Years ago when the Playstation 2 launched, Rockstar Games provided gamers with two decent racers, Smugglers Run and Midnight Club: Street Racing. Now 2 years later, Rockstar decided it was finally time to update their game, and thus we have Midnight Club 2.
MC2 is all about arcade style street racing. Players progress from city to city, challenging and defeating driver after driver until the “boss” of each city is available to race. Each racer you progress through has their own personality and sweet ride you can earn by beating them. Defeat the bosses for even better rides and the chance to move on to another city. The game also utilizes Sony’s network adapter, allowing gamers with broadband connections to log onto the net and race up to 7 other people. Was this series even worth a sequel? Is Rockstar simply trying to cash in on the “illegal gameplay rulz” bug created by GTA3 and VC? Read on….
Graphics, Sound
A couple of things stood about visually about the original MC were the dark, muddy stages and the lack of “jaggies” that affected so many other launch titles. Thankfully, most of MC’s dark environments have been given light, and the games still jag-free. Other improvements include better textures, a rise in the amounts of detail both in the cities and the cars, and a pretty solid framerate. Some spots are still too dark, however, and even with a good amount of detail, some of the cars suffer from being a little too shiny. MC2, like its predecessor, will win no awards for graphics, but Rockstar did a good job.
Sound wise, MC2 just doesn’t live up to the standard Rockstar has created. This is the soundtrack we get, from the same company responsible for Vice Citys amazing soundtrack? No thanks.
It doesn’t stop with the music either. Sound effects are average at best, and each character you race comes equipped with their own taunts and comments. Some are ok, most are annoying and you’ll want them to just shut the hell up so you can get to the racing.
Gameplay
The main mode in MC2 is the career mode. Like I stated above, you’ll be progressing from city to city, racing everyone you come across for a chance to grab some respect and usually a new ride. There’s definitely some open-ended gameplay here, allowing you to take out the opponents in each city in whatever order you’d like. However, since you have to defeat everyone in order to move into another city, in the end the game is entirely linear. MC2 would have worked out much better in a Tokyo Xtreme type racer, where you’re allowed complete access to the tracks and the opponents and you can complete the game however you’d like. Something to shoot for in the inevitable MC3 I guess.
There are good things here though. The tracks are huge, and the game runs pretty fast. Control isn’t a problem in this type of racer, so you’re basically jamming down the accelerator and avoiding traffic. Each car has turbo boosts you can get through pick-ups, and there are even strategic moves in the game. Drifting behind an opponent for a certain amount of time rewards you with a turbo. Each time you get air on a jump, you’ll need to use the L2 button and the analog stick to level you car out to keep a good speed on the landing. The levels are also loaded with shortcuts, so it’s not all mindless driving.
The flaws in this game easily overpass the positives, though. For starters, what’s the use of having so many different cars when they’re virtually all the same? Aside from different body styles, there’s really no difference. They all basically handle and accelerate the same. When I’d open up a new car, I wouldn’t really care. The only truly different vehicle is the bike, which is virtually useless. Another dumb move involves the pre-race ritual. You drive around looking for an opponent, and then when you find them, you must slowly drive across town to where their “turf” is. Hello? Is it not possible to keep certain racers in their part of town so that I don’t have to spend 10 minutes driving from one side of the city to another, going slower than my grandmother? It gets old very quick.
There’s more, too. The game has a lot of AI issues. For starters, the challenge in this game is about as inconsistent as they come. One would think opponents in each respective city should be progressively harder, but they aren’t. You can have a lot of trouble against one guy, and the next guy is a breeze. Also, the CPU cars often rely on cheap tactics to keep the race close. You’ll often be spun around completely because an opponent breathed on you. However, you try for something like a block-pass or run someone off the road, guess what? You’re spun out. Huh? Throw in city streets that become more and more populated the farther ahead you get, and you have a game that looks like it was made by Midway. Learn to rely on something other than artificial challenge, please.
Online play was supposed to be MC2’s saving grace, but unfortunately, even as a huge PS2 fan I cannot recommend purchasing this title for online play. The lobbies are not very good, and the modes are too linear and limited. Almost everyone uses the same vehicles as well. It’s simply not very entertaining. The lag is non-existent, but unfortunately so is the fun factor.
Overall
Midnight Club 2 is just too flawed to be worth a purchase in my book. The lack of variety in the vehicles(and courses to a certain extent), as well as disappointing online play means you should steer clear or definitely rent first. If you were a fan of the original, I’m sure you’ll enjoy MC2. However, racing fans simply have too many high quality options on PS2 to worry themselves with this game.
The Good
+ Online enabled
+ Consistent framerate
+ Big tracks
The Bad
- Horrible sound
- Serious lack of variety in race modes
- No real reason to worry about what car you’re driving
- Big AI issues
