Review: Need For Speed: Shift - A shift indeed

Mike Bantick
Saturday, 03 October 2009 13:10

Entertainment

Visually, Shift is somewhat of a mixed bag, but a bag mostly stuffed with tasty eye candy.  The effects are best experienced from the cockpit view, and whilst some interiors are a little shoddily reproduced (DB9 I am looking at you), you will soon take your eye off the upholstery and look out the windshield.

Here the action moves at a great pace, and checking the mirrors and trying not to watch the scenery too much is a must.  Build up speed down the back straight, and the view periphery begins to blur, it is speed tunnel vision, and it is a great way to convey the barely-in-control feel of velocity. 

Even when driving under control, the in cockpit camera will bob during gearshifts and cornering, adding to a sense of momentum and inertia.

Pushing the driving envelope will result in a trip into a wall at some point in the game, and the disturbing black & white visual stupor that occurs, along with a distressing driver grunt gives a satisfactory level of penalty to the mistake.  Damage is forgiving, even when set to full, but plough into a tire wall at 200k’s an hour, and you can hear and see the brain rattling that the driver experiences.

A shattered, or grimy windscreen will make life that much harder for the races’ remaining laps, something that can only be fixed by (cheating) changing the view to a chase camera.  Here though you will see that the Shift programmers have not quite managed to lose the dreaded ‘floating car’ animation.

There are special invitational events, including Drifting, which feels a little tacked on, and without actual inertia to guide you, is nearly always mandatorily approached with the chase-cam view, just so you can see what you are trying to do.

Customisation options are extensive, but not so as to put off the casual experience.  Likewise the pleasant well-spoken voice-over-guy that covers the process is informative and in-depth without being to techy.

Online, provides a step-up in polish over Undercover.  And gives the more proficient video-game road pilots a chance for some chest beating.

Shift, is spelt correctly, giving plenty of accessible content that doesn’t involve flaunting road-rules.  Some weather effects and improved damage model would have been the icing on the cake, but currently Shift is leading the Need For Speed extensive catalogue as the best of its kind to-date.



9 brain damaged drivers out of 10