Need For Speed: Shift – PC Review

Gameplay

Need For Speed: Shift takes us back to the ProStreet days where we race on closed courses instead of on city streets. These courses are models of some of the real life tracks that are used for many major race tournaments worldwide. Many persons may miss the cop chases and the adrenaline from being on the open road. However, all will welcome the exhilarating experience from being behind the wheel of these expensive supercars, competing at the highest level.

NFS: Shift omits a storyline in favour of getting you straight to the action and keeping you there. Jumping behind the wheel of a sponsored BMW M3, you get to start your career as a professional racer by beating the competition and getting to choose a car for yourself.

Speaking of “behind the wheel”, the new developers (Slightly Mad) have done a very good job on the behind-the-wheel or cockpit view. Absent from previous titles, this really brings the game up a notch. With all the trimmings, gauges and buttons to match their real life counterparts, the car models are superbly done.

All the jerks, bumps, bobbing and weaving that you would expect a race driver to endure during a real race is carefully represented and never exaggerated. It’s a job well done that I’m sure everyone will appreciate. You really get the feeling that you are actually there. The view moves forward if you hit the brake, backward if you floor it and there is even a slight blackout moment if you end up in a bad crash.

The sound in the game is equally amazing. Depending on the view you choose, the audio levels and source are different. For example, in the cockpit view, some of the outside sounds are dulled due to you being, well, inside the car with the windows rolled up. You can hear the engine, whether in front of or behind you as well as the other cars around you. The game music is a winner and thankfully I didn’t have to turn the music in the menus off just to have it off during races. When it is race time, the music is off by default.