Need Speed
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Need Speed
Need Speed
Gauging the need for speed
Karen Miner of Grafton doesn't travel on the highways much, but when she does she keeps her speed no higher than 55 mph.
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The Need for Speed series has been running for a long time now. But with recent disasters the series was due for a change. Therefore EA contacted several high profile developers to transform the series to a whole new setting. A setting that is realistic.
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Gameplay
To make the move things have changed considerably. The over de top tuning, known from the street racer games, is gone. Likewise are the many street circuits, the driving in the city scheme and most importantly the police chases. In need for speed shift you progress by finishing in the top 3 of different challenges. Then you have one vs one races with high profile drivers. Winning these races will give you the car he uses. But more importantly by winning this challenge you will proceed to the next level of competition. This circle will continue until you are on the top of the ladder (literally) and own all cars that are worth owning. We really like this basic clean way of working your way up, way more than the similar but more over done way that the previous Need for speed games used.
There are a few problems though. For one we didn't like the 'boss' fights. It made us think of the street races and in fact they're really similar. This isn't what you want in a game that tries to be a simulator. Other problems are the way the game defines your characteristics as a driver. You gain points on curtain bars by driving clean or aggressive. For example drifting every corner will gain you points on the drifting bar. This way the game defines if you are a clean racer, aggressive or maybe careless. But the fastest way of going around corners is by drifting and in the drifting challenges you are forced to use the handbrake cornering once more. So the way the systems defines you as a driver is highly dodgy in the PSP version. The most important thing in a racing game is the driving. Fortunately the game is very easy to drive. The controls work well on the PSP and the steering is pretty accurate. However we still don't like the system overall. For one the fastest way around a corner is by always using the handbrake. And the speeds are highly inaccurate. It's plain insane to be driving a VW scirocco and having the feeling that you're going blistering fast. And it's not just the feel. These EA cars can go from 0 to 150mph in mere seconds. Another point worth mentioning is that the boost button is back in need for speed shift. This button will make the car go Bugatti fast for 7 seconds. Unfortunately it's highly unrealistic and isn't nearly as suddle as we would've liked. (F1 KERS button like) So in short it's still an arcade but if you like that short of thing than there's nothing to worry about on the driving part.
Presentation
This is where the game shines. The graphics look amazing for a PSP game. The lightning effects are great as are the cars and the track graphics. The sound is also great. But we'd have liked more differences in sound between the cars. Again taking the VW. In shift this car sounds way too sporty. We've only really spotted one point that just happens to spoil every other point presentation wise: the game simply seems unable to remember you preferred driving view. The game kept putting us in the default and there's no way to change the default view other than to manually change it each race. This is as annoying as downers get.
Need for Speed Shift is a nice arcade racer with a clean and clear ladder for you to climb to the absolute top. But even down the ladder your cars will go inhumane fast and there isn't always the motivation because of this to really reach the top. And because the game can't remember your driving view, most gamers won't ever reach the top.
I'm Robin Chung, author of the dutch book Tegenlicht. I have a website that brings interesting reading material from all kind of subjects like health and gaming. The website also includes a forum, so you can discuss the articles, and you can order my book from there.
Many thanks for reading our Need Speed article