Midnight Club: Los Angeles Review

BY Rabie Hassoun | POSTED: 05 November 2008

Midnight Club races into the next generation with style



The racing games genre has been a hell of a busy scene over the past 12 months. Year in and year out we are presented with a dozens of racing titles on each system. Recently however we have had some quality racing games to test drive. Games such as Burnout Paradise, a personal favourite, and Grid raised the bar for the quality and creativity of racing games. Midnight Club Los Angles is set to be yet another major player in the already over populated genre. At the end of the day and as long as it is not a table tennis game, RockStar games are typically of high standards with Midnight Club being no exception.

Midnight Club Los Angeles is actually the first next generation title from the series, and the game wastes no time making that point clear. The graphics from the get go are noticeably well done and presents LA in great fashion. The city itself is neatly constructed and portrayed. Every street and race you participate in has a set of shortcuts and landmarks you can use to your advantage. Just do not put your hands up, being a game by RockStar and based in a city doesn’t mean this game is anything like GTA. It is a street racing game at heart and it is safe to say that RockStar San Diego have done an excellent job here.

Driving in this game is very smooth. You might need to read the overview here before going at it, mainly because of the interesting new control system. The left stick on your pad will be used for steering while the right stick will be used for both acceleration and braking. This might sound and feel a bit awkward at a first glance, but you will get the hang of it real quick. The driving mechanics in this game are also very well done. You will feel the difference driving each class of cars and the game manages to create a sense of speed that’s both exciting and thrilling.

The single player mode starts you off from rock bottom. You will be controlling a young talented driver who arrives in the city of angels looking for some fun action while making money. As you pick your first car and start your first race, you will be introduced to the reputation system. The system works flawlessly, simply participate and win in races to earn more reputation points and money. You will have to earn a certain level of reputation before moving on in the story mode. From here on the story mode is pretty basic. You have to win races, tune up your car and use the money to gift yourself new sexy cars.

Driving around the city is fun at times, but what if you are in it just to race? Using a very cooperative GPS system the game will make sure the action is flowing your way at all times none stop. The GPS screen will show you the whole city from the top highlighting the next set of races, hangout spots and even shortcuts in your path. Each type of races is represented in a different colour for you to easily identify it. Racers in LA will have the opportunity to play a set of different racing modes including ordered races, time trails, circuit races, freeway races and red light races. The selection is deep enough and each mode offers a slightly different challenge. The goal at the end of the day is to finish #1 no matter what mode you are playing.

During a race you will have a set of highlighted checkpoints you need to reach. These checkpoints are displayed as yellow dots on your mini map and as a flame of yellow on the streets themselves. Which brings us to one pretty annoying function of this game and that is how checkpoints are in same way hidden. Yes you can see it on the map and can see the smoke in the sky, but the checkpoint itself might be on another road or can only reached from another route. Pretty annoying at times and contributes to the already high difficulty level in the later races of the game.

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