Need For Speed: Shift (PS3 + 360) Review Based On PS3 Version

Upon starting Need For Speed: Shift you will find yourself behind the wheel on a track by yourself, with your trainer instructing you to take a lap and then popping the control settings up for you to fiddle about with. This isn’t so bad for experienced racers, but newcomers to the genre might find themselves a little overwhelmed, especially as the initial handling scheme is completely unsuitable for them.

A better option would probably have been for the developers to set the default controls to make for easy handling, thereby allowing less experienced players to breeze through the game’s introduction while still offering the more hardcore a chance to tune their controls. Unfortunately it went the other way and inexperienced players who stick with the default setting are likely to find themselves even more frustrated in the long-term than if they’d spent fifteen minutes experimenting with different settings on the practice track.

Still, don’t let first impressions scare you off, Shift is a solid racer and has something to offer players of all skill levels. The game’s single player career mode offers 150 different events, and doing well will unlock bigger events and better cars. It’s all building up to the World Tour, which you can unlock earlier than you might think, essentially offering you the ability to lengthen or shorten your single-player experience. You can do the bare minimum required to race in the World Tour, or you can hit every single event, it’s up to you.

The unlocks work by earning stars during races. You can earn stars by finishing in position but also for a number of other feats during each race. Run each race perfectly and you will unlock the higher level content more quickly. Race just adequately and you can still advance, it will just take you more events. The stars are a great game mechanic because they encourage you to focus on more than just driving fast and finishing first, which keeps the gameplay fresh. It’s also fun and challenging to go back and try for perfect runs in events where you missed stars, but it’s not required and you can simply move on to a new event instead. Online game modes also rewards players for precision and aggression like the single player does.

One area where the single player game can be a bit frustrating though, is the AI driving of your competitors. The Need for Speed developers tied AI performance strongly to your own. In idealistic terms, this means no matter what your skill level is, your opponents will be evenly matched. In reality it means if you lose speed by taking a corner to wide and end up on the grass, your opponents all slam on their brakes and wait for you to catch up. The same thing happens in reverse when you’re driving exceptionally well: the AI drivers will also be driving exceptionally well, not only making them very difficult to beat but also lessening your sense of accomplishment at how well you ran the course.

Need For Speed: Shift offers an enormous variety of excellent courses and cars. It’s not without flaws but overall it’s an extremely fun ride.