The Need For Speed brand has become synonymous with illegal street racing over the years, but it's worth remembering that the series originally broke ground as a much purer racing experience. Arcade elements have always been part and parcel of the NFS games - even the original had police chases and traffic on its tracks - but the first games were much more about unfettered supercars competing in closed circuit races than they were customised Subaru Imprezas cruising the roads of open world cities.
And so the series returns to its spawning grounds, although this time with its focus exclusively on the legal world of motor racing. Licensed circuits are plastered throughout this title, from Silverstone and Spa Francorchamps to Laguna Seca and Brands Hatch, while the cars are blended between a wish list of factory-line production cars (a la Gran Turismo) and stripped down, racing spec variants of these original models. Make no mistake, Need For Speed has gone legit, although not without retaining the staples of car modification and drift racing that gamers now expect from an NFS title.
Candid Camera
Much like Codemasters' Race Driver: GRID, Need For Speed Shift is a much more enjoyable experience when played from the cockpit view rather than the above-and-behind camera angle that most racers lend themselves to. In fact, viewed outside of the cockpit, Shift becomes a much blander racing experience - not bad but decidedly run-of-the-mill. This isn't necessarily a criticism though, as the gameplay when viewed from inside the car is nothing short of a landmark in the production of racing games, where Slightly Mad Studios' inspired camera work has built the most adrenaline-fuelled racing sim we've ever played.
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