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Need for Speed Shift
EA splits the Need for Speed series into two main lines. We have the full review on Shift, EA's most recent attempt at a sim racer.
October 13, 2009 | 12:43 AM PSTby: Jeff Rivera
Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
When EA announced that the long-running Need for Speed franchise was going to be be split into two branches, one to serve the sim racer fanatics, and one to serve the arcade racer junkies, many people questioned whether or not the Need for Speed brand could produce a valid sim racing experience. When it was revealed how soon NFS: Shift would be releasing, many passed it off as a quick attempt to beat heavy hitters Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5 to store shelves.
Luckily for fans of the sim racer genre, Need for Speed Shift manages to deliver a solid racing experience, even if it does show some signs of first run jitters. While aiming to provide a strong simulation experience, the Need for Speed Shift developers also sneaked in enough optional assists that longtime Need for Speed fans should feel comfortable getting their feet wet with a more sim-focused affair. The result is a strong first entry into a new direction for a series known for white-knuckle racing.
What's Hot
Right off the bat, you're going to notice that the game has great presentation. It's not anything revolutionary (whooshing fonts, fast action mixed with slow motion, etc.), but it's executed well and it's very tight. As you progress through menus, intro videos, modes, and individual race events, the game does a great job of staying focused while making it clear what additional options you have open to you. Along with the tight presentation, the game's soundtrack and overall audio package combine together to make the game one of the better racing experiences in regards to style.
The racing action, while not without its hiccups, is really impressive pretty much from the get go. Even in the first events of the game the action is fast, but remains much closer to a sim experience than anything we've ever seen in the NFS franchise. You start out the game running a test lap around a fairly simple course. How you perform on this course will determine which assists the game will suggest that you use as you play. If you have trouble handling corners, the game may suggest that you use the braking assist. This assist will hit your brakes for you if you're going into a corner too hot, which will allow you to keep control long enough to adjust your speed and driving angles properly. With each suggested assist, you can set how heavily you want the assist to take over, or you can override the game's suggestion and turn the assist off. As your skills increase, backing off the assists will allow you to improve your game over time without having to kill yourself with the difficulty of adjusting to sim style racing if you're a newcomer to this sort of racing.
The controls in the game are also very tight and refined. In a sim racer, it's absolutely vital that the controls be practically flawless, and NFS: Shift delivers in this regard. It never felt like I had to battle the controls, which is impressive given that this is the first outing for the Shift line.
Most importantly, the racing in NFS: Shift feels very satisfying. As you race you earn points for a variety of reasons. You can earn points for passing cleanly, driving a proper line, effective drifting, or even for being aggressive toward other drivers. These points go toward leveling up your driver and also earn you cash to buy new cars or upgrades. This point system encourages good driving techniques while also giving you instant feedback on your racing style.
Finally, the online integration in Shift is great. Before you start any event, you can see who on your friends list has the best record for that race/event. If you are the top dog, you know that your friends will be in turn gunning for you, so there's always a good reason to replay events multiple times. Online racing is also a lot of fun, and in my experience I never had issues finding people to race against or never experienced any major lag issues. With several modes to engage in online, Shift provides several reasons to hop online often.
What's Not
As mentioned earlier, there are a few hiccups that will manifest themselves throughout your time with NFS: Shift. It wasn't a consistent problem, but I did have some odd glitches put the brakes on a few races. Once in a while my car would hang up on an invisible barrier of sorts or I'd find myself spinning out of control for no reason. One time the game even crashed during loading and I had to jump out to the 360 dashboard and restart the game. While the glitches weren't as common as they're currently being made out to be on sites like YouTube or various Internet forums, it is likely that you'll run into a handful of them with any significant amount of play time.
While it's very common for difficulty in racers to ramp up as time goes on, NFS: Shift gets a little extreme. On the higher tiers it was extremely hard to maintain control of the cars and I felt myself losing my grip on the track far more than what I'm used to in my experience with racing games. It didn't matter much what car I was choosing, it still took extensive tuning and customization to find a way to improve the handling of the cars.
Even with the assists kept to a minimum, or even turned off completely, the game still comes across as less of a sim than many of the game's direct competitors, such as Forza or Gran Turismo. The game isn't arcadey by any means, but it does lean in that direction to some degree on all fronts. While this keeps the door open to more casual sim racer fans, it would make more sense to take a more hardliner approach with the driving elements if EA is going to split the Need for Speed franchise into two separate lines.
Final Word
It's been a while since I've enjoyed a sim racer, but Need for Speed Shift managed to provide some solid thrills and addictive racing action. Despite the insane difficulty in the higher tiers, the game does a great job holding your hand until you're ready to take off your training wheels, so to speak. For a first effort, it really is impressive what EA has done in taking the Need for Speed franchise in such a new and aggressive direction. Shift is a great jumping off point, but it's clear that for Shift to compete with the likes of the more established sim racers EA will need to tighten up the overall experience in the next installment. For what it is, however, Shift is a fun game and is probably the most accessible sim racer for casual fans or newcomers to the genre.
