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The Need For Speed name is starting to become a moniker for an EA Racer that simply isn’t Burnout and it’s been slightly hard to take for veterans of the series. From the highly acclaimed early days to the mainstream popularity with customisation becoming the focal point, the Need For Speed franchise has always stood for a lot. Now in 2009, fifteen years after the original, EA are taking the realistic route that ProStreet was originally touted as, only this time they stuck to their guns and justifiably so.

Straight away you’ll feel awkward behind the wheel of these tamed beasts. With a majority of the assists turned on, the controls just don’t have the depth required for a game with realistic simulation ambitions. Any subtle cornering
halts as you’re thrown into an underwhelming drift. Then you’ll give in and try the frequently mentioned cockpit view, only to find it a game transformed.

Shift’s cockpit view is a complete and utter triumph

Personally my spatial recognition isn’t great when within the cockpit, so I tend to stick to the always-approachable chase camera. Yet here, and partly due to the marketing focus, I felt compelled to give this highly touted camera a go. You’ll instantly hit the conclusion that Shift’s cockpit view is a complete and utter triumph in nailing that intense wheel-to-wheel experience.

Every corner will feel more intense and every manoeuvre will feel more risky as you’re bound to have many heart-in-mouth moments while trying to out break an opponent. Your eyes will flicker between dash and rear view while your fingers will flick the right analog stick to get a better view of that driver attempting to overtake. You’ll find an appreciation for Motorsport and it’s all down to a well-polished camera.

The problem is that the framework of the game’s career can’t sustain the momentum. Sure the racing is polished and will ensure Shift will happily prove a successor to the Project Gotham throne but the plethora of racers coming out this year will need something more enticing than endless tiers and experience meters. An overwhelming number of stats are constantly being monitored through the entire game and these will track your progress.

The racing will let Shift become the successor to Project Gotham

Shift has simplified motor racing down to two distinct types of driving, aggression and precision. Kudos style, you’ll constantly be racking up points that fall under both categories with the aim of being labelled as either one or the other. Sticking to the racing line and performing clean overtaking manoeuvres will ensure precision points while drifting and spinning another vehicle will tot up under the aggression column. Either way you’ll be scoring points that will increase your experience level.

Then you’ll have to take into consideration the stars which are unlocked for podium finishes, hitting points markers and achieving specific goals. These goals could be anything from spinning out four drivers to mastering every corner to the racing line. The latter of which you can do regardless of a specific challenge and is only another statistic to track. These are added up and you’ll rank up through tiers, which will eventually lead to the NFS World Tour.

Confused yet? While you’re playing you are so engrossed by the racing that all of this will escape your mind but it’s
a shame that they couldn’t come up with a more alluring career system.

It’s disappointing because despite the early test event that welcomes you to the game and picks options based on your performance, you’ll still want to go and fine tune your difficulty levels and assists. Once you do you’ll be rewarded with more intense competition but not with extra points or currency. Surely the commentator that acts as a mentor could actually guide you and suggest that you change an assist or step up to another difficulty. Instead you’re left with a forgettable career mode that pails to do the gameplay justice.

While the career mode is cluttered with numbers, tiers and levels the rest of the UI is elegantly simple. Stark, tall and bold typography is masterfully laid out within clean menus and the dynamically animated Heads Up Display. They just serve as an indicator for the excellent attention to detail and work that has been put into the game’s visuals.

A plethora of circuits vary from Spa, the long Belgian circuit with it’s notoriously well known corner of the Eau Rouge, and Silverstone with it’s intensely fast paced start that quickly turns into a tight, technical and demanding track. These tracks look accurate but those naturally boring circuits actually translate as much. A short number of fictional city tracks, which don’t help the Project Gotham comparisons, again look accurate but nothing that would blow you away.

It’s just a shame they couldn’t come up with a more alluring career

The gorgeously realised cars have been detailed perfectly with special care put into the excellent cockpits. Customisation however, isn’t as detailed. A lacklustre vinyl editor makes a surprising appearance for a series that has been made famous on the back of its customisation options.

You should probably approach Shift as more of a stepping stone to Forza or Gran Turismo as it’s not quite there yet. Should it have the Need For Speed name on it? Maybe not but it easily surpasses anything that has embodied that label for the last few years. Its cockpit view is an emotional tour-de-force that should be experienced by anyone wanting to feel like a motor racer. That’s why the forgettable career framework, lack of guidance and fine tuning to find that sweet gameplay, is even more of a blow to take.