Midnight Club: Los Angeles

"My Review for NFS Most Wanted... Wait, this is Midnight Club?"

Midnight Club is a pretty unique franchise, where street racing takes place instead of closed circuit races. I'm not big on racing games, but when there is a good one I'll play it to death. After playing the first Midnight Club I was hooked, but skipped the second game because of it's inclusion of motor cycles. Ultimately, I couldn't go without my street racing fix any longer... In comes Midnight Club 3 (and all variations thereof). That game was rocking. I probably put a good 100+ hours into it, playing it several times from beginning to end. Now a while goes by and I'm really fixing for some dirty, dark, street racing. Lo and behold, in walks Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Is it everything I was waiting for?

Overall Ratings:

Gameplay - 7/10
Yes, street racing. Free roaming races where you can take any path you desire through L.A. to reach the next checkpoint, including even alleyways or quick trips through malls. This is the highlight of MC games, in my opinion. The freedom and random nature of how things can unfold when you're given a choice in which course you'll take. The second defining feature of the franchise would be the entire basis of the game: Midnight Club. It pretty much sums itself up, you assemble at midnight to take part in the highly competitive sport of street racing.

In MC you must drive around the city and flash your high beams at other racers to initiate several different types of races. There are a few types of races that are standard in MC games. You have Tournaments, which are a compilation of several races in a row where you'll gain a certain amount of points depending on your placing during each race. Tally your points when the tourney is over and that determines your final position. There are free races, where you'll need to hit very few checkpoints that are very far from your starting position, allowing you to take any path through the entire city in order to win the race. Checkpoint races will have a checkpoint you have to pass through every few blocks while you race against several opponents to the finish. And very rarely, MC games have circuit races, where you'll race on a closed course with no free roaming for the race.

As far as MC:LA goes, there are several new types of races. Rockstar has felt the need to incorporate Collection Races, where you'll need to boost cars and deliver them, in good condition, to a target destination (yes, just like in GTA games). There are also Payback Races where you'll need to damage a target car out (Burnout, anyone?). There are various other new races as well. Sadly, the new races are very lackluster and seem more like an imitation of other games. One main focus of the MC franchise was the competitive nature of the races, which you'd almost always be racing against four or five other racers. Now you'll spend a lot of time racing against one other racer, which leaves a lot to be desired.

Furthermore, with the incorporation of cops in a similar style to Need for Speed Most Wanted, you'll waste a lot of time doing police pursuits between races. You don't get any real reward for pursuits, just more reputation points. If you fail to outrun the cops you'll be fined varying amounts of money depending on how long the pursuit lasted. This aspect seriously hinders the fast paced nature of MC games, while simultaneously taking the focus away from actual racing and putting it on avoiding cops and outrunning them.

As previously mentioned, you'll now gain reputation points. You gain these points in various amounts based on your success in races. They are required to progress further through the game with varying classes of vehicles.

Yes, classes of vehicles. This is one aspect of MC3 that I didn't like, but wasn't a bother. We have tuners, muscle cars, sedans, exotics, bikes and SUVs. While in MC3 you could complete the game without being forced to use some classes of vehicles, this cannot be achieved in MC:LA. You will more or less be forced to use all classes of vehicles to complete the game, which means you will have to race with vehicles you don't enjoy. In addition, the Collection Races operate with the same basis: Forcing you to use vehicles you have no desire to use.

In MC games you get special abilities to activate during races. Muscle cars used Roar, which knocks nearby vehicles off course and causes them to crash (this affects regular traffic and competing racers). Tuners used the Zone special ability, which slowed down time to allow you with better control for taking hairpin turns when driving at break neck speeds. Sedans allowed you to use Agro, which enabled the ability to smash through vehicles and other obstacles without losing much speed. Now you can choose which special ability you want to put on any vehicles you own. You can put Zone on a muscle car if you want, or throw Agro onto a tuner. There is a new addition to special abilities as well: the EMP. As expected, the EMP kills electrical capabilities of nearby vehicles, rendering them useless for a short period of time. It is not very useful or thoughtful.

