Need For Speed Shift is one of the series
racing game, NFS. Here is a review about
NFS Shift and
9game wish you will like it.
Where
can I begin? This game has so many little things wrong with it. By
themselves, they wouldn't matter, but when they all add up, they simply
destroy the fun of this game.
I'll start with the physics engine.
This is supposed to be a simulation game, right? So explain to me why
rear-ending a vehicle sometimes sends it flying up in the air, allowing
me to drive UNDERNEATH it. That simply doesn't make sense. The cars also
handle very inconsistently; the same vehicle in the same race will
sometimes understeer and sometimes oversteer. This is inexcusable in ANY
racing game, let alone one that professes to be a top-quality
simulation!
While we're on the topics of physics, I should tell you
that the game handles beautifully with lower-power, Tier-1 vehicles. But
as soon as you get to higher tiers, the vehicles are almost impossible
to control. It's almost as if EA only tested the physics engine on
low-speed vehicles and pronounced it good. It's not. I can't count the
number of times my car suddenly veered into a wall even though I wasn't
touching the joystick.
Let's talk about Drifting too. The drift mode
is essentially BROKEN. Gone are the silky-smooth drifting controls found
in previous games such as NFS: Underground 2 and NFS: Prostreet.
Instead, all of the cars handle like they are on a 3-inch-thick sheet of
ice while drifting. It is unbelievably difficult to control the cars
during drift matches and nigh impossible to actually win a drift event.
The
heads-up display during races is so cluttered that it distracts the
player from driving. There are so many blinking lights, scrolling
letters, and flashing numbers that it feels more like I'm playing a
video slot machine in Vegas instead of a racing simulation. To make
matters even worse, the game, for some completely stupid reason, can't
come out and tell you what position you're in during a race. No, you
have to look at a list on the top left of the screen to see the current
places of ALL of the drivers in the race and attempt to discern which
one you are in that block of text. Of course, the text is ridiculously
tiny and hard to see against most backgrounds. And the mini-map can't
show you the entire track. No, it only shows you the upcoming corner.
Yeah, that really helps in trying to learn the track.
Speaking of
learning the track, how can you learn whenever there is no free-run or
practice mode? Sure, there's quick race mode, where you can run a race
or a time-attack challenge, but there is no simple practice mode. Most
racing simulations require the player to have an intimate knowledge of
the various tracks, and this game is no exception. But I shouldn't have
to try to learn the track when there are 10 other vehicles on it; I
should be able to do as many laps as I want to by myself. Honestly,
would it really have been that difficult to include a free-run mode that
just lets you drive around a track for as long as you want?
Next up
is the AI. In short, it is terrible. At least the rubber-band “catch up”
mode found in some previous games (I'm looking at you, NFS: Most
Wanted) doesn't exist in this game. Instead, the AI simply cheats. This
is the only explanation I can think of whenever a piece-of-crap Scion tC
is able to out-accelerate my highly-modified twin-turbo BMW M3. And
then there's the time attack challenges. In the time attack mode, all of
the other competitors are on the track with you. So, if you are lapping
all of them, it stands to reason that you will have the quickest time,
right? Well, you will, until the computer decides to arbitrarily say
that another competitor just beat your time by two tenths of a second,
usually during the last lap of the time attack. This happens ALL THE
TIME, and it is VERY frustrating.
There are way to many cars on the
track at one time, too. It becomes very, VERY difficult to pass whenever
you're on a small, tight course and there are 7 (or more!) other
vehicles in the same space. Quite often, you'll end up getting knocked
off the track by some other driver (through no fault of your own) and
have to restart the race because you're so far behind.
Remember those
Profile Points I talked about? Why are these ridiculous things even in a
simulation game? Couldn't you simply award me the driver-level prizes
for achieving certain numbers of stars? And the difference between
Precision and Renegade is just weird. Why is drafting, a move used by
just about every professional racer in the WORLD, considered a Renegade
move? Basically, you'll get a ton of Renegade points early in the race
while you're drafting and passing and slamming into other cars, but once
you get in the lead, you'll pretty much only earn Precision points, and
lots of them at that. This leads to it being nearly impossible to
become a “Renegade” driver, not that it really matters anyway.
Some
stars (usually two per race) require you to reach certain point
thresholds. These thresholds seem to be quite arbitrary; in some races,
you'll hit those thresholds in the first lap. In other races, it will be
a struggle. Apparently, the best way to earn these points is to stay on
the correct “racing line” through the entire track. The only way to
figure out the correct line, however, is to turn on the racing line
feature under options. Then, the line is displayed while you're driving.
You have to keep at least some part of your vehicle on that dotted line
at all times to rack the Profile Points up. Never mind the fact that
the line is outright wrong in half the cases; it's often quicker to not
follow the lines. This often forces the player to beat a race
twice--once to earn the three stars for a first-place finish and another
to stay on that stupid line the whole time, earning enough points for
the other stars while losing the race in the process.
As I said
before, the detail and realism are great, for the most part, but there
are a few problems there, as well. Whenever I install additional gauges
in my car, why don't the gauges move? The in-dash boost gauge points at
“0” the whole time, even though the HUD boost gauge is moving around!
Another
problem that I have deals with the customization of vehicles. You
cannot preview any changes you make to your car, whether it be body
kits, wheels, or interior. Let's say you want to put some new wheels on
your car. You have to select the wheel and size, confirm it, and only
then you can see the wheels, but only on a small part of your car. Now,
if you don't like the new wheels, you have to go back and find the
previous ones you had, select the size, and confirm it. The same goes
for body kits and other modifications. In all of these cases, you don't
get to see the entire vehicle, nor can you move the right analog stick
to change the view. This is a serious oversight.
I thought the sound
was great, too. I was excited when I saved up enough in-game money to
install racing exhaust on my Toyota Supra. I went to the next race only
to be sorely disappointed by the fact that my car SOUNDED THE EXACT
SAME. Come on, here, all previous NFS games had different sounds for
different exhaust packages, why can't this one? While we're on the topic
of sound, explain to me why the SIXTEEN-cylinder Bugatti Veyron sounds
the EXACT SAME as a SIX-cylinder Nissan Skyline!
Highs: Awesome graphics and customization
Lows: Terrible Physics Engine (including a completely broken drift mode), bad AI, too much on-screen information
In Short: A decent game plagued by so many little annoying things, it ceases to be fun.
4 out of 10 stars.
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Need For Speed Shift or other
racing games, you can click
HERE.
