Need for Speed: Shift Review

I was in the mood to play a racing game a few weeks ago but I couldn't decide whether to play another xbox 360, PS3 or PC game...well as luck would have it Wal-mart had the PC version of Need For Speed Shift on sale for $10 dollars so I picked it up over the console versions.

First off, in order to run this game I would recommend you have a moderately powerful PC with a good mid range video card. Anything from the 8800GT onwards would be good to run the game at a pretty nice detail setting with all the eye candy of the home consoles. Now onto the review :)

This is the best Need For Speed title I have played since Hot Pursuit 2 many years ago on the PC. This is the first game in which EA decided to introduce some realistic more simulation like racing along with some of the fun of other arcade racers. EA Black Box decided to incorporate a really robust career mode as well as some fairly fun multiplayer into this game that actually forces you to replay several tracks again to gain more "stars".

The single player career mode involves four Tiers which are broken down into several race types...such as "head to head" or standard multi lap races. All these modes are very fun and EA choose to reward you with "stars" if you achieve secondary goals such as "drive a clean race" etc. These "stars" really add to the replay value and do enhance the gameplay significantly.

EA also chose to let you "level up" your racer to level 50 (similar to a Role playing game) and rewards you experience based on drifting, drafting etc. The game will also track your overall style to either be an "aggressive" type racer or a "precision" racer. For example, if you mainly race clean races and do not bump into other racers you will be labeled as a "precise" driver :). This also lets you hone a particular style if you prefer to be a careful driver who wins based on skill alone :).

The game also chooses to award you medals based on various sub-goals while racing each track. Ie. 1st place in every race etc. You will be awards either bronze, silver gold or platinum. This also really added to the replayabilty and fun of the game.

The graphics and sound are excellent as well. I really enjoyed the blurring effect as well as the detail on the various tracks as I raced around the world. The music is also excellent.

The online mode is also fairly fun..you can race against players worldwide and they matches were fairly lag free. I did notice that some players are experts at the game so be ready for a tough battle online :) You are also awarded medals and stars for this mode as well which I found pretty awesome.

My one complaint with regards to this game is that some of the single "head to head" matches against each tiers "champion" can become extremely difficult. I had to retry these matches as well as some of the tier 3 and 4 matches several times to finally win. I also had to buy the best cars and fully upgrade them to even have a chance. Yup they can be that hard :(. I also wish they had included a few more cars, as it seems near the end of the game you have a lot of money, but nothing to really spend it on :( These are 2 minor complaints however and do not ruin the game in anyways, but do give EA something to improve upon :)

I really recommend this racer to anyone who is a PC games racing fan as it is really a lot of fun :)