Like a loyal scout, you’ll also get badges. Each time you complete a notable action (say, trading paint with ten opponents) you’ll get a minor badge. Earning consecutive minor badges earns you a master badge, which comes in bronze, silver gold and platinum denominations. Platinum badges require you to earn each and every minor badge - and there are a crazy amount of them set across a wide variety of categories. Add this in with the generous achievements, and you have yourself one hell of a grab bag.
It’s a rich and rewarding play system – in any given race, you’re given plenty of incentives and rewards for playing at all – and much better ones for playing well. Of course, it would all be useless if the game mechanics were subpar, but Shift is rock-solid in every important respect. The controls are tight, the racing action is fast and fair, and the visceral sense of speed is absolutely thrilling. I actually needed to take breaks – not because I was bored or tired, but because my hands would tense up against the controller, and there were more than a few close calls where I may have forgotten to breathe for an instant. That’s how tense and exciting the higher-level matches get.
An element that impressed me mightily was the title’s intuitive difficulty settings. You can choose exactly how much control or level of aid you’d like right from the get go – and a first trial lap gives you a suggested setting that serves as a reliable (and flexible) guideline. Vets will opt for the tougher settings with manual control and no visual aids, while newcomers can ease in and get a taste for the speed without getting swamped in technicalities. This really is the way to create a game with accessibility and wide appeal, without dumbing anything down.
The presentation is pure EA sheen, without any superfluous flash. Aside from a few lightning quick cutscenes and a pulsing background soundtrack (menu and loading screens only), you’ll see and hear nothing that you wouldn’t from the cockpit of a souped-up car. Unlike, say, Dirt 2, which showed off an X-games vibe with elaborate 3D menus and crazy crashes, Shift is all business, and all the better for it. Menus are simple, attractive, and designed to get you out onto the track as seamlessly and quickly as possible.
The graphics are gorgeous, of course, with each lust-worthy car modeled painstakingly from its real-life counterpart. The same goes for the tracks – all of the ritzy, famous locales you’ll speed through look incredible, with fantastic graphical detail that’ll make you want to stop and take a picture – which you can do, using the pause menu’s snapshot feature.
