Thank you Turtle Beach for sending us a Multi-Shift to review!

Over the last few years, Turtle Beach has made a major push into sim racing. This started with the VelocityOne Race, and continued with the VelocityOne Race KD3 While both sets include a wheel and pedals, neither kit includes an external shifter. Instead, they offer paddle shifters on the wheel itself. While this is certainly handy and most definitely better than nothing, some of us grew up with or even continue to drive cars with H-pattern shifters. As one of those myself, driving a racing sim without such a shifter just doesn't feel right, when I can go into my garage and drive a car with one. Thankfully, this Turtle Beach Multi-Shift was just the ticket.

Before recently upgrading to the VelocityOne Race KD3, I was cruising along with a now decades-old Logitech G27. That racing wheel kit included a three-pedal setup, as well as an H-pattern shifter. It served me well for many years, but over time I was surprised to find some games need more gears than the six speeds + reverse the old Logitech supports. I also found that it would sometimes not activate when shifted into certain gears, though that could just be from age and use. Whatever the case, while it feels a bit cheap and all, I am still grateful for the many years of service it gave me.

This Turtle Beach VelocityOne Multi-Shift is a dramatic improvement over that cheaper old Logitech shifter, and has a feature set that makes it extremely compelling. If it was simply a seven speed + reverse shifter, it would be as good as most of the competition (while allowing you to drive cars with a seventh gear). Instead, it's that, and a lot more.

In my experience reviewing Turtle Beach controllers, I've noticed that their designers tend to throw every feature anyone's thought of and a few more at their products. Sometimes the result is fantastic (like the Turtle Beach Flightstick) and other times it's a bit kooky (like the Stealth Pivot). Whatever the case, as someone who loves things that can do a bit of everything, my heart is certainly with them. Thankfully, this Multi-Shift gets it right where it counts.

The feature set and included extras is really something else here. To start with, each of the eight gears (7 forward + 1 reverse) are very easy to tell where they are, even blind. One through six are a standard H-pattern, while seven and reverse are accessed by pushing down on the stick. While it may seem strange to hide seven behind pushing down at first, it does mean that you can throw it up and to the right and not accidentally land in seventh when aiming for fifth. The gears' positions are all very well defined, and once you get a feel for where they are, it's very hard to go to the wrong one.

One unique feature here is there is a dedicated button labeled 'High/Low'. This button isn't a toggle, but instead simply a button. This is used in games like the Truck Simulator series or Farm Simulator, where big rigs or farming equipment often have more than just seven gears. On games that support it, you can press that button and the game will recognize gears one through seven as eight through fourteen. (I'm not sure how these games handle reverse in that situation.) To be clear, I originally thought that the shifter did the emulation by mode switching into more buttons. That is not how it works; it's just a single additional button. I wish it was done like I thought it was, but it's not really a problem as long as your preferred software handles it in the way you want it to.

One of the stand-out features, especially in this price class, is the hardware switch into sequential mode. What happens here is that the lever is centered to where gears three and four would be, and the springs on the lever are then changed so that instead of you pushing it into any gear, it returns to center just like in some real race cars. By default, pushing up lowers the gear and pulling towards you increases the gear, but this is configurable to whatever you like. I also appreciate that the shifter maps these actions to different buttons than the normal H-shifter range, so you can have both mapped in-game and switch on the fly with the physical mode switch on the shifter when changing vehicles. When using this mode, the motion is a little scratchy but predictable, behaving pretty much as you would expect.

The final mode is something you can only access while the shifter is in sequential mode. One of the two buttons on the Multi-Shift is labeled 'Hand Brake'. When you press this button, the color of the button changes and the formerly sequential mode changes into this new handbrake mode. Instead of shifting into the two plus or minus buttons, the shifter becomes an analog axis. When at rest in the center, this axis is at zero. When you pull it towards you, the axis value increases, giving you the analog handbrake action you probably want. It works well, but the motion is scratchy like I mentioned before, and since it isn't all that smooth, you feel variable resistance as you move the lever. This makes sense, since the shifter is used in those other modes, so there's 'stuff' inside the shifter, preventing it from feeling smooth. While you can certainly use the Multi-Shift as a handbrake, and it does work, I think it's a bit expensive to buy one just for this, especially as it does shifting duty much better.

On top of these many features, you can customize the Multi-Shift in even more ways. One way is by how you mount it. You can clamp mount it to a table, or screw mount it using the included screws to make a strong, tight fit to a wheel stand or racing rig. I strongly recommend screwing it down from the bottom, as it's a much more secure fit there. If you clamp it or screw it down from the front, there's a bit too much leverage when using it, and it feels like you might be able to damage it by accident. Of course it works great for a temporary setup, but for a permanent rig mount, screw it down from the bottom in the middle. Thankfully, all of the screws you need are included in the box.

Another really neat thing included in the box is optional replacement shift levers. There are three options included. The default for more users will be the H-pattern shifter. It works well and feels okay, and the leather accent feels nice. But it's small and cheap-feeling compared to the other much nicer-feeling option, the solid aluminum sequential knob. It looks and feels great; sequential gamers have it good. Thankfully, those aren't your only two options. Also included is a third shift lever shaft that has no shift knob connected; it's meant for you to install your own. It can take any shift knob that has a M12x1.75 thread available. Shift knobs aren't all that expensive; I really need to pick one up, as I know it would take the already impressive feel of the Multi-Shift to the next level.

The Multi-Shift can be connected to Xbox as long as you connect it to a compatible Turtle Beach VelocityOne racing wheel; the original Race or the Race KD3 should both work. When connecting it to a Windows PC, you can either connect it to the wheel, or connect it directly to your PC's USB ports. Both a USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-C to USB-A cable are included, making the choice simply whatever is most convenient. If you connect it to a Turtle Beach wheel, be aware that the Multi-Shift uses additional buttons on the wheel itself, while if you connect it directly it uses its own USB device. So, I would recommend picking one connection method and sticking with it since switching would mean you'd have to reconfigure all of your games.

Speaking of games, every game that I tested the Multi-Shift with has been a joy. There was a firmware update that seemed to fix occasionally missing a shift, but after that it was very pleasant. Since I've been reviewing a lot of racing games lately, I tested it with at least Project Motor Racing and Assetto Corsa EVO. With AC EVO, I actually used the shifter while playing in VR, often while using the Pimax Crystal Light. This combination is great, because of course the Pimax gives you a really clear visual experience, but you can't see your wheel and shifter at all. With the Multi-Shift, it was always easy to figure out what gear you were trying to shift into because the shifter's feel with the clearly-defined notches make it very easy to get it right. Also, seventh-gear requiring a press down first worked to my advantage in VR especially, since all you can work with is feel. I was very happy with the Multi-Shift while racing around the track in virtual reality, and I really recommend that combination.

The Turtle Beach VelocityOne Multi-Shift is a fantastic product that meets a real need in the market. The feature set on offer might be untouchable at this price point. I've seen 7+R shifters, and I've even seen a small number with sequential modes. But once you add in the high/low mode and handbrake, they are in a class of their own. Furthermore, since the Multi-Shift uses hall-effect sensors, it shouldn't stop working or drift unexpectedly. If you are looking for a feature-rich H-pattern + sequential shifter for your racing or other driving simulator needs, give the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Multi-Shift a serious look. At this price, it's one of the best options out there. Strongly Recommended!