Back in the early part of the '90s, going from Wolfenstein 3D or Doom to Marathon forced you to change the way you played a first-person shooter. While Doom only allowed you to look left and right, Marathon allowed you to look up and down as well. The ability to look up and down forced you to play Marathon in a different way, and its aiming scheme ultimately became the new standard in first-person shooters.

The folks behind Shift 2: Unleashed seem to want to push the racing genre forward in a similar fashion. With the “helmet cam” being introduced in Shift 2, the developers want the focus to be on the racing experience; the developers want the focus to be on the driver, not the car.

The Camera Is Connected To the Neck Bone?

The helmet cam is the game’s way of making you feel like you are the one driving. Your surroundings move and the racing angles change because your head is actually moving with the car. Rather than the camera being fixed on the hood or in the cockpit like in most other racing games, this camera is placed right on top of your neck. If you make a hard turn to the left, your head is going to move in the way it should during such a turn.

Of course, the first potential issue here is that Shift 2 is trying to change the way gamers have played racing games for years. The hardcore racers have a certain way they play racers, and the more casual racing fans probably do not think about what camera view they are using all that often. So there is clearly an inherent risk here that is hard to overlook.

Nevertheless, the developers think it is a risk that is worth taking. While the new helmet cam is jarring and discombobulating at first, they believe it will lead to better racing. What that means is that people who get used to this new camera will improve their driving lines, and thus, their driving results. Beyond that, the camera is more realistic than a standard dashboard camera, which should be a selling point as well.

There is also another rationale at work here. The developers believe the racing genre has become too much about the cars. “Car porn” has a firm grasp on the genre, and there needs to be more diversity out there. In other words, a racing game can still be about racing, rather than just turning into a game where it feels like you are just driving laps (see: avoiding the grind).

Extra Parts

Autolog, which first made an appearance in NFS: Hot Pursuit, is also included here. It seems like Autolog will make more sense here because this is more of a traditional racing game than something like Hot Pursuit. You will be able to know how your time was bested by checking out what kind of car was driven, as well as the modifications that were made to that car.

And, just so we’re crystal clear, this game is not trying to be like Hot Pursuit. You can invest yourself in ridiculous amounts of telemetry if you so choose, as well as modify your cars in ways that essentially breaks them. The realness of the experience goes beyond the helmet cam as well.

You can bust your headlights during a nighttime race, which leaves you essentially blind on the track. In addition, it’s just plain harder to drive at night. The game looks gorgeous during these nighttime races, but they are undoubtedly harder because you are relying on your headlights while looking for the next turn.

Final Thoughts

During the presentation, the developers showed off a video that compared Shift 2 to other racing games. The video showed off the differences between the games when turning, crashing and so on. It was a supremely effective video. And it was so effective because it pointed out what should have always been so obvious. The video showed that it is sort of silly your view does not shake a lot when crashing in Gran Turismo. It is sort of silly that your viewpoint does not move off-center when turning in most racing games. It is sort of silly more games have not tried this yet.

But simply talking about the helmet cam, or even showing it off, is not enough to be sold on the idea. However, seeing it in action and feeling its effects while using a controller or a racing wheel, well, that might just be enough to sell any gamer on its appeal.