Two years ago, developer ECC Games released DRIFT21, a racing game centered exclusively on drifting. Now, having garnered a Mostly Positive status with nearly 1600 reviews on Steam, the game is finally pulling the handbrake and sliding onto consoles with the name DRIFTCE. (Presumably for Console Edition.) While I play my fair share of racing games, they are often arcade racers like Forza Horizon 5 or Need for Speed, more so than technical and simulation-based games like Assetto Corsa. DRIFTCE was in rare company in that regard and you should keep that in mind as you continue reading.
Your time in DRIFTCE will be spent either in the garage or on the track. The first big surprise for me was realizing how comprehensive the game’s car-building mechanics were. I am an admirer of cars for sure but I couldn’t tell you the first thing about how to build one. Yet, playing DRIFTCE, I was able to find out what parts go where and “build” a car engine successfully. This is due entirely to the design of the game, which is beginner friendly without sacrificing technical details. In the garage, you can select a ride from a roster of 12 licensed vehicles, purchase and install parts from seats to suspension, edit paint and decals, and more. With a single button press (Y on Xbox), you can see what parts are missing from your car, and from there you can then view several models for said parts and pick the ones that you like best.
On the track, you can test your builds in Sandbox mode or progress in the Career mode by completing challenges. If you were expecting some sort of narrative or character in DRIFTCE‘s career mode, you will be very disappointed. Instead, you get a series of tracks, each with different challenges that you race to earn trophies.
When it comes to racing, I am a bit conflicted. As someone who plays with a controller (I played the game on Xbox), I thought the game had a pretty steep learning curve. I was able to drift a bit thanks to my experience with other racing games but not with any real consistency. I did complete a few dozen challenges in my handful of hours with the game so it wasn’t impossible. However, my own frustrations with not being able to drift did impact how often I returned to the game across multiple days. I too often found my car over drifting or spinning out on turns and finding the sweet spot has been hard to grasp. That being said, if you were someone who has a full simulation driving setup, you will probably have a lot more fun than me with this game.
One aspect of the racing I did like and I do want to mention is the camera. You can cycle through several different camera presets like most other racing games, but in DRIFTCE you have so much more control over each camera. You can change the orientation and FOV and distance and the result is a camera system that lets you find the right look for your playstyle. I also want to point out that the game does have multiplayer and you can invite up to four friends to see who’s fastest in classic game modes like Time Attack or who can get the best moves in Free Ride.
The last thing I want to touch on is visual and audio fidelity. DRIFTCE looks nice, featuring well-detailed and fully licensed cars that all pack a big punch in the sound department as well. But the game doesn’t look amazing all the time. Tracks and environments look fine but they lack the highly detailed textures that have become the standard in popular simulation games. Furthermore, the game has a lot of loading screens and they sure do take their time loading. I played the game on both Xbox Series X and Series S and didn’t notice much of a difference in performance. They both loaded slowly and played the same barring negligible framerate boosts that I might not have noticed.
In the end, DRIFTCE is a racing game made for diehard drift fans. The game offers a surprisingly robust yet accessible garage that lets you build your own car in a really rewarding way. But the beginner-friendly-ness of the shop isn’t present on the track where the learning curve of the drifting mechanics can lead to frustrating moments of gameplay. DRIFTCE is definitely a budget title, only costing $29.99 on console, but it’s also a game that needed more. More budget and consequently more content to bring players back. And if that results in a higher price, then it’s one I’d bet players are willing to pay. DRIFTCE is available now on PlayStation and Xbox. A code was provided by the publisher for review.
