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Midnight Club II
Score: 9.0 / 10
Illegal street racing is at its supreme
point and more popular then ever thanks to blockbuster movies, rappers,
and the Midnight Club series. The first Midnight Club game can get the
credit of setting the trend of other racing games to follow, as well as
set Rockstar as more then just “the grand theft auto guys”. Now that “2
Fast 2 Furious” has hit the big screen, there isn’t any reason why
Rockstar can’t follow up their title with a sequel of its own.
The general premise of Midnight Club II (MC2) is incredibly simple and
uncomplicated. There is no background given to your character, other
then a young street racer trying to make it to the top (much like the
characters in the GTA series). Since there isn’t a tutorial, using the
arcade and cruise mode would be the best idea, to try and get the
feeling of the cars. The first car available is the standard box shaped
jalopy found collecting dust, but as you progress through the game,
Once starting out, and before every mission, you are told to find
another street racer and challenge them to race. Once they’ve noticed
you, you’re told to follow them to a given point to start the race.
Almost every single competition in the game is done through a series of
checkpoints. Once the race starts, you have to follow the given
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checkpoints, done in two different styles:
an ordered system of checkpoints, or a random series of checkpoints.
Each character you compete with utilizes both those two styles, and in
that order.
MC2 spans over three different locales: Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Paris,
all in diverse parts of the world. Along with the coinciding settings,
each city has its own attributes. Los Angeles and Tokyo are bustling
cities filled with busy streets and vibrant lights; which affects the
way you drive and work through the levels. The stuffed traffic causes
you to swerve off to the sidewalk (potentially running over a few
pedestrians), or finding another route other then the streets. Each city
allows the player to have complete freedom, allocating the player to
find any possible route that works best, without the annoying barriers
found in most racing games.
Coinciding with the trouble of working through the streets is the
unbearably difficult AI. Since there isn’t a difficulty adjustment
setting, MC2 tries to make the game more difficult as the player
progresses. Ideally, that isn’t a bad idea; however in execution, the AI
remains hard throughout the game. From the second or third mission in
Los Angeles (the first city you race through), you’ll find yourself
attempting the same level over and over, causing you to ultimately turn
off the system out of sheer aggravation. Sometimes the AI does make the
game more interesting, though most of the time the game becomes
repetitive and frustrating, due to the difficulty of the AI racers.
Harnessing all three cities, the freedom of no barriers, and arsenal of
various cars, puts the weight on the graphics to carry out all aspects
smoothly. At first glance, MC2 has beautiful detail within the city,
with towering buildings, busy streets, pedestrians, and of course
vehicles filling the screen. However, the graphics of each piece is
primitive when compared to the newer racing games. To compare the
graphics of MC2 to Project Gotham Racing is unfair, and shouldn’t be
considered; but keep in mind that there are certain standards,
especially for the Xbox, that need to be mulled over. On the other hand,
the particle effects taken place in the cities is wonderfully made.
Running over a light post creates sparks to fly around, creating a very
real experience. As far as cinematics are concerned, they’re up to par
and last only mere seconds, giving the player a brief introduction of
who they are racing, and where.
Controlling your vehicle is one of MC2’s best features. Turning into
streets and maneuvering through other cars can be done with ease, and
make the races much more interesting when having the ability to cut
through other cars without the trouble of dire controls. All cars have
differing styles and unique traits that will help you advance through
each level. Using a fast car with terrible turning would be the car
you’d choose for a straight away course, filled with a small amount of
turns. Sometimes you’ll have to do a level several times, before finding
out which car is the most effective.
Given that street racing is associated with fast beats and head-pumping
tracks, it’s nice to turn on the car radio to set the mood. MC2 features
plenty of decent tracks, from real recording artists that range from rap
to techno. Not to worry, you can change tracks in case a song doesn’t
please your fancy. The sounds associated with cars are also well done,
with car engines sounding accordingly with their real life counterpart.
The degrading part about the sound is the voice of the competing
characters. The first few times you hear these startling and random
voices are during races and, at first, don’t bother you, seeing as a few
are funny. It becomes a problem after having played the same level more
than a few times, and all you want to do is finish to move on. It
doesn’t ruin the gaming experience, but it doesn’t add the spice it
originally intended.
Once finished with the single player campaign, the Xbox version allows
for online play. You and up to seven other players can race around the
streets, or play around with different game modes. There’s the usual
Capture the Flag mode, which is pleasant to see in a racing game, and
detonate mode with has you utilize power-ups that will help destroy your
enemy. Both modes are not a tremendous amount of fun, but when boredom
reaches a certain point, playing MC2 online is enjoyable.
Midnight Club 2 sends you through a plethora of levels that will send
you trough emotional cycles of joy and frustration. I’d recommend this
game to every gamer who spends a short amount of time playing games,
even if you enjoy a lengthy game, and wants to pick up the controller
every now and then to vent their driving anger. Nothing is better then
running over a vulnerable pedestrian, drive under an 18-wheeler while
going over 100, speed across red lights inching past others, and use
your NAS booster, without being pulled over by a cop.
