After a couple of years racing the streets, Need For Speed is heading back to the track with Need For Speed: Shift. Not only is the series heading off of the mean streets but EA has also taken the series to a new developer, Slightly Mad Studios. After a few rather less the stellar outings going with a new development studio is definitely what the doctor ordered.
Shift falls into an area between simulation and arcade. Most aspects of the game have a simulation feel while key parts stay true to the Need For Speed arcade model. This mixture leads to a great gaming experience for the seasoned racer as well as the newbie. Unlike Need For Speed games past, Shift drops the heavy emphasis on a crappy B movie storyline, and focuses on what racers want, RACING. The game features your normal pick up and play race mode both offline and online, as well as a linear career mode.
Since Quick Race is rather basic and is nothing out of the ordinary for a racing title I’m going to focus on the Career Mode of Need For Speed: Shift. Career Mode starts with you getting right on the track. You are given a car and told to complete 2 laps. This first race not only serves to get you acclimated to the game but also is gauging your ability. Once the race is over the game will suggest a set of game settings for you. These settings include all the normal stability and traction controls. I always enjoy games that actively set the difficulty, it not only gives the gamer a fun experience but it takes out the need to go through menus and try different settings. Once you accept your settings you are taken to the “Car Lot” where you pick out your first car to purchase. Once you have your car its off to the track to earn some cash and start your career. The career is fairly linear, as you progress you unlock higher tier races. However the way you progress is what make Shift interesting. As you race you earn points, similar to PGRs style points. You can get points for things such as following the best line, to trading paint. As your profile points increase so does your driver level. Points go into two buckets, you either increase aggressive points or precision points. Those two categories make up your total profile points. On top of earning points you also need to earn stars in each race. These stars are what you need to gain in order to unlock the higher tiers in your career. To earn stars you need to place in certain positions, usually the top 3( 1 star per position placed, 1st place gaining you 3 stars) as well as completing other tasks, such as gaining X number of profile points in the race, or mastering X number of turns. Besides the stars and points, you will also be able to earn badges, you first earn minor badges, which then turn into major badges. These badges can range from trading paint badges to corner mastering badges. And lastly as you race you earn more money to buy new cars or upgrade your current cars with newer parts. One thing Shift does great is giving player rewards, and with so many possible rewards to be had just about everyone will get something.
The career mode offers a few types of races from the normal track racing, to head to head racing, and even drift events. Of all the race types drift is by far the most difficult and most annoying. Many gamers will get fed up easily with the drift events. Even with the drift tuned cars, and assists the drifting events are real difficult.
Graphically Shift stands well above any prior NFS game. And definitely is poised to go toe to toe with upcoming racing title. However one area where Shift stands out is its in-car view. A lot of time and effort went into creating a new in-car experience, and it payed off. Shift employes a dynamic camera which puts gamers into the drivers seat. The camera will move back and forth sway and bounce just like a real person’s head. As you gun the throttle the camera will slightly go back into the headrest, while a hard slam of the brakes will shift the camera forward. Bumps in the track will cause your view to bounce, and when you slam into a wall or car expect to be temporarily dazed, as your screen will blur and colors will skew. Now all this might sound like it will get annoying but, it doesn’t. The team added these details in the perfect amount that for some it might not be noticeable until you play a different racing title and see whats missing.
Besides the new in-car camera the game graphically looks great, cars will take damage over the race from bumps and crashes, and the HUD is clean and to the point. However I did run into issues with the HUD covering review mirrors on European cars, and the only way around it was to turn the HUD to minimal or off. It would have been nice if they took right side driving cars into account and the HUD would auto adjust.
Overall Need For Speed: Shift is an amazing game, and is what the NFS series needed. Many racing fans were getting annoyed with the lackluster offerings of the series for quite a few years, but Shift should really win them all back. Shift’s biggest selling point is its in-car camera. The camera techniques used in-car really put gamers into the racers helmut, and offer an amazing ride. The game also uses a great reward system and really gives gamers of all skills and abilities a chance to feel like they accomplished something in the game. The games drift mode is rather rough and the car selection might not be up to the numbers of other racing titles, but I’d rather play a good looking, great controlling game, then have a long list of cars that I’ll never play. For race fans this is a game to pick-up, for Need For Speed fans, this is what you’ve been waiting for the past few years.
A copy of Need For Speed: Shift for Xbox 360 was provided to us for this review from EA.
