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| There's a variety of track and car types to play around with |
Most conspicuous among the new features is the helmet cam. Far more than a rubber-rimmed version of the original's meticulously realised cockpit view, it mimics the behaviour of a flesh-and-blood motorist. Moving into a corner, you'll notice the camera tilt and refocus gently as your host body picks out the best angle of approach, his simulated lenses grinding the apex to a gritty clarity.
You're not obliged to follow the cue, of course. As with the returning racing line indicator - a colour-changing streak of chevrons that prompts you to decelerate ahead of turns - proficient players may choose to ignore the driver's silent suggestions, straying to either side of that sweet spot in order to slip past a competitor or stop him doing likewise.
Watching my avatar crane away from each buffet or loss of traction, I'm reminded of my own desperate body language whenever younger siblings wreaked havoc on my copy of WipEout 2097, trying to correct their ill-judged efforts by sheer force of posture. That's how far we've come, boys and girls. Fifteen years ago I used to wrench my neck muscles watching my relatives fail at racing games. Nowadays, virtual entities wrench their necks watching me. O brave new world, etc.
Mind you, my siblings never had to cope with a handling model as exacting as that of Unleashed - a game crafted by automobile enthusiasts for automobile enthusiasts, or at least for those who think a spot of whiplash is the best way to freshen up after a stodgy commute. Hitting the Shanghai Bund GP track - a square-edged course pinched into a nasty double-back halfway round - in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta QV, the inadequacy of my childhood training on the hover circuits is immediately exposed.
Rated a mere 300 by the new, pick-up-and-play-friendly performance index, the Alfa sternly resists attempts either to break the sound barrier or slide round corners, and I'm quickly relegated to sixth place. On the second lap, I restrain wilder impulses and glue my car to the racing line, which earns me a fifth place finish. A calculated sop to the wider market, Unleashed's expanded suite of driver aids give newcomers enough of a toehold on the motors and courses to get some sense of the possibilities that await the committed.
Experience points are once again plentiful, bruised feelings coddled by a steady stream of unlocks. Master the odd corner or hit your top speed once in a while, and you should find yourself going up a rank whether you scale the giddy heights of the podium or no. There's no longer a split between “Precision” and “Aggressive” styles, and thus no contrived moral subtext. Results screens are much quieter affairs, too, with less of the high-impact bling that made their predecessors so jarring.
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| I'm gonna make a super-sonic man out of you! |
The chubby little fellow's tires prove sadly unequal to the track's ups and downs, the back-end skimming over the road surface with every bump, and I'm soon caught in a never-ending cycle of over-steer. Tackled in the dark, the Nordschliefe's uneven topography cuts the beam of my headlights short, an atmospheric touch that never really threatens my already-catastrophic showing. Things take a turn for the even worse, though, when I shatter both lights against the flank of the motor in front. Unleashed's cosmetic damage system can be toggled to affect the performance of each car component, at corresponding cost to acceleration, handling and so on.
It's certainly one reason to stay out of the scrum, not that the series really needs any more of those. SHIFT drew attention to itself in a crowded field by making players feel every bump in the road or nick in the paint as though they were actually, physically strapped to the rump of a 7500 RPM engine. Unleashed is only too happy to pick up where it left off.
HUDs sag and drag in the G-forces, while heavy impacts bounce cameras off dashboards. Textures blur and de-saturate to convey the near-onset of concussion. At times it feels like Slightly Mad is simply out for revenge on casual auto-abusers, those who treat the hallowed tarmac like a Dodgems rink. A new set of HUD screens, cycled with the D-pad, communicate the action in more clinical terms, showing individual tire temperature and pressure, ride height and distance from racing line.
An enlarged garage - 130 plus, presumably incorporating all or most of SHIFT's suite - should have coveters of their neighbour's Volkswagens dribbling, but SHIFT 2: Unleashed's real enhancements may lie away from the track, in the form of new tuning options - which I'm sadly unable to sample in depth - and EA's Autolog network, shown off to great effect in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
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| Making the behind-the-wheel experience feel more authentic is a staple of the SHIFT sub-franchise |
Slightly Mad appears to have wrought a rare moment of calm amid the dips and rucks of the Need for Speed timeline, content to nose deeper into the gap SHIFT crowbarred open between older, more celebrated simulation racers. Unleashed's tweaks and tune-ups are subtle but comprehensive, and fans of the first game should find little to dislike. Shift 2 Unleashed is due out on Xbox 360, PC and PS3 on March 24th in Europe (25th in the UK), and March 29th in North America.
Most Anticipated Feature: The heightened immersion effects are quite something.
