When we were at E3 in Los Angeles this year we not only got to get our hands on The Crew 2 but we also got a chance to speak to producer Stephane Jankovski about the game, and we asked first of all what the initial vision for the game was.
"Yeah, with The Crew 2 we wanted to create the best playground ever," he explained, "so we've reshaped the USA completely. So in The Crew, already you could visit the whole USA. The Crew 2 is now much more round the gameplay, so we've added tons of new vehicles, new boats, new planes, new bikes, and we've recreated the world around those vehicles, so now you can jump on rooftops of New York, you can do some crazy stunts going into shortcuts in the city - it's really this kind of fun experience that we wanted to have in this huge playground."
We also asked if this approach was trying to satisfy fans who wanted less of a structured approach and more freedom instead. "It's spot on - the main idea we had behind the creation of this game," he said. "Basically, the players in The Crew love free drive, they love to explore the world, finding new places, and creating their own stories, you know? So here we've removed all the barriers. You want to go into the plane first, you're going to go into the plane first. No limitation, no level up to do to unlock a certain [item]. It's really open. So the progression system is really more open, the story system is lighter, so it's much more like 'have fun, enjoy, and we'll support you'."
If you want to know more about the game you can check out our preview. How do you approach these kinds of games?