DRIFTCE gives players the experience of a Drift driver, a mechanic and more.
A brand-new drifting racing simulator game created by automotive enthusiasts, ECC Games. If you’re a drifting fan, then put your pedal to the medal and head over to ECC Games’ latest game, DRIFTCE. Even non-fans are welcome, really.
ECC Games was founded just over a decade ago, 2010 to be precise, and the main office is in Warsaw, Poland and has had a branch in Gdańsk since the year 2020. ECC Games aims to be the best automotive gaming industry in the world, and with the turnout of known projects like Gearshift and Bushido: Drift and Race – they are pretty much on that path.
DRIFTCE has a pretty interesting concept. Allowing players to get the real-life experiences of a mechanic, driver and drifting fan. As well as driving some of the officially licensed drifting cars and performing on over a dozen tracks. Whether you’re using a controller or a steering wheel, you’re bound to get an exciting drifting simulation.
DRIFTCE’s content is centered on its career mode, quick race & multiplayer and Sandbox. You will certainly enjoy DRIFTCE and will be constantly tested to show your skills. Although there isn’t much content, the career mode is mostly where the grinding happens. It involves completing a set of challenges, as well as experimenting with different vehicles and so on, but not much else. You can also choose to free ride to test the vehicle and of course, improve your drifting skills.
When you start the career mode, you are given a challenge to test the skills and capabilities of the car you’re drifting. Your first task is to be able to finish the track in the shortest time. During the challenge, you have to surpass each checkpoint, and if you successfully complete the challenge, you’ll be rewarded with points if you managed to beat the minimum set time, you’ll win a bronze cup (90 seconds), silver cup (60 seconds) or gold cup (30 seconds).
The good thing is that you can either press the down directional if you’d wish to retry the challenge or the menu button to head over to your garage to complete the tutorial. In this part of the tutorial, you are gifted one new serial Mazda MX-5 – however, the car is incomplete. To finish the set by learning how to modify drifting cars.
DRIFTCE’s controls are pretty simple and don’t require a ton of hand movements to perform. Whether you’re in a race or training, and because this is a drifting simulator, the cars will not usually behave like in regular racing games. The mechanism in DRIFTCE is mainly pressing the R2 trigger to throttle, and it’s best to have your thumb on the left analog at all times to tilt the car to prevent the vehicle from spiraling out of control and maintaining the balanced acceleration.
Plus, you can click the L3 for lights. And as a bonus, collecting drift points in each session whilst executing drifting stunts and completing tasks. Of course, there are other controls – L2 to brake, L1 to clutch, and press R3 for the hazard lights. To gear up, you’d have to press circle. To gear down, you’d have to press square. X to execute the handbrake, the down directional button to respawn if you wish to restart the race during the session, and if you wish to change camera angles, you’d have to press the up directional for that.
DRIFTCE’s sandbox is your garage – this is where your creativity comes to light. This is another part of the fun because you can project your imagination with the abundance of cars and parts at your grasp. You can also modify car components and check their power, import new parts, and much more – enabling you to build your own dream drift car and proudly showcase them to the community. Not to mention, there’s a paint shop as the cherry on top.
The garage also has its own set of controls. You can roam around the garage with the left analog stick and press the same stick to toggle walk. Meanwhile, the counterpart–right analog stick allows you to look around. There are certain areas in the garage you can accept or interact with the use of the X button.
And the O button enables you to open the context menu. For example – if you approach one of your vehicles, if you press the O button, it will bring out options such as advancing to the single or multiplayer mode, finding different parts and car parameters, and opening the warehouse.
Speaking of Warehouse – remember when I said that DRIFTCE allows you to build your own dream car? The warehouse is where this is mainly possible. Engines, steering wheels, suspensions, exhaust pipes, and many others tickle your fancy with credits you’re rewarded after completing challenges. After buying a part, you can press the triangle button to display missing parts and the O button to open the radial menu for the part. The radial menu consists of options, including taking part in your vehicle.
Not only can you buy parts, but DRIFTCE allows players to install or uninstall them in their cars themselves. And it’s pretty simple how to do this. Press the X button to either take or drop the part, the square button to throw the part, the left analog to walk with the part, and if you want to get a good look at the part, the O button, followed by the right analog allows you to rotate the part.
It’s understandable that most players wouldn’t know where to place certain parts in the vehicle. Thankfully, DRIFTCE helps players out by highlighting rightful areas where the parts should be placed. After reaching the area of the vehicle, you press the X button to mount the part or hold the same button to dismount it.
Your garage also has a car lift to help you install parts on the bottom of vehicles with two buttons (Up and down) that lifts or lowers it – both with the use of the X button. Another phase is checking the vehicle’s parameters, and you’d have to press the X button to check its performance and L2 trigger to fine-tune—as well as L1 and R1 to change the tab and the left analog to navigate.
DRIFTCE has one of the largest customizations I’ve ever seen in a video game. Furthermore, there is so much depth to the options that it is to a point where it’s incredibly difficult to make a decision because there are so many great-looking cars and parts.
DRIFTCE’s quick race and multiplayer consists of a single-player mode where you can select an official car to drift with, select a track and either free roam or complete challenges. And a multiplayer mode where you can drift with up to four players online. You can either create a server or go to one already made in Europe, the USA, East, or Asia.
DRIFTCE is an enjoyable drifting simulation that will impress hardcore fans and even the casuals. Delivering the true experience of a mechanic is one of the features that will stand out, and with the array of customization, how can it not be? Although the lack of content takes away some cool points, it’s refreshing to see a developer like ECC Games finely implement their enthusiasm and create an enjoyable game. Plus, the game doesn’t cost much, so you can’t go wrong.
