Need for Speed Shift 2

Despite the fact that this is the first title in the NFS series to drop the branding from its name, the need for speed has never been more relevant a title as it is right here in Shift 2: Unleashed. It’s fast, it’s gorgeous and you’ll just keep wanting more and more. Yet again Slightly Mad Studios have managed to turn the franchise on its head to deliver another stunning take on the world of racing simulations.

Make no mistake about it; Unleashed is precisely that – an accurate simulation of a profession most of us can only dream of getting close to. Those of you planning on hopping straight in and running up top notch times immediately are in for a rude awakening, as are those of you who tend to play their racers without even knowing where the brake button is located. Unleashed, for all its speed, is a slow burner of a game and one demanding of your full attention as well as bucket loads of patience if you’ve got any hope of registering decent times. But mark our words, it's worth every second.

Initially Unleashed may feel a little unforgiving, perhaps even unfair at times, but as you play you'll quickly realise that rather than being just a nasty bugger, it's actually one of the most rewarding titles of recent times. The level of challenge is set by your performance in your first couple of races. Your first race determines the level of help you'll receive from the game by way of driving assists, and the outcome of the second will lead the game to suggest the difficulty level it deems most suited to your abilities. Neither of the setting suggestions made are set in stone, and you'll be able to tweak them depending on how confident you're feeling after a few races.

Once you've been assessed, it's time to jump straight into the career mode. Just like the recent games games in the series, your progression through career mode is based around an XP system. Points are awarded for podium finish, completing predefined objectives such as performing a clean lap or beating a specific lap time, mastering every corner on the circuit or attaining a score of 100% for sticking to the optimum race line.

You certainly won't be getting maximum points from a single outing initially, which encourages you to keep trying, and therefore learning - a system which works especially well given the fact that this is by no means an easy game. As we touched upon earlier the going is quite tough early on, and it'll take you more than a few races to adjust to the handling of the cars, but once you do you'll never look back.

The first few few levels worth of events will soon get you up to speed with the workings of the game, and it's not until you unlock the level 4 and 5 events that you'll get your first taste of the drifting side of Unleashed. Now, if there was one criticism we have about the game it's that the learning curve for these events is through the roof. You'll be given what appear to be fairly foolproof instructions by Formula D champion Vaughan Gittin Jr. (he was heavily involved in the first game, and takes an active role as your mentor here) and instructed to complete some introductory tasks, including basic drifting and completing a figure-of-eight style drift. On paper it's very straightforward, but when it comes down to it in the game the first hour or so you spend learning it will be a truly frustrating experience - especially since reaching the required points milestone to clear the events can be reached accidentally rather than by knowing what you're doing.

It took us a solid 90 minutes to find any real consistency in our drifting abilities, and even then it was touch and go at times. We've got no doubt that this will put a lot of people off, especially those who are more interested in a pure racing experience as opposed to hurtling sideways around a track, but with the popularity of drifting as a competitive sport increasing all the time we can understand why Slightly Mad have opted to figure it quite heavily in the game. If you persevere you'll definitely get the hang if it, but unlike the rest of the game it's unlikely to result in much fun.

For those of you who have been following the development of the game, you'll be very much aware that the bulk of the pre-release hype has been surrounding the game’s Helmet Cam feature, a first person perspective camera which lets you see the action through the eyes of your character – and rightly so. It borders on sensory overload, which is precisely what Slightly Mad have been aiming for in the quest for pure authenticity.

You’ll feel every bump, knock, spin and fishtail like never before. Crashes completely disorient you, turning the screen grey and jerking the camera around wildly to simulate the feeling of being inside the vehicle. Flooring the throttle mimics the effects one would expect from a sudden increase in G-force, and you’ll noticeable move back in your seat – conversely harsh braking will throw you forward.

Some might claim it's a gimmick, but that couldn't be further from the truth. It's honestly one of the most visceral racing experiences we've ever had. The level of immersion really is unparalleled as your instincts take over and your brain kicks into overdrive. We never thought we'd experience fear while playing a racing game but it's very a palpable result of Helmet Cam, especially on tight courses where you're battling for position at full throttle with two or three other cars while approaching a tight chicane.

Even though the game plays exactly the same as it does in the other viewpoints, it just feels so much more intense. As every movement is amplified, every touch of the wheel becomes more important. Needless adjustments on straights are punished as you are shaken within the car, threatening to send you out of the control. We've never raced in real life, but we imagine the feelings created here aren't too far wide of those generated in the heat of real action.

