Need for Speed has seen many twists and turns in its franchise, so to say; from being a street racer to an undercover cop, and to being a professional racer. It seems like the franchise had gone downhill since Most Wanted, but all the work Slightly Mad Studios put into Shift paid off, because Shift has ended up being the most realistic Need For Speeds yet. This is mainly because Slightly Mad Studios had worked on GTR 2 and GT Legends before this. However, surprisingly, Shift is their first game developed solely by themselves.

Most racing games lay on or between the two different types of racing games: simulation and arcade. Shift is definitely more of a simulation racer than an arcade racer. It does leave the game a little arcade-y to make it easier on the new players. Though it does take a while to get used to how heavy the cars feel, they do feel like they weigh as much as they should. This actually depends on what settings you have it on. The game will recommend settings based on a “qualifier” it puts you through, which has you complete one lap. Based on how you do, it will change your settings. After choosing your settings, you are given a sum of money and are allowed to choose from the first tier of cars, though not all are affordable with this sum.

The game is a lot like ProStreet except with mostly real-world locations. There are made up locations, but even these feel like they could be real tracks. The tracks aren’t 100 percent remakes, as much of the scenery has been redone to give the game a “bigger” feel similar to ProStreet and DiRT 2′s settings. Unlike most of the Need For Speed games there is no story, but there is a mentor who informs and advises you in each new event or tier. There is also music in the game – pretty good music at that – but it only plays during drifts, replays, and some music in the menus. It is a shame that more music doesnt play in the menu because even after playing this, I still feel like I havent heard the soundtrack.

As in DiRT 2, this game was built around the cockpit view, which makes you feel like you are actually in the car. It isnt like a normal cockpit view, though; the view shifts back and forth when you slam on the gas or breaks, the camera blurs out everything but what is outside the windshield when traveling over 100 miles per hour, and everything desaturates for a couple seconds after hitting a wall. This is one of the few games where we actually had to convince ourselves not to slow down.

We found that this view actually made the game harder; not only does everything above happen, but you cannot see quite as far ahead as you can in the other views. When we switched views, the game got substantially easier. The cars do have a unique handling as well; hit the gas to hard in the corner and you will spin out when you hit the curb. It can best be described as feeling out of control while being under control.

There are a ton of upgrades in the game; the first level of which provide a huge boost to your car’s stats, the third of which squeeze every little bit of performance out of it. It feels great to slowly upgrade each car, but it does cost a ton of money. The good thing is that you do not pay for the paint job, rims, or vinyls anymore. It’s all free, however, most of it is locked, and unlock as you level up. There are a ton of different kinds of paint including chrome, candy, and metallic.

The sound in the game is pretty good as well. At almost every turn you hear the tires squeal, so long as you’re going over the limit that the driving line recommends. The engines all sound different, and when you hit a wall it sounds like you actually hit it, grinding paint off of the steel and all. This is why the music is turned off during all races except drift, which are ultimately the game’s weakest point; if you nail the gas off of the start in one of these events, your car will spin out of control.

It seems like they turned up the arcade mode and dumbed down the simulation mode for the drift events,  but luckily you can skip these with ease. Also hard are the car battles where they stick you in a car you have most likely not raced with yet on a track you probably haven’t raced on yet and pit you against a single opponent. The goal in the first round is to get a five-second lead or finish first. This is the same for the second round, except you start behind him, and the third round, if needed, is winner takes all. Like I said before, you can skip these races without a problem because when I was just beginning the second tier I unlocked half of the third, so you can ultimately skip races you dont want to do.

What is cool is the star system. Three are given at each race based on if you finish first, second or third. Two are given based on if you reach a certain amount of driver points during the race, and on variable one that awards you for things such as drifting for very long, beating a certain lap time, etc. Another sense of progression comes with the badges, which you earn through doing increasingly hard objectives which earn you higher and higher medals. The medals go from minor to bronze to silver to gold, and finally to epic. One good example is the consistency medal, which you can earn up to a gold by finishing ten races in a row on the podium, but the epic badge requires you to win ten in a row outright. They are a lot of fun to earn, and seeing them all displayed on your page gives you a good sense of accomplishment.

This brings us to how you earn driver points. Everything you do earns you points. Anything at all, really; drifting, driving the racing line, perfecting corners, trading paint, and even knocking a car out of contention. These are the real driving points of the game (pun intended). The only thing is that you are rewarded more for aggression than precision, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because precision is so much harder, and aggression happens more by mistake than on purpose. This also sucks online, because I can’t tell you how much I’ve driven clean the whole race only for someone to take me out at the last corner and get rewarded a whole lot more than I did. This affects your driver profile as well, as all actions in any mode help you level up. So if you’re precise during the campaign, expect to have to be aggressive – you will not make any friends out there.

There are around 60 cars in the game, which is good, but not amazing considering that they are broken into four tiers, which is roughly 20 cars per tier. However there is one car in each tier which is noticeably the best available. You could always upgrade any other car to make it as good, but upgrading that one car would obviously make it the best in the tier.

Fortunately you are given a chance to race some of these cars before buying because there are invitationals that invite you to drive cars tiers above yours which also grant a lot of cash in reward. However, one thing is sure; as mentioned before, jumping into a car you’ve never driven before is not easy, as you will most likely lose and have to restart many times. Again, countless times have I lead the whole race, blown the last corner and had to restart all over again.

Lastly, we’re going to hit on the online part of the game. There are two different modes online, one being quick race, which allows the host to choose a race type and a track, and a certain tier of cars to choose from. This is honestly the lesser of the two options. Driver duel is the same as the car battles. They’re one on one duels with random cars on random tracks, one lap shootout, three rounds. This is fun, but as mentioned before, wiping people out is the common choice. If you win, you move onto the next tier. After three tiers, you move into the quarter-finals, then semi-finals, then finals, which, if you win, will lead you into a battle for the championship. Lose any one of these races and its back down to tier one for you.

Ultimately, Need for Speed: Shift is a HUGE step in the right direction for the series. Hopefully long gone are the days where every NFS game is a step in the wrong direction. Shift offers a ton of offline and slightly more online gameplay, and overall the game is great, with only a couple points where it could have been stronger. Looks like Slightly Mad Studios knew what they were doing.

Score: 8.5/10

• Pros:
  • Everything feels amazingly realistic.
  • Progression system where everything counts keeps the game fresh.
  • You don’t need to win or even complete every single race.
  • The online is great…
• Cons:
  • …but it could use a little more work.
  • Drift events are hard to get used to, being so arcade-y.
  • People are rewarded more for being aggressive than precise, when being precise is more difficult.
• Random Fact:
  • Shift is the sixteenth installment of Need for Speed.

Need for Speed: Shift was developed by Slightly Mad Studios, published by Electronic Arts and was released on September 15, 2009