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Midnight Club: Los Angeles
I’ve just spent the last five minutes agonizing over side skirts. One set gives my RX8 a boxy, futuristic look; the other elegantly highlights the oversized rear tires. These are the kinds of paralyzing choices found in Midnight Club: Los Angeles, a game that’s as much about looking at cars as it is about driving them.
The game takes place on a single map: a huge, open, idealized version of L.A., full of sparsely trafficked straightaways where pedestrians are nimble and cops are scarce. The game exploits this setting with a seemingly uncountable number of events, from traditional multi-lap circuits to “landmark” races — get from point A to a distant point B, by any means necessary. Also present are a few Grand Theft Auto–style smash-and-dash missions that flesh out a forgettable but well-acted story; these break things up a bit, but mostly underscore the fact that the driving engine is designed for racing, not vehicular combat.
Even with a substantial variety of events, though, Midnight Club can drift into monotony on occasion. Hunting down shortcuts and collectibles is diverting, but only for so long. The handful of special abilities (slow down time, knock away oncoming cars) adds little strategy, and because there’s no fast-travel option, commuting to events can be a chore.
Luckily, the driving itself is only half the draw: The game includes a robust and astonishingly addictive customization engine for its licensed vehicles. Though light on performance upgrades, the garage allows you to tweak the appearance of your cars to an absurd degree, from ride height to the color of your dashboard gauges.
This customization offers a strong incentive to show off your ride in multiplayer. On top of the basic race types, the smooth 16-player online mode features a variety of flag-based games, from capture-the-flag to the surprisingly entertaining “keep away.” Online also throws in a few innovative features, like tradable custom courses and the ability for large groups to hold multiple events simultaneously on the same map.
As a whole, though, the game falls short of true excellence. Perhaps it’s the scarcity of under-the-hood customization. Maybe it’s that different cars feel too similar. Or it might just be the sprawling sameness of the L.A. setting. Whatever the reason, Midnight Club ends up as an extremely solid racer with moments of greatness...but just enough flaws to keep it from the ranks of the classics.
On Xbox 360
+ Huge number and variety of races.
+ Insanely high level of visual customization.
- Bizarrely low level of performance customization.
? Did I really just spend that much time looking at rims? What’s wrong with me?
8.0
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Biiiilly
August 02, 2009 at 10:46am
This is one of my all time favourite driving games, its fun online and the car customizations are amazing. Best car has to be the first lamborginhi as it just fits in with the south central look.
Legolas12280
December 30, 2008 at 4:26pm
This game rocks compared to other racing video games. There are a lot of games like this but it is unique. By the way, I wish they would stop putting in so much advertising into these games. But, it rules, end of story.
12345678910
October 22, 2008 at 11:08am
I.HAVE.TO.PLAY.THIS.NOW. . . . . . . BURNOUT SUCKS COMPARED TO MIDNIGHT CLUB . . . . . . . THE. END.
TB303Wpf1
October 22, 2008 at 12:26am
I have been playing this game for about 12 hours now. I must say, it's very very frustrating. I consider myself an above average racer as I play every racing game I can find. There is waaay too much traffic!! You will spend more time dodging traffic than you will actually racing. You hit one car or wall, your wiping out all over and coming to a dead stop after flipping 25 times and losing any hope of catching up with the pack to boot. The cars handle like NFS most wanted albeit slightly worse. The cops can catch you with ease and there are no "cool off" spots. Once you hit one car or wall and bam, your arrested. This game is not for the lighthearted and it's learning curve is a bit too steep as it's so easy to get frustrated. You'll be in first place, FINALLY! Then at the last turn a magical rouge traffic car will turn into to your path and BAM! The whole 5 minute affair is all for nothing and you have to start over only to have it happen again, and again, and again. It's graphics are it's strongest point. It's GTAesque feel and lighting are pleasent and frame rate is smooth. Overall I think it's positives are not enough to keep the gas from running out on this one. Can you say, rental, trade in?
Crazylightsaber
October 21, 2008 at 5:19pm
I've never played any of the previous Midnight Club games for any console, but I think I might try this one.
Spybreak
October 21, 2008 at 4:52pm
So this looks like Burnout Paradise with the same aggro features as the old midnight games. I think the open world is a progression but I'll wait for the dub edition to come out haha.
omgitsgeorgelopez
October 20, 2008 at 4:34pm
This game looks pretty fun, but I already have GTA4 so I won't be buying it. Honestly, there are too many games like this!
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