Midnight Club LA Review
A Review - By Gaetano Prestia
Rockstar has grown dramatically over the past decade to become one of the most exclusive and quality developers on the planet. However, Rockstar Games is about more than just third-person, narrative driven sandbox titles. It’s a company that strives for success across a whole range of critically and commercially successful IP’s. One of those is the Midnight Club franchise, a street-racing series that doesn’t rely on yearly instalments and different directions with every new game, but rather evolving environments and gameplay.
With the first addition to the series since early 2005, Rockstar San Diego brings us Midnight Club: Los Angeles, a street-racing title set in a wonderfully re-created virtual version of The City of Angels. The city of LA in this title is great, filled with recognisable landmarks, infamous districts and frustrating traffic jams, all of which come part and parcel of a trip to tinsel town. It’s not an identical map of the real-life city, but instead a version that fits in all of the major areas into one race-friendly environment. While it’s not exactly how the city is set out, there’s one thing for sure; it feels like Los Angeles. Whether you’re speeding down the highway, cruising through Santa Monica or speeding through the Hollywood Hills, this virtual LA has a constant reddish-yellow sun-tone that compliments the palm trees that line the streets and the cream buildings that infect Hollywood. Everything about this virtual city is enticing, just like the real Los Angeles.
Every city has a dark, vintage and historic feeling to it…except for Los Angeles. If you’ve visited LA before, you’ll know how unique it is. That’s not a bad thing, because the city has a never-ending vibe to it, something that will forever make it one of the most iconic and memorable cities on the planet. There’s always something going on there and it’s no surprise that everyone is in a good mood when they’re there: it’s always bloody sunny! Believe it or not, you’re going to have that same feeling while cruising through this virtual recreation. There’ll be moments when you just want to cruise down the streets at top speed, or stop on the side of the road and watch the city glisten and glow as the sun sets. Rockstar San Diego have created the best ever virtual version of the city. Furthermore, the way the city has been laid out makes it perfect for driving. There are recognisable districts - like downtown LA with its skyscrapers, or Southern LA with its train-yards and freeways – and it actually looks like a city layout. It’s not grid-like at all, with realistic laneway placement, winding roads and long, crooked main streets.
Most importantly is that the streets in this LA are easy to master without memorising. It’s not that game’s easy (because it’s not), but rather that it has just enough of everything. There are plenty of shortcuts and plenty of different routes to take during a race and they’re not at all difficult to discover. Even if you’re travelling at 200mph, you’ll have time to pick out a shortcut, drift and then blast past your opponents who take the longer route. To sum up the layout of the streets in this city perfectly; they’re just right.
This great aspect of the city layout is further complimented by the fantastic GPS and 3D-map system. It’s amazing, to say the least. By simply hitting the designated button, you’re seamlessly propelled up to an over-view of the entire city in total 3D. You can zoom in, move across and pinpoint your next shortcut before you’re taken straight back down to your position on the road. This is all done seamlessly. All that’s happening is the camera is moving up and away from your car and up into the sky to give you a full view of the city. It’s very, very cool.
Thankfully, the entire city is open to you from the moment you pop the game in. Unlike in previous MC games, you’re given a character with a personality and back-story, although watching the minimal amount of cutscenes isn't at all influential on your success in the game. The good thing about including a character in a game like this is that you’re able to have a stronger emotional attachment to your vehicles and success in the game, because you’re guiding someone within the world instead of your own conscious. It’s also great, then, that the character is likeable and funny. He’ll make friends as you progress through the game and the banter between him and other racers is pretty humours. He’ll crack jokes and mock opponents during races and the dialogue is well acted out.
As he meets new people, they’ll contact him via his Sidekick and inform him of new tournaments and missions that will be available around the city. The Sidekick is a somewhat integral part of the game as it adds a voice to the people you’re coming up against. The only downfall of it is that it can pop-up at really inappropriate times right over the mini-HUB. If you’ve pinpointed a place on the map you want to go to, you have to wait until whoever is talking to you is finished before the Sidekick slides down and the map is brought back up. Alternatively, you can just bring up the map and then return to the action to get rid of the Sidekick on screen, as the conversation on the sidekick will still continue, but this is a slight hassle as you have to stop driving for a few seconds.
With the city being open right from the get-go, you’ll notice that racing icons start to appear all over the map once you complete a few races. Before long the map will be infected with green, yellow, orange and red icons, with the different colours representing difficulty (with green being the easiest and red being the hardest). The GPS can be used to pinpoint particular races on the map, which will inturn rid the rest of the races off the map and focus on one in particular. The GPS guides you in the right direction, but it doesn’t give you a direct route, which is a bit of a shame. This is probably because a lot of the racing markers are actual cars that are driving around the city.
In reference to the difficulty, Midnight Club LA is split up into four different settings, with brightest-to-darkest being easiest-to-hardest respectively. The harder the race is, the further apart the checkpoints are and the less likely the opponent AI is to crash. AI is also far more tenacious and aggressive on the harder difficulties. You’ll notice that AI controlled cars match in class and customisation to your own, and the game does this in order to create as even a playing field as possible. No one car in the race will be miles a head in terms of acceleration and top speed when compared to the others, although the AI is less likely to use its boost and take shortcuts in easier races. Even still, the AI is incredibly aware and intelligent, swerving out of the way of incoming traffic and avoiding crashes wherever possible. You’ll notice that AI-controlled cars take tight turns almost flawlessly and a spin-off is a rarity. This will put pressure on you, as a single slip-up will cost you a high placing if you don’t play your cards right. The opponent AI is always right on your tail, waiting for you to make a mistake. When you do, it will speed past you and take first place. Midnight Club LA can be really hard if you don’t take advantage of your cars ability and your own driving skill. It’s every man for himself once a race starts. The AI is aggressive, so you have to be too. Don’t be intimidated by the games difficulty. The game might be saying, “give me everything you’ve got!” but when you do, you’ll be almost unbeatable.
