I have a bit of an obsession with the Need for Speed series, and while I’ve played all of them, I haven’t completed all of them (the ones with a campaign at least). So I started playing through the remainder a while back.

Both Shift titles were in that list, I played Shift 1 first. I don’t love it, but it has fleeting moments of something more. Every now and then you get into the flow of a track in a car that handles well, and it just clicks. That’s maybe 10% of the time though, otherwise you’re dealing with janky physics and brain dead AI.

It’s been a long time since I’ve played Shift 2 Unleashed, from what I remember it was a marginal improvement over Shift 1. Before I get into me being wrong, let me bring you up to speed on racing games in general if you aren’t an avid follower of this mess of a genre.

Racing games are generally categorized as arcade, simcade, or sim racers. Arcade would be Need for Speed Most Wanted or Midnight Club 3, sims would be Assetto Corsa and iRacing. Simcade, as you’d expect, is somewhere in the middle. Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo, PGR, GRID, etc.

The best simcades are the ones that simplify the driving characteristics of a sim while adding in something unique. PGR4 has a kudos system that rewards skilled driving and a killer soundtrack to make moment-to-moment racing more exciting, Forza Motorsport 4 feels like a car nerd’s wet dream with the amount of passion poured into everything surrounding the driving, etc.

A big problem with simcades as of late (Forza Motorsport 8, Project Cars 3, etc) is that they stop after the first step. They simplify sim physics to make themselves playable on a controller, and then they do nothing else. There is no reason to play FM8 over FM4 or Project Cars 3 over Shift 2.

So what’s Shift 2’s deal?

It is the most visceral simcade (maybe racing game in general) that you will ever play. Here is a video I recorded of a quick race around Brands Hatch.

(side note: this game is almost 15 years old and goddamn has it held up graphically)

What is Shift 2 doing to make this race as intense as possible?

1. It is pitch black. You better not crash and break your headlights, or you are fucked. Your opponents’ headlights light up your cockpit when they get close, adding to the pressure.

2. Your vision blurs the faster you go, until the only thing in focus is the track in front of you.

3. Dirt and bug splatter hits your window, occasionally directly in your line of sight.

4. The hood of your car shakes at higher RPM or when going over bumps, making the cars feel more physical.

5. The transmission whine sound has been made more prominent compared to reality, meaning the car is basically screaming at you at all times.

6. Your head moves to follow the track, every bump shaking your helmet. In most other racing games, you are the car. In Shift 2, you are the meatbag inside the car. This is especially relevant when you crash. Your view jerks forward, your vision goes grayscale and blurry, and your driver breathes heavily for a few moments afterward.

7. No rewind mechanic. If you fuck up, your race is over. Don’t fuck up.

8. AI are willing to jostle for position. They aren’t as intelligent as some modern sims, but they’re way smarter than Forza’s AI and collisions carry an actual risk in Shift 2.

Now look at this video of FM8. It feels sterile in comparison.

Even if you remove points 1 and 6 from Shift 2’s favor, a race at dusk with regular cockpit view, it still looks and more importantly FEELS incredible. And now here’s FM8 again.

Shift 2 isn’t perfect, it shares some problems with Shift 1. Notably, some cars just straight up suck to drive (the slower/heavier ones), both PC ports are iffy, and it succumbed to licensing hell and can’t be purchased anymore. But still, after 14 years, it’s leaps and bounds ahead of the driving experience of every other simcade racer released since, including its own spiritual successor.

It sucks that no other racing games have really tried to follow down this path since. Slightly Mad Studios’ own Project Cars (1 & 2) carried some of these ideas into an actual sim, but then they shot themselves in the foot with Project Cars 3 and haven’t done anything since. They’re been absorbed into EA in the meantime, so who knows if they’ll ever have the chance.

I wish it didn’t take me so long to revisit Shift 2. If you’re itching for a good simcade racer, give it a shot. It feels fresher than ever with how stagnant the racing genre has been as of late.