What the Game's About
When EA announced that the long-running Need for Speed franchise was going to be be split into two branches, one to serve the sim racer fanatics, and one to serve the arcade racer junkies, many people questioned whether or not the Need for Speed brand could produce a valid sim racing experience. When it was revealed how soon NFS: Shift would be releasing, many passed it off as a quick attempt to beat heavy hitters Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5 to store shelves.
Luckily for fans of the sim racer genre, Need for Speed Shift manages to deliver a solid racing experience, even if it does show some signs of first run jitters. While aiming to provide a strong simulation experience, the Need for Speed Shift developers also sneaked in enough optional assists that longtime Need for Speed fans should feel comfortable getting their feet wet with a more sim-focused affair. The result is a strong first entry into a new direction for a series known for white-knuckle racing.
What's Hot
Right off the bat, you're going to notice that the game has great presentation. It's not anything revolutionary (whooshing fonts, fast action mixed with slow motion, etc.), but it's executed well and it's very tight. As you progress through menus, intro videos, modes, and individual race events, the game does a great job of staying focused while making it clear what additional options you have open to you. Along with the tight presentation, the game's soundtrack and overall audio package combine together to make the game one of the better racing experiences in regards to style.
The racing action, while not without its hiccups, is really impressive pretty much from the get go. Even in the first events of the game the action is fast, but remains much closer to a sim experience than anything we've ever seen in the NFS franchise. You start out the game running a test lap around a fairly simple course. How you perform on this course will determine which assists the game will suggest that you use as you play. If you have trouble handling corners, the game may suggest that you use the braking assist. This assist will hit your brakes for you if you're going into a corner too hot, which will allow you to keep control long enough to adjust your speed and driving angles properly. With each suggested assist, you can set how heavily you want the assist to take over, or you can override the game's suggestion and turn the assist off. As your skills increase, backing off the assists will allow you to improve your game over time without having to kill yourself with the difficulty of adjusting to sim style racing if you're a newcomer to this sort of racing.
The controls in the game are also very tight and refined. In a sim racer, it's absolutely vital that the controls be practically flawless, and NFS: Shift delivers in this regard. It never felt like I had to battle the controls, which is impressive given that this is the first outing for the Shift line.
Most importantly, the racing in NFS: Shift feels very satisfying. As you race you earn points for a variety of reasons. You can earn points for passing cleanly, driving a proper line, effective drifting, or even for being aggressive toward other drivers. These points go toward leveling up your driver and also earn you cash to buy new cars or upgrades. This point system encourages good driving techniques while also giving you instant feedback on your racing style.
Finally, the online integration in Shift is great. Before you start any event, you can see who on your friends list has the best record for that race/event. If you are the top dog, you know that your friends will be in turn gunning for you, so there's always a good reason to replay events multiple times. Online racing is also a lot of fun, and in my experience I never had issues finding people to race against or never experienced any major lag issues. With several modes to engage in online, Shift provides several reasons to hop online often.
What's Not
As mentioned earlier, there are a few hiccups that will manifest themselves throughout your time with NFS: Shift. It wasn't a consistent problem, but I did have some odd glitches put the brakes on a few races. Once in a while my car would hang up on an invisible barrier of sorts or I'd find myself spinning out of control for no reason. One time the game even crashed during loading and I had to jump out to the 360 dashboard and restart the game. While the glitches weren't as common as they're currently being made out to be on sites like YouTube or various Internet forums, it is likely that you'll run into a handful of them with any significant amount of play time.
While it's very common for difficulty in racers to ramp up as time goes on, NFS: Shift gets a little extreme. On the higher tiers it was extremely hard to maintain control of the cars and I felt myself losing my grip on the track far more than what I'm used to in my experience with racing games. It didn't matter much what car I was choosing, it still took extensive tuning and customization to find a way to improve the handling of the cars.
Even with the assists kept to a minimum, or even turned off completely, the game still comes across as less of a sim than many of the game's direct competitors, such as Forza or Gran Turismo. The game isn't arcadey by any means, but it does lean in that direction to some degree on all fronts. While this keeps the door open to more casual sim racer fans, it would make more sense to take a more hardliner approach with the driving elements if EA is going to split the Need for Speed franchise into two separate lines.
Final Word
It's been a while since I've enjoyed a sim racer, but Need for Speed Shift managed to provide some solid thrills and addictive racing action. Despite the insane difficulty in the higher tiers, the game does a great job holding your hand until you're ready to take off your training wheels, so to speak. For a first effort, it really is impressive what EA has done in taking the Need for Speed franchise in such a new and aggressive direction. Shift is a great jumping off point, but it's clear that for Shift to compete with the likes of the more established sim racers EA will need to tighten up the overall experience in the next installment. For what it is, however, Shift is a fun game and is probably the most accessible sim racer for casual fans or newcomers to the genre.
November 20, 2009
