Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel
The Charge:
What kind of driver are you?
Opening Statement:
With the onset of every fall season (which we affectionately refer to as Hurricane Retail), there are several certainties. For racing fans, one certainty is always a new entry in the Need for Speed series. It’s been a while since EA’s venerable racing marquee brand has been worth notice or discussion, but Need for Speed: Shift hopes to change that. Does it stall at the start? Or is this one racer with horsepower to spare.
For most of us... this is as close as we'll ever get.
Facts of the Case:
Your world is a five-speed cockpit; everything outside is an asphalt blur of sidewalls, cheering fans, and enemy drivers. Your car’s 350-horsepower heart rumbles in your hands and pure torque slams you every time you turn the wheel, just the way you like it. Driving’s in your DNA, and everything you do – every move, every moment – defines you…
It doesn’t matter if you’re a precision instrument or an engine of destruction, so long as everybody knows who you are when you get behind the wheel. Because out on the track, you’re a champion or you’re nothing.
– The instruction booklet
The Evidence:
For the last few years, the Need for Speed series has been in steady decline. It’s been spinning its wheels with cheesy storylines and lame attempts at staying relevant to the average racers with its riced out imports, timely soundtracks, and obnoxiously flashy presentation. It’s hard to remember the last time an entry in the series really differentiated itself from the racing pack (Underground remains a favorite, though I must admit I did enjoy Prostreet as well, though it seems no one else did.) After last year’s abysmal Need for Speed: Undercover, it was pretty clear that the whole series needed a jump start. Enter Slightly Mad Studios, formerly known as Blimey! Games when they developed the exceedingly well reviewed GTR series on the PC, and their newly minted racer, Need for Speed: Shift.
NFS: Shift is at once a new direction for the series, and also a return to form of sorts. It finds us getting away from the Import culture fueled street racing of recent entries and veering towards a more realistic racing experience. Gone are neon lit city streets and police chases. There are no “hot whips” or bad actors here. This Need for Speed is all about two things, racing, and winning. The racing in question is done on closed tracks, GT style, with a solid stable of NFS-worthy rides, from your average street beaters (like the Cobalt SS or Civic Si) to the ultra exotics (The Paganai Zonda, and the Italian stallions from Lamborghini and Ferrari).
So we have a great selection of cars, and a currency system in place that allows you to purchase new rides and vehicle upgrades. It’s all very Gran Turismo-like, and yet the emphasis isn’t placed on having a garage full of rides like it would be in GT. You can really dominate a tier of races with one or two autos, and if the car you choose isn’t the hottest of the bunch, struggle through a few races and you can upgrade several parts for some added muscle. Don’t worry, you don’t have the intimidating array of parts and tweaks you would get in a full blown sim, everything here is layed out and practical without being overwhelming, it’s also impossible to tweak parts outside of swapping them in and out, which makes it pretty impossible to mess up a good ride.
The meat and potatoes of the game is, of course, the career mode, which gives you several tiers of vehicles that grows faster and more exotic as you progress. Each tier consists of a plethora of events on several diverse tracks based on real locations like the legendary Nurburgring or Laguna Seca. As you play races you earn skill points which advance your status as a driver, and as you level up, you earn invites to events which vary on your driving style. No matter how you handle your wheels, you’ll gain points, you can be as aggressive or defensive a driver as you like, and while aggressive can certainly be fun, you won’t gain access to certain types of events that a Precision driver could access, and vice versa. It all sounds pretty deep, but it’s ruled by common sense, and really doesn’t affect how you’d play the game all that much. You can drive to suit your own style and still advance through the main tiers with no problems. The online mode is there, and it certainly feels deeper than just a simple afterthought, but it isn’t as comprehensive as something like Forza 2 (Not that I’m going to knock the game for that). At any rate, it’s there, it works, and it will satiate your need to take on living, breathing, opponents.
Speed... i am speed...
So we’ve got an extensive lineup of cars in all shapes and sizes, a variety of tracks and events, and an intelligent and engaging advancement system, but all of this would be for naught if the gameplay faltered. It doesn’t. NFS: Shift is a near perfect blend of arcade fun and simulation depth. The developers at Something Mad have really gone the extra mile towards keeping the game grounded in reality, and yet a ton of fun to pick up and play. Cars dig deep into corners and always feel just shy of breaking loose. Tires screech with aplomb, and the sense of speed is awesome. The developers give you a ton of driving aids and implements that can be enabled or disabled to toughen up the experience, and even on medium difficulty, the AI can be pretty ruthless, but the game never feels cheap.
From a technical standpoint, the game again comes up strong. The visuals are striking, on par with the likes of Codemaster’s pair of beauties, Dirt and Grid, with some beautiful car models and sharp looking tracks. The lighting adds a level of flair to the proceedings that eschews realism for prettier visuals. The framerate remains rock solid at all times, making the game feel incredibly fluid and fast moving, and everything is backed up with EA’s typically polished presentation. The in car view is quite possibly the most realistic feeling “behind the wheel” camera I’ve seen, and crashes and car damage are all convincingly implemented.
NFS: Shift doesn’t really feature much in the way of music, just some generic sounding Euro club beats, but the audio for the cars is fantastic. When using the in-car view, and with a decent surround sound setup, your car roars all around you, and tires squeal like banshees. It’s an awesome, loud game that is insanely gratifying.
Rebuttal Witness:
If Need for Speed: Shift has a weakness, it’s that it lacks the depth of the sim racers, which, as i say above, is also one of its merits. Sure the game features almost 100 cars, but you can go through the career from start to finish using less than 10. I’ll reiterate it for those of you looking for a deeper experience, this isn’t Gran Turismo 5 or Forza Motorsport 3, but it doesn’t attempt to be. If you’re looking for a more intesne simulation, wait until Microsoft’s big racer hits next month, as i’m sure it’s going to be brilliant. In the meantime, if you get tired of adjusting camber angles and gear ratios, and trying to master that corvette Z06 you just made undrivable with upgrades, then NFS: Shift is certainly the best choice there is.
A car that fast going that sideways, this won't end well.
Closing Comment:
EA finally seals the deal and brings racers a game that fits squarely between “Arcade” and “Simulation”. NFS: Shift is gorgeous, runs as smooth as 40 weight motor oil, and provides a solid enough online experience. It’s not Forza or Gran Turismo deep, but it provides the perfect blend of fun and depth, and not only revitalizes the Need for Speed brand, but serves as the best title in the series. EA took a gamble with NFS: Shift, and it’s certainly paid off from a gameplay standpoint. Here’s hoping the rice burners and street racers that the recent entries in the series were catering to can appreciate a good racer when they play one.
The Verdict:
Platform: Sony Playstation 3/Microsoft Xbox360/Windows PC (PS3 Version reviewed)
Developer: Slightly Mad Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: September 15th, 2009
Rated: E for Everyone
I can remember a happy time when racing games were huge, when we longingly dreamt of Midnight Clubs and Needs of Speeds in our sleep. Games in general seemed so huge those days. What happened?
Establishments like MTV, EB Games, Activision, and EA sucked all the fun out of the hobby. It isn’t “new” or “fresh” anymore.
And Midnight Club: LA kicked ass too.
I think burnout games are very entertaining even though they aren’t realistic they still ENTERTAIN me isn’t that the point of games in the first place?
THIS GAME IS FUKIN AUSUMN!!!!
JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW TO UNLOCK LAMBO GALLARDO AND MURCIELAGO
PLZ HELP!!