It's saved by the fact that more often than not you're racing friends thanks to the inclusion of Autolog, the feature pioneered by Hot Pursuit that compiles online times on an advanced leaderboard that provides a thread through Shift 2 Unleashed's reams of content. When you're several laps deep in a key race it's hard to find the funny side and moments like this make you wish for the rewind feature that's been creeping into other racing games.
Too often though, tailing drivers will disregard you at a corner, sending you face first into the nearest gravel trap. They're on the whole a smart bunch and are capable of putting up a fight more convincing than that seen in other racers they'll defend their line and jostle for position in a manner that's fun to engage with.
The same can be said of Shift 2 Unleashed's AI cars.
While the addition of an Elite handling model certainly points Shift 2 Unleashed in the right direction there's still an uneasy lightness to the car's behaviour, and even once accustomed to their more sensitive ways they're still prone to providing some nasty shocks. Even better is the gory evisceration that waits at the end of a high-speed crash, with the cars shedding doors, bonnets and wheels with violent conviction.ĭrive+by+night+and+expect+to+be+terrified.+ What it isn't, however – and here's where the likes of Gran Turismo and Forza steal a march on it – is reliable or consistently satisfying in its action. The excellent audio visual feeds into this the cars growl with purpose and they're finely modelled too. Thanks to the driver's eye view, Shift 2 Unleashed provides the most thrilling experience available in the genre. Shift 2 Unleashed, with its innovative new perspective, can lay claim to being the first game to actually let you be the driver, a feature that works for better and for worse. Other games let you be the car, in much the same way that some first-person shooters let you play as a disembodied gun. Here the screen's lined by the helmet's lining, and the camera will actively tilt towards corner apexes. It's a first-person perspective that does more than put you in the driving seat it provides a genuine driver's eye view. Such thrills are aided by the added layer of immersion lent by the addition of the helmet cam, a small but welcome revolution within the racing genre.
During the all-new night races tracks such as Spa Francorchamps are as packed full of scares as Dead Space's Ishimura Pouhon, a fast left kink that can be taken flat by the very brave, is as frightening as the most savage of necromorphs when it leaps out of the dark at the last possible moment.