Articles
By HercMax
Published: Nov. 26, 2009 8:35 AM
You won’t need to spend too long on the lowlier vehicles before you earn enough cash to purchase some faster machinery or open up Invitational Events where faster cars await. NFS Shift introduces a nice little innovation (and it’s fairly hard these days on racing sims) where you are rewarded on your style of racing – either Precision or Aggression. Take clean racing lines, drift your tail out or nail an apex and you’ll earn points towards Precision. Block opponents, trade paint or slam other cars and you’ll take on the dark side with Aggression points. Both add points to your Driver Level which will determine the strength and behaviour of match making with Online opponents. It’s a great system which rewards you no matter your driving style and you earn a nice little badge which changes depending on your level, similar to the multiplayer badges in the Call of Duty series. Within races you can also unlock rewards and medals for things such as clean races without going off track, drafting opponents, and finishing on the podium consistently. There is also plenty of variety in the racing with drift events, follow the leader and elimination events as well as the standard lap racing.
The general direction and presentation of this game is designed to keep things interesting with a narrator and short video coming in to explain things whenever your career takes on the next step. The loading times were annoying however which can take 10-20 seconds before a race starts but it’s not out of norm for this type of game. Special mention goes to the art style and effects which keep your blood pumping with the cars trading paint and multipliers and icons flashing whenever you earn a new reward or do well on the track. It’s not completely realistic for sim nutters out there but it does keep things fun. When you pick up speed your depth of field alters and your dash (if using the in-car view) blurs while the road stays in focus, like you’re “in the zone”. It’s a nice effect and the game conveys the feeling of speed very well without going overboard on motion blur effects while racing. I especially like the effect when you crash into a car or roadside barrier, the screen will blur and colours are less saturated like you have suffered some serous negative G. On particularly heavy crashes, the sound even drowns out and the driver groans. It’s a great immersive feeling even if the crash damage is a little superficial.
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