Need For Speed: SHIFT [PS3]

22 Sep 2009 at 17:00:38 by Andy Alderson
Systems used to review this title: (PS3)

EA’s decision to reboot the Need for Speed series earlier this year took many in the industry – including IncGamers – by surprise. Given the lukewarm reception to the last few NFS titles and the fact that Criterion seemed to be beating NFS at its own arcade-racing game with Burnout, we suspected the franchise would soon find itself in the scrapyard, like a battered Yugo. However, by aiming the series away from Fast and the Furious fans and roping in Slightly Mad Studios (which worked on the GT Legends and GTR games), EA has pulled off quite a coup. Need for Speed: Shift, it turns out, is a damn good racing game that positions itself somewhere between arcade thrills and obsessive realism.

All too often in gaming, when a developer widens its net in an attempt to please everyone, the result somehow manages to please nobody.  All credit to EA and Slightly Mad then, that Shift is not only accessible enough for inexperienced drivers, it also sports enough depth to please hardcore racing fans. This is largely due to a beautifully crafted and, more importantly, scalable driving model. At the beginning of the game you’ll be asked to complete a lap to ascertain your skill level and the game will adjust your racing settings according to the result. With handling and braking assists on (like traction control) the game affords you quite bit of breathing space – you’ll be able to keep control of hairy situations that, in real life, would probably result in you planting the vehicle in a concrete wall.

However, that’s not to say the game is easy with the assists on. You’ll still have to keep a close eye on your speed and racing line when cornering and you can’t just sit back and let the game do all the work for you.  Turn off the driving assists (or even just a few of them) though and you’ll find a whole new racing experience. Like in Forza and GT, the biggest hurdle will be getting to grips with acceleration and braking. You can’t simply put the pedal to the metal (that’s your first cliché warning – Ed) when coming out of a corner, nor can you slam on the brakes when approaching one, at least not if you intend to be facing in the right direction afterwards. The key to success – when racing with assists off – is smooth driving. If your transitions are too severe, you’ll find your car snaking about all over the track as you wrestle with the wheel to keep control. Which, as I’m sure you can guess, does not tend to make for stellar lap times.  However, once you grasp the basics of driving with assists off, you’ll find an involving and satisfying racing experience. It may not hit the same nerdy heights of realism as Forza and GT, but Shift possesses something equally important to a driving game - fun - and that’s largely due to the focus on the first person driving experience. 

See, Shift’s gimmick – if we can really call it that – is the in-car view. It’s hardly a new concept by any means, but what Slightly Mad has managed to do (with no doubt crucial input from DICE man and real-life racer Patrick Soderlund) is make you feel like you’re in the cockpit, with your hands wrapped tight around the wheel and your heart in your mouth (second warning – Ed). As your view is tied to the driver’s head movements, you’ll feel every bump in the road, the forces in every corner and, should you be unlucky enough to collide with another car (or wall), you’re going to feel that too. Through a combination of clever animations, visual effects and stunning sound design, the in-car experience is better than any other we’ve seen in a racing game to date. Perhaps the greatest achievement with regards to this view is the way that it captures the sense of speed. The camera wobble, the screaming engines and the smooth framerate combine perfectly to the point where you’ll start to feel a bit jittery when you hit the top speeds in the top cars. Reach a certain speed and the in-car dials will start to blur, focusing your eyes on the track ahead as you know that one small twitch (at least with assists off) could result in a brutal crash. And they do feel brutal. Even after sinking a great many hours into the game, I still find myself physically wincing (he means mincing – Ed) when I see a wall approaching my bonnet at high speed.

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