing offline in the opposite direction. There’s also a bit of reading to do in terms of how the switching between the two handles your in-game cash.
“When you choose Export to Offline Save, your current Crew Credits balance is included in the offline save file,” Ubisoft wrote. “That offline balance can be used to purchase eligible items while playing in Offline Mode, for example, vehicles available in the offline catalogue. However, some items that are only purchasable via the online Crew Credits storefront (notably vanity items and some bundles) are not available in Offline Mode. If you purchase additional Crew Credits while online after exporting, you must re-export your Online Save to update your Offline Save and include the newly purchased credits.”
An offline mode for The Crew Motorfest’s also in the works, but no updates have been offered as to when that’ll arrive. Even if I doubt Ubisoft’d have done this without the Stop Killing Games campaign having put the series under a microscope, kudos to them for following through on promises to ensure the racers wouldn’t be at risk of perma-shutdown in the future.
While it’s been cool to see The Crew Unlimited’s modders resurrect the original Crew with their server emulator, the onus to keep games people have paid for playable in the long run shouldn’t solely be on the substantial efforts of dedicated volunteers.