Now, all you hardcore MC fans get ready for something ridiculous. In Midnight Club LA you will not be racing solely at midnight. The time of day will cycle as time passes, and your wonderful canopy of darkness will dissolve into blindingly bright light. This isn't a huge issue really, it's just a matter of principle. The entire point of Midnight Club lies in it's title. Not to mention that this game feels much more like Need for Speed Most Wanted than any MC game I've played.

Another staple of MC games has been cast off as well. In at least MC and MC3 you had three different cities to race through (and Tokyo in MC3 Dub Edition Remix, which makes four cities). Now you are restricted to L.A. The map is tiny, and you'll see the whole of it within two or three hours of playing. You'll have driven on every street and at least half the alleys and shortcuts. You can wait and hope for that second and third city to be unlocked, but don't hold your breath because you'll suffocate. Seriously, I thought the map in NFS Most Wanted was small, but this game's map is just insulting. How many times you race the same races throughout the course of the game is astonishing. I'm not just talking about racing through the same part of town, I'm talking about the exact same races, turn for turn.

As usual (and as has become standard in racing games) you will be able to customize your ride. You can upgrade it's performance parts as well as it's aesthetic value. Throw on a vinyl, grab some new rims, toss in new front and rear bumpers and some side skirts. The aesthetic parts are nice, but more limited than in previous MC games. You'll have around five options for each piece of your car, meaning you can choose from five different front bumpers, five different side skirts, etc. I can't remember how many options there were in MC3, but it was certainly more than five. For this aspect, Rockstar has taken a big step backwards.

What I found to be the best aspect of the gameplay was the arcade mode, which I hardly played in previous MC games. You can choose a list of races to loop through, set various options (time of day, number of opponents, traffic density and others) and race away without interruption. You won't have to deal with pursuits or annoying drives across the city to get to your next race. You still gain money and reputation so you'll be able to buy new vehicles or improve the vehicle you like racing, and can do any race in the game with the desired vehicle. If it wasn't for arcade mode I wouldn't even bother with this game.

Play Time/Replayability - 1/5

With a tiny map and a ton of hassle, this game does not have great play time or replayability. Seeing as you'll have raced in the entire city within a couple hours you'll have little reason to continue playing, unless you have your eyes set on a new vehicle you haven't got to try yet. Since the vehicle customization options and general selection of vehicles to choose from isn't so fantastic, you won't have much of an incentive to play this game more than once.

Story - Nil
It's a racing game. If you're looking for a story then you should consider a different genre.

Graphics/Sound - Nil
I'm not a graphics guy, but this game had plenty to go around. While you're travelling at high speeds most things will appear as just a blur or flash of light, the graphics are highly unnecessary. Still, the graphics were good. Very detailed.

Sounds were okay, I guess. That beefy muscle car's engine roared ferociously, while those pretty boy exotics sounded like a neutered little vehicle. Crashes didn't sound nearly devastating enough though, and squeeling tires were almost entirely absent. Perhaps the game makers never took a turn at even 60 miles per hour and heard that stop-and-go screeching of tires, or have been witness to even the weakest and insignificant car crash that yields bone shaking crunches with a twisting of metal.

The music selection wasn't so terrific. You'll get a lot of really popular music you've probably heard a million times if you have a radio in your car. You're better off turning the music off and listening to some that you actually like.

Final Recommendation - 5/10
This game is not so great. It only yielded a score of 5/10 because of the arcade mode. Weighing how much time is wasted when you're not even racing against how much joy is gained from racing, it's not a good deal. If you're looking for a racing game I would recommend Need for Speed Most Wanted, since MC:LA is just an imitation of that. Buy yourself a force-feedback steering wheel and get NFSMW for your PC for a real racing experience. If you really can't resist trying MC:LA, then just rent it and try it for a couple hours, you'll have experienced everything the game has to offer.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/09, Updated 04/29/09

Game Release: Midnight Club: Los Angeles (US, 10/20/08)