The game offers a high level of difficulty and the racing itself is high on thrills and excitement. The feeling of speed is thrilling and the way the camera shifts down to the side of your car when you hit the nitors boost is very exciting. You can still drive behind an opponent, otherwise known as slipstreaming, and gain momentary boost. This is great if your car is low or if you’ve used your entire boost to catch up to the pack after a large spill.
Veterans to the series will also be pleased to hear that special abilities makes a return, with Agro - which gives you momentary invincibility - and Zone - which slows down time - coming round for another turn, while EMP – which momentarily cuts off electricity to nearby opponents – is introduced into an impressive feature that adds a little more to the already intense, challenging and thrilling racing system.
Rockstar San Diego has introduced police in what is a surprisingly welcomed addition. They haven’t been over-incorporated into the city and it might even be a few hours before you first see them. You’ll be notified when some are near by and if they notice you speeding or cutting through a public place, they’ll first ask you to pull over before engaging in a full on pursuit. If you pullover at first request, you’ll simply receive a ticket and then be allowed to go on your way. If you want to risk it and try to lose them down an alleyway, you’ll be brought to the police HQ if you’re caught and arrested. They can also chase you during a race, although that’s a rarity. It’s not that hard to lose them if you really want too either; just turn down a lot of side streets until you’re out of their line of site and then hide in an alleyway. Overall, the inclusion of police is great and adds a bit more notoriety to the whole street-racing direction of the title.
Getting into a race is as simple as flashing you lights at a car with a coloured marker hovering above them, and depending on the race type, you may be able to race them to the starting line for a few extra rep points. You get rewarded with points even if you don’t make it there first, so it’s a quick fix if you’re only a few points off of the next rank. Alternatively, you can just press a button to take you straight to the starting line.
Returning to the franchise are the Circuit and Ordered races that were so popular in the last game in the series, with the great city layout complimenting the unique, coloured flare checkpoints. There’s also the introduction of Freeway and Red Light Races, each of which offer their own unique and fun style of racing. Freeway Races have you racing through a number of designated checkpoints on the freeway towards an exit against one other racer, while Red Light Races are races that begin at a set of traffic lights and have only one checkpoint at a designated landmark. These races are quick and engaging and offer something different from the multiple racing tournaments on offer. Tournaments are point based, with the racer with most points after three races declared the winner. Series Races are a “Best of” or “First to X-number” of races.
Putting a unique spin on the Time Trial feature is the fact that other opponents in the game can come along and beat your record time, therefore leaving you obligated to go back, retry and leave their time smoked at the starting-line.
You can also race for pink slips (that’s someone else’s car for those of you not in the know), place wage bets (with a maximum and minimum price depending on your desired difficulty), deliver cars and destroy cars for a mechanic who hasn’t been paid. There are more than just basic races in Midnight Club. Each racing type has a genuine feature about it that throws you into the life of a street-racer. Be it betting your hot vehicle, throwing up the entire contents of your savings account or racing for someone’s Lamborghini, it’s more than just racing from one end of the city to the other.
The car handling is great, although somewhat arcady, and offers a great variety depending on the vehicle. It’s not so easy that you’ll be breaking and turning like a pro after a few hours, as it still requires plenty of skill and practice to master. The game demands your attention and dedication to perfection during a race, and the simplest of mistakes will cost you dearly.
The customisation is deep, with an almost countless array of options, styles and direction to steer your car in. There are licensed car parts as well as an amazingly deep vinyl system that allows you to deck out the outside of your car in unique and awesome decals. You can change almost every aspect on your car, from the headlights to body kit, steering wheel to seats, rims to tyre thickness. There’s plenty to do when it comes to customizing your car and this is what the Midnight Club series is loved for. You can also take images of your car and upload them to the Rockstar Social Club, where other gamers can view, vote for and buy your vehicle.
Online multiplayer offers a decent racing experience, allowing you to race against friends in the city of LA. People can invite you via your Sidekick and you can accept the invite and meet them at the starting line. There are a wide array of online matches to play, with Capture the Flag and Keep Away being the most unique and some of the more enjoyable. Overall, the online experience is smooth with no lag. The only complaint is that un-ranked races aren’t organised to match-up car class. You’ll find yourself up against people with high quality and very quick motorcycles, while other racers have B or low-A class vehicles that have no chance of keeping up.
On the presentation front, Midnight Club Los Angeles delivers, both graphically and with its audio. Graphically, the visuals are fantastic. The city glows, the transition from night-to-day is amazing and the ambiance of the city is beautiful. People walk around the streets, going about their daily lives, and you’ll notice them quickly jump out of the way as you drive you car through a bunch of window shoppers on the side-walk; there’s no running over innocent pedestrians in this game! The streets each have their own unique feel about them, with the attention to detail being of high quality.
Music wise, MCLA hits the right note. There’s a mixture of hip-hop, RNB, hard electronic house, rock, heavy metal and pop music, with plenty of memorable and exciting tunes that add to the thrill of a high-speed street-race. Some tracks seem to have been chosen specifically because they fit the tone and style of the city of LA, with their laid back and awesome beats and wonderful lyrics. After you drive around this city for a bit with the music blaring, you’ll actually be thinking, “I really wanna be in LA!”
The Final Verdict
Midnight Club Los Angeles is a fantastic street-racing title. It offers an amazing number of races, all varying in difficulty and style, the car customisation options are aplenty, the opponent AI is top notch and very intelligent, the online multiplayer is great fun and the presentation is fantastic. Most importantly, the city actually feels and looks like Los Angeles.