--- Review Midnight Club 2 ---

Review Midnight Club 2

Rockstar released the original Midnight Club as a launch title for the PS2. I have never played this first installment of the game. Due to the fact that I only bought the PS2 in september 2002 I am relative green on the PS2 games. But having played over 30 titles on the black beauty, I can tell the difference between good and bad.

MC2 drew my attention as it was developed by the famous Rockstar. By all of you well known for their GTA series. Most recent title being Grand Theft Auto Vice City. I was very much in doubt whether to get MC2. You must know that I like games like GT3/Concept a lot. These are quite realistic regarding driving physics. I also got Burnout 2 and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2. Both games that I eventually did not play much. BO2 for it’s simplicity and NFSHP2 for …well actually everything.

Game play

What is MC2 about then? MC2 tries to capture the art of illegal street racing. Everyone who saw “The fast and the furious” knows what that means. Those who did not see it, do it!

In MC2 you hook yourself behind the wheel of NOS injected 4 or 2 wheelers

Career

The game features a career mode in which you begin a slow car that looks like a Ford Escort of 10 years ago. You start of in LA. A dude by the name of Moses tries to piss you of. Eventually you will race him and win … of course. Winning in career mode is easy for the first races. But eventually it will get tougher. As I only just got the game, I am only at 15% in my career. The AI opponents in MC2 are advertised as revolutionary. They should take different racing lines and routes every time. They are very challenging by means of rubber band technics: in most case you are able to catch up with them or they catch up with you.

Battle mode: Capture the flag and Detonator

How cool can this be? Capture the flag in a racing game has been shown before in 1nsane from Codemasters on the PC. Especially in multi player split screen mode it is very fun to do.

Detonator is a mode in which you must search the bomb. Once you found it, an arrow will point to the drop point. Opponents can hit you but you won’t loose the bomb yet. You will however sustain damage. If your damage exceeds the critical level, Da Bomb does its job. Detonator is a blast in multi player split screen mode.

The wheels

A small letdown this is. The cars are not real cars. But Rockstar has done a lot to make them resemble real cars. You start of in a car which looks like an Ford Escort from 10 years back. Not very cool. No worries, you will earn faster cars in your carreer.

The handling of the cars is plain arcade. Just like in the GTA3 / VC games. But then much faster. So not very realistic, but very suitable for this type of game. You can even trick your car to ride on 2 wheels.

MC2 features motorbikes as well. Cool. Soppies an wheelies are all there. The bikes are faster than the cars but the get damaged quicker. I even find the bikes in MC2 more enjoyable to ride than in Motogp3.

The blocks

Rockstar has done a great job in building the cities. They are not a copies of the real life counterparts, but more of an indication of them. To me this is not a problem. I can imagine that if you live in LA it can be irritating you can not find the streets on the map in MC2. But hey, this is an arcade racer. Not a simulation.

The cities consists of blocks of sky scrapers, houses, shops, parking lots, gas stations (which go BOOOM if hit) ……all accompanied by landmarks. There is the obligatory H O L Y W O O D on the hills of LA, La Tour Eiffel in Paris and the north – south division on the highway in Tokyo to go to you favorite sushi bar.

Graphics

I had some reservations about the graphics. The screen shots on the net all look ab fab. So I prepared for a disappointment on this part. Particularly since the engine is based on Vice City. The VC engine can handle large maps. But it is not the smoothest ever seen.

I am happy to say that Rockstar has proven me wrong. The frame rate is stunning regarding all the things drawn on screen. Sometimes in split screen mode with maximum cars and explosions on screen, there might me a drop in fps for about 1 second. Barely noticeable.

The style of the graphic is dark and very atmospheric. It does have that gritty feeling, just like in GTA3. The textures do not have a high resolution. Similar to Vice City.

Sound

High expectations in the sound department as well after the brilliant GTA3 and VC. Bit of letdown here. The engine sounds for starters are good but not brilliant. Same for the environment sounds: average.

The music is no good at all. I expected a little more dedication from Rockstar in this field. MC2 features a large collection of unknown (at least by me) rap songs. I turn them off or to a medium sound level.

The verdict

Midnight Club 2 is one of the best arcade racing games out there. With its various racing modes, there’s always something to do in the cities. The main value of MC2 however should be found in the exciting multi player modes (split screen or on-line). But also off-line you can have much fun by cruising the streets of LA, Paris or Tokyo.