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Need for Speed: Shfit Review (X360)

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By , About.com Guide

Need for Speed: Shfit Review (X360) EA
Need for Speed: Shift takes the NFS series in a decidedly different direction than we have become used to, and the result is a more focused, more polished, and overall better game. It looks and sound great and features perhaps the best cockpit view the genre has ever seen. The controls aren’t quite as tight as we’d like, but overall NFS Shift is a surprisingly good game. Find out all of the details right here.
Game Details

  • Publisher: EA
  • Developer: Slightly Mad Studios
  • Also On: PS3
  • ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
  • Genre: Racing
  • Pros: Great graphics and sound; lots of races; great cockpit view
  • Cons: Touchy, loose handling; scary fast; drifting sucks; long load times

Need for Speed: Shift dumps the silly storylines and open world and other fluff and focuses squarely on the racing itself. It is all menu-based, and after the last 5-6 years of open world racing games it is kind of nice to just pick a car, upgrade and tune it, and then select a race without jumping through a bunch of hoops. The game gives you 65+ licensed cars to race and customize and wreck, and pretty much every car you’d expect is here. The only big name missing is Ferrari. There are 20 tracks to play on, including real locations such as Laguna Seca and Brands Hatch just to name a couple. Basically, everything that we have come to expect from a realistic racer is here.

In addition to a lengthy career, there are also a full suite of online modes available. As always, taking custom cars online is a blast. The performance was pretty smooth overall, so no problems there.

Gameplay

Need for Speed: Shift is a sim/arcade hybrid similar to GRID or Project Gotham Racing. It is way more realistic than the last few NFS games, but not even close to what Forza or Gran Turismo offer in terms of a driving simulation. This new style is definitely a plus, but the execution isn’t quite where it needs to be. Other similar games in the genre flat out play better. Shift is still fun, but it falters in a key area.

EA
The game walks a fine line between sim and arcade, and is fairly successful, but occasionally it seems to trip over that line. The controls are just plain loose. It is fun to throw your car all over the track and slide around early on, but when you move on to faster cars that loose feeling leads to some big problems. Little wiggles as you make corrections to stay on track turn into massive fishtails. Dropping a wheel into the grass goes from just slowing you down at low speeds to a guaranteed spin out at higher speeds. These things happen in every other racing game too, but they become a problem in NFS Shift because they are a lot harder to avoid. The controls are so fiddly and loose and these issues become so magnified the faster you go that it becomes a challenge just to keep your car on the track. I have spent a lot of hours with simulation racing games without any problems, but I had to swallow my pride and turn the steering and braking assists on just to stay on the track only a few hours into the game. That should tell you something.

That is a definite negative, but once you either get things figured out or resort to the assists, there is some fun to be had here. Customizing cars and tuning their performance is as fun as ever and there are a lot of neat cars to drive. There are also a ton of events to play through which will keep you busy for quite a while.

So, basically, it is flawed but you can still have fun with it. To this end there are a couple of specific areas where Shift really shines. The cockpit view is amazing and the way your vision blurs at high speeds and the way your view kind of moves and bounces around as you go over bumps or move through turns is pretty amazing. This is probably the best cockpit view ever. It also does a couple of things I have never experienced before in a videogame. First is wheel hop. Maybe other games have done it, but I haven’t felt it as much as I do here. The second big thing Shift does is it is the only racing game that has ever scared me. Going fast in this game is scary as Hell. Part of it is the loose controls where you are pretty much always on the verge of a wreck, and part of it is the way the game looks and behaves from the cockpit view. When everything is shaking around you and you feel the car sliding around, it is a unique thrill that no other game has given me. To actually be a little scared by what you are doing is pretty awesome and a driving force that will keep you playing.

On one final gameplay note, there is one other area where the game falters and that is drift events. The drifting flat out sucks here. It feels like you are driving on snot covered ice and just isn’t fun. These events aren’t hard to win – the point levels you need to reach are hilariously low – which kind of shows you that the devs probably knew the drifting was going to be a problem so they made it easy. I would rather they just left it out entirely.

EA
Graphics

Graphically, NFS Shift looks amazing. The cars and tracks are all very detailed and look great. The game maintains a solid 30 FPS and is just a joy to watch and play. And like I said above, the cockpit view is just about perfect.

Sound

The sound is also very good. In particular, the engines sound completely and utterly great. They are loud and throaty and you feel like you are driving powerful cars. I’m not as much of a fan of the obnoxiously loud and grating squealing of your tires on the pavement that comes with pretty much every corner in the game, but it is a part of racing so you can’t really complain. At least you can turn it down if you want.

Bottom Line

Need for Speed: Shift is a good game that stands as easily the best NFS of the last few years, but I can’t recommend it without a few caveats. The controls just can’t quite keep up with the speed of the game and the power of the vehicles you’re driving, which can lead to frustration. I’m no slouch at this type of game, but I struggled. If/when you hit that wall, don’t be afraid to turn the assists on. It makes a game you’re becoming frustrated and angry at fun and playable again. Also, the drifting is awful, so if that mode was a selling point you might want to reconsider. With that said, once you get used to it all there is a lot of fun to be had with Need for Speed: Shift. It isn’t quite as good as PGR4 or GRID, but for racing fans it is definitely worth a look. A demo should be coming soon if you are on the fence.

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