While it may not be an entirely original concept, serving more as the logical progression to the in-car view of the last Shift title, and it’s still not entirely perfect in its execution it adds a hell of a lot more to the experience than many people will appreciate without having the chance to try it out for themselves. Moving forward, things like tracking the player’s head and eyes will come with time and improvements in technology and any refinements of the jarring visual and auditory assaults are no doubt just around the corner as Slightly Mad massage the game’s engine even further, but given the fact that what’s on offer hasn’t been tried before in such a capacity, the results have been breathtaking.

And yet, if the claims of Forza creators Turn 10 are to be believed, not many people will experience the primal joys of Helmet Cam. Apparently very few players use any view other than the third person “chase cam” style – something that we find hard to believe, but then again are in no position to dispute given that we don’t have the same access to the data of thousands of players that they do. If you fall into the chase cam category, we absolutely implore you to give Helmet Cam a go, and to stick with it until you can fully appreciate its brilliance. It really is integral to the Unleashed experience, so it would be a terrible waste to see one of the few real advancements in the genre for the past fe years consigned to the history books due to underuse.

But aside from the new perspective, there is so much more on offer here to gush about. The graphics engine has received quite a bit of work, an admirable feat given that the original Shift was a damn pretty game to begin with. The damage models have been greatly improved, resulting in some really heart breaking prangs to your once pristine ride. Just like its predecessor, everything zips by in a gorgeous blur of greens, greys and blues, depending what part of the world you happen to be racing in at any given time.

In total you'll have 36 unique tracks for you to get to contend with, each offering featuring different lighting conditions to faithfully recreate the experience of driving at different times of day. The lighting in the evening races is sublime and left us breathless on more than one occasion, forcing us to adjust our driving style to a much more cautious one lest we come upon a tight corner far too fast and sacrifice several positions due to our carelessness.

Despite claiming that they had very little interest in giving players a thousand cars to race like Gran Turismo 5, claiming that they would rather focus on quality over quantity, Slightly Mad have still managed to cram an amazing 145 vehicles from a total of 37 of the world's best known manufacturers - of both renowned performance cars and regular off-the-shelf motors. Those of you who like to get down and dirty with your car set ups will be delighted to know that there are countless add-ons, tweaks, performance tuning options and visual upgrades available for each car, ensuring that you can tailor your ride to your exact specifications.

The opponent AI is another side of the game to receive a new coat of paint. Despite the fact that racers are become more and more focussed on the online side of things, it's still massively important to have a challenging single player mode to let players hone their skills, and on the higher difficulty levels Unleashed offers just that. Your careless mistakes will rarely go without punishment, unlike in other titles where you can comfortably hit a wall at full speed and recover to take first place, meaning offline races often feature the same level of competition as those against human opponents.

Which conveniently leads us to Autolog. Making its debut in last year's fantastic (and altogether different) Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Criterion's brainchild is back with a bang. Adjusted to suit the more serious approach of Unleashed, a number of changes have been made to ensure that even those who don't have the time to spend hours playing online can still enjoy competition with their friends.

As you play through your career or tackle tracks in quick play mode, your times will be uploaded to autolog and shared among other Unleashed players on your friends list meaning that even if you're not online at the same time, you can still try to best each other's times and achievements. Autolog will now also recommend friends or races for you to take on, based on the actions of you and your pre-existing friends.

For traditional online play, Slightly Mad have ensured that everything you'd expect to find is here, with a wide range of race options and modes available to suit players of all skill levels. And in order to make everything feel like a single, cohesive entity, online victories and achievements will count towards your career XP haul, which is a huge thing for us since it ensures that everything you do, regardless of the game mode, has an impact on your overall progression across all facets of the game.

Aside from the slightly iffy introduction to the drift mechanics and the initial time needed to adjust to the super realistic handling of the cars, Shift 2: Unleashed accomplishes absolutely everything it set out to with tremendous gusto. The last 18 months have been nothing short of a race fan's wet dream with superb showings from Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, F1 2010, Gran Turismo 5 and even quirkier titles like Split/Second and Blur, but Shift 2: Unleashed manages to take things that one step further, delivering what may well go down as the greatest race experience to date.

It might not be the most accessible title at first, but if you give it a little time, and pay due care and attention to things, you'll reap rewards and levels of satisfaction you never thought possible.