Hands On: Need For Speed: Shift

27 Apr 2009 at 10:46:16 by Andy Alderson

“We were doing a disservice to every fan,” says EA’s Jesse Abney. “We have this huge fan base who clearly want more from the series.” He’s speaking to IncGamers at EA’s EU Showcase, discussing the reboot of EA’s driving franchise, spearheaded by Need for Speed: Shift. The game marks a radical departure for the series – Shift is billed as a simulation rather than an arcade racer and Abney is keen to emphasise that this is a game for real driving fans. Adopting a “truly collaborative development model,”  EA brought in the recently-formed Slightly Mad Studios (largely comprised of GTR 2 and GT Legends alumni) to work with its own Black Box Studios to make Shift. Crucially, Abney reveals, the development team also enlisted the help of DICE co-founder, and real-life race driver, Patrick Soderlund.

“In terms of the driver experience, Patrick is the keystone,” he explains. Soderlund’s numerous track hours have been put to good use in Shift, allowing the team to craft a game designed to replicate the adrenaline-fuelled, white-knuckle excitement of real-world racing. At the heart of Shift is a first-person, in-car view which might just be the best we’ve seen in a driving game to date. Not only have the car interiors been created with meticulous attention to detail (“When Patrick got hold of the Lotus in-game he told us it was exactly how it looked in real-life”) , the cockpit camera is tied to the driver’s head and not the car. What this means in practice is that the game mimics the head movement of the driver as well as the inertia and G-forces they are likely to experience.

As we sit down to play Shift, it’s hard not to be impressed by the in-car view. The dynamic dashboard dials move as they ought to and you’ll even see “your” hands tighten around the wheel as your speed increases. However, when you reach the highest speeds, the interior of the car will become blurred, pushing your focus on to the track so you won’t have to worry about smashing into a wall while you coo over the accurately-reproduced air vents. Nevertheless, it doesn’t take us long before we carry too much speed into a corner and see concrete heading straight for us. The subsequent crash is pretty spectacular. The screen blurs and the camera swings around violently, accompanied by the brutal sound of crumpling metal. This concussive crash mechanic is not only an assault on the senses; it has another somewhat unexpected effect. “The crash dynamic is the punishment. The more you see it, the more you become apprehensive of it,” says Abney. “Even for myself, playing it every day, when I’m in a race I find myself cringing at the moment I know it’s about to happen.”  After a few laps, we find ourselves doing exactly the same and it’s testament to the level of immersion offered by the cockpit view. But, of course, you don’t always see a crash coming. At one point in our play test we are cruising down a straight when a competitor smashes into our rear (jokes on a postcard) sending us into a spin. “That’s because you nicked him a few corners back,” laughs Abney.

He goes onto explain that the AI in Shift is another huge leap forward for the series. Your relationship with the others drivers on the track is dependent on how you behave – if you’re the kind of driver who forgoes braking, preferring to use the cars in front of you to slow down before a corner then you’re in trouble. Not only will your vision be impaired by the aforementioned crash mechanic, you’ll also incur the wrath of the drivers you hit. And they do like payback. The AI we see in our playtest is as impressive as it sounds, with some very aggressive driving on display from our computer-controlled competitors.  This isn’t a game in which the AI drivers cruise around the track, never missing a corner. What we see in Shift is much more dynamic, with crashes and driver rivalries (drivalries?) occurring regardless of our own behavior. According to Abney, the game also reacts to your driving ability, adjusting the AI accordingly.  “You need to have adaptive AI,” he explains, “and we’re under-the-hood adjusting the difficulty for you.” Of course, as with any true simulation racer, you’ll be able to tweak the difficulty yourself to a degree with the game settings. We play two versions of the game – one with “most” of the assistance options turned off and another which Abney describes as “entry level”. The latter is extremely forgiving, allowing you to put the power back on at almost any point in a corner without spinning out. Having played first with assistance off, this seemed a little jarring and significantly less fun. However, it’s simply a way to draw players of all abilities into the game and Abney seems confident that the majority of players will soon begin fiddling with the settings. With assistance off, things become much more frantic as you have to make sure you time the throttle perfectly as well as braking gradually rather than slamming down the left trigger. For the even more hardcore driver, there are customization options for both the interior and exterior of the car. 

It’s exactly this kind of racing fan that Abney hopes to draw into the Need for Speed series. When he speaks about the competition, he drops names like Forza and Gran Turismo and it’s clear that EA hopes for Shift to be mentioned in the same breath. “Everything we’re delivering in design,” he says, “is based around engaging the community on a whole new level. If you have that passion for automotive racing and if you like cars, vehicle customization and online competition, Need for Speed: Shift is going to be the most unique racing experience to date.”

Need for Speed: Shift is due for release on PC, PSP, PS3 and Xbox 360 in the UK on 18 September 2009.

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