Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix

"Crazy, mindless fun hurt by slow progression requiring a lot of grinding..."

I like street racing games, and racing games in general, but have never been a fan of the Midnight Club series because the races were just too cartoon-ish for me. That is, cars obey no real laws of physics, handling like those light cycles from Tron and plowing though obstacles like Steven Seagel through a buffet line

That said, the magazine reviews of the latest version of the game were nothing but gushing. And supposedly the platinum hits release of it had new content. So for $20, I thought it was worth a buy.

Better than I thought, but I don't think it quite lives up to the hype

Gameplay

The gameplay is pretty much like I remembered from MC2, only it's gotten even more over the top, I think. Races now commonly take place going through buildings, crashing through storefronts a la The Blues Brothers, or making massive jumps thanks to the help of conveniently placed ramps.

The AI seems quite rubberband-ish. That is, how you do affects how the other racers do - if you get behind, everyone slows down. You get ahead, they speed up. Expect the final results of a race to be a matter of 5 seconds or so, often within 2.

As a result, it really doesn't take skill or dedication to win, merely luck. Generally speaking, just make sure you don't crash at the very end of the race, and be sure to save some nitrous to get ahead of the pack.

That said, it can be pretty fun. And if you do manage to actually make it through a race without crashing into anything, you will definitely win. I do think luck is more involved with that than skill, and some races have secrets you have to figure out to win (either a shortcut or a certain way to go to put you in the best position), but it's mindless fun.

Depending on what sort of car you drive and how big it is, you can plow through traffic to an extent. All cars can go through trees which disintegrate in a most enjoyable manner, trash cans (which bring a spray of aluminum cans), telephone and light poles.

Occasionally you will get chased by the police, which can be irksome as they will slam into you and cause you to crash.

One interesting part of the game, if very arcade-ish, is you have special powers you can use depending on what sort of car you drive. If you drive a tuner or exotic, you can briefly slow down time, which is a great way to avoid traffic or make those 130 degree corner turns. Muscle cars and some motorcycles can "Roar", which emits a wave of sound which will push other vehicles out of the way. And SUVs and Luxury Sedans have "Agro", which lets them plow through things without crashing or taking damage. I haven't had much luck using Agro, but the slow down time and roar powers are very useful.

The progression of the game is somewhat confusing. You start in one city, and then have to beat certain racers to unlock more cars, parts and the next city. That sounds simple, but it can be confusing to which races you are supposed to do to unlock what.

Gameplay, in terms of speed, is basically linear. That is, you start out racing slower cars, and race faster and faster ones. No going back and racing slower cars.

One real shortcoming is that there really is one race type - just going through the city from checkpoint to checkpoint, either in a circuit or from one starting point to an end point. There are a few other races, but these are only a tiny percentage of the ones in the game - basically the autocross, where you race on a closed course, and the dash which only has 2 points, the beginning and end.

This game has pretty much the usual storyline for a street racer. No name racer becomes more and more powerful and earns more respect. Most of the characters (which are pretty much just your mechanics) are pretty high on the cringe factor, though, as all are basically racial stereotypes who constantly spout slang. But they manage to offend all races, so I guess it's okay. (The one in the remix isn't bad, though)

The Remix apparently simply adds another city, Tokyo, to the mix. It can be played at any time, but is definitely geared for people who have gotten fairly far in the original one, as your opponents drive pretty decent cars.

Cars and Customization

The vehicle list is pretty decent. It's divided up into different classes from D to A, and different types: SUV, tuner, exotic, chopper, bike, muscle. There's a fairly good mix of brands, including some of my favorites, like the Lotus Espirit and Elan, and the older GTOs. I found the bikes kinda hard to control. And if you hit something square on, you fall off.

The remix bit apparently adds 25 cars. Some of these get added to the original game (like the Chevelle), other have to be unlocked and won in Tokyo.

I was sort of underwhelmed by the car customization. I had heard it was supposed to be the best ever in a game (at least that's what the back says), but it seems about on par with most other games.

You can change the hood, bumpers, sides, spoiler, muffler. About 10 choices each, but many times the difference between parts is very very minor (just color changes, one solid, one with trim). Sometimes you can do a bit more, like a chopped roof on the older muscle cars.

You have a choice of normal paints, metallics, pearlescent, and color shift. Metallic actually looks cool, but the the last two just don't look right in game. You can change the color of the neons and the window tint to a custom defined color.

Tuning the mechanical parts is pretty basic - just 3 different levels (which have to be unlocked separately for each class). There are different manufacturers, but which one you pick makes no difference.

Pretty much all the changes are superficial, too. For instance, you can simply paint a carbon fiber hood on the car, but it doesn't actually reduce the car's weight. Having a bodykit or spoiler doesn't seem to increase drag.

You can customize the bike, but there's not all that much. Different rims, color, neon. Weirdly, you don't ride the bike, you pick someone else to.

Graphics/Sound

The first impression of the graphics is that they are blurry. In fact, they make my eyes water. But beyond that, the cities are extremely well detailed. The cars you drive are similarly fairly impressive. For the most part the frame rate is very fast, but when you have 7 competitor cars nearby and a lot of traffic it will drop.

The music list is impressive in quantity - dozens of songs. The quality is pretty much what you expect from games like this, partly MTV fodder, with the rest done by session musicians pretending they are cool.

Curiously, for a game that has "Dub" in the title, a lot of the songs actually have vocals.

Thankfully, it does support custom soundtracks, but unfortunately, the volume on said soundtracks is woefully quiet, even at max volume. Not quite worthless, but reduces the usefulness of custom soundtracks if you can barely hear them.

Since I had to turn down the effects and rest to hear the custom soundtrack, I can't really comment, other than it seemed okay enough.

Conclusion

All in all, a fairly fun game, but I'm glad I waited until it was $20. While the driving can be frenetic, you never get a feeling that you won a race because of your skills. More that you just got lucky that time, and when you lose, it's frustrating, because you often lose just because you were unlucky, not because you drove poorly. And the progress of the game itself is fairly slow. Which wouldn't be a bad thing, as it would give you more gameplay, but a lot of it is just grinding so you can get a newer and more expensive car.

I think a 7 is pretty accurate, though if you consider value for what you pay, it would score higher.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/06