Need For Speed- A look into the Franchise.
It seems to me that from here on, some jealous studio performed voodoo on NFS, because the next iteration ‘Carbon’ was so dumb, that I was left wondering what kind of efforts did the brain-dead NFS developer make to stoop lower than what it turned out last year? Lacking both fast racing and thrilling chases, the game could be discussed only for its fun canyon duels and the Audi R8, a car I was in love with at first sight. But compared to what NFS turned out in the subsequent Prostreet, Carbon looked like Oscar material. Prostreet was stomach churningly revolting and despite its claims of realistic driving and damage modelling, racing back on tracks instead of an open world city was far away from fun. I could not stand the game for more than a couple of hour and my X360 disk is still lying scratch-less in brand new condition (in case anyone reading this wants to buy it!)
EA claimed to be doing a Most Wanted 2 under the pretext of NFS Undercover, its 12th title in the series. But I for one found the ‘racing’ to be way better than ‘chasing’ in this not-as-snazzy-as-it-claimed-to-be title! Yes there was daylight, an open city, loads of highways and game world the size of Asia, but cops were devoid of fun and being undercover seemed like a non-entertaining affair. Special effects (wind at high speed for e.g.) looked cheesy and soundtrack was so-so. I had heard so many bad things about the game that when I managed to get a cheap promo copy of it, I braced myself for the worst experience of my life (I was playing it because it had ‘NFS’ stamped in front of it). However, the end result did not disappoint as much as I was expecting it to, though it would not have been strange for someone to break his LCD or throw his console out of the window if he had picked up this title after Most Wanted.
And this brings me to the title I talked about at the beginning – NFS Shift. After being hammered and beat in a corner by critics and fans alike and loosing its status of being the numero uno racing experience, EA seemed pretty confused about giving a direction to NFS. So they decided to stick it up the backyards of titles like Forza or Gran Turismo, only this time with a dash of arcade-ish driving rather than pure simulation. As large as Shift’s claims to being a simulation may be, I am sure the manufacturers will drive down their biggest bulldozers to Slightly Mad studios if they play the game. Cars drift, over-steer and respond erratically so much that it’s futile to rely on any of your previous driving logics to complete the game. One has to be really patient and experimental with the driving settings to ensure that cars behave like ‘cars’ and not like ‘motorboats’. Uneven traction-loosing bouncing patterns and zero turning ability off-road add further to the frustration thereby throwing all your driving sensibilities and logic out of the window. But thankfully, the game manages to be an above average experience thanks to its graphics, well laid out races and ofcourse, the now famed cockpit driving views.Slightly Mad seemed to have put all their efforts in the cockpit driving experience for this title. There will hardly be a game with frighteningly realistic sense of speed and ‘behind the steering’ experience of a supercar like Shift.
It is the only game that I completed in cockpit driving view alone. I had to, because beside the superb experience it was, the other driving views are particularly useless at making you realize how much your car is really turning. Off-roading is punishing and so is the AI sometimes. The game is difficult and hence winning races is quite rewarding, albeit the purpose of the convoluted driver profiling eludes me completely. Yes, Shift is quite an elevated experience compared to what has become of the series, but it borrows and improves gameplay elements rather than invent something new on its own. Sad for a series that was once a trademark, but fun nevertheless. The game’s short and you can finish / skip races to attend the NFS World Tour – the ultimate challenge of the game quite soon. Car list is enviable albeit the soundtrack is a letdown. Sound effects however, are bang with tire screeches and engine revving added to perfection and hence concluding into an immersive driving experience. All in all, Shift does bring hope for the series, but it’s still quite far from the ‘Most Wanted’ or ‘Underground’ pedestals.
I sincerely hope that EA does not decide to pull the plug on NFS. There’s still that 16 yr old in me waiting to race and have fun in the process in wild abandon like it did 11 years back. However, whether the marriage of NFS with fans like me will continue or end in an unfortunate break-up is something time will tell. I for now continue to hope and wish the series the very best so that it brings back racing and gaming to an evolutionary benchmark.
