Midnight Club 2 – XB – Review

There’s a secret society
of young men and women that thrive on the rush that is illegal street racing.
They meet under the cover of the twilight hour or those precious minutes before
the sun rises or, for the most part, when it sets.  Street racers live in their
own little universe where respect is gained through winning dangerous races at
top speed throughout cities such as Los Angeles or even Tokyo.  In the world of
Midnight Club II–a sequel to Rockstar’s homage to illegal street racing–you
are out for respect and the love of burning rubber.

Most recently the Xbox has
been seeing quite a collection of racing titles and a few of them have been
quickly becoming favorites (Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is just one I can‘t
seem to get enough of).  Yet racing fans all seem to crave one thing: a racing
title that truly captures the world of illegal street racing.  Midnight Club II,
thankfully, has crossed over from the PS2 to the Xbox and fans couldn’t be
happier.  As far as sequels go, the game continues to offer the same “street”
feel but now there’s something of a story in the game’s main single player mode,
Career Mode.

Career Mode mainly takes
you through a variety of races and pits you up against a number of colorful
characters.  You start in the Downtown streets of Los Angeles (and later make it
to the streets of Paris and Tokyo) with a decent racing car as you go looking
for challengers.  Flashing your headlights, you challenge a racer who takes you
through different types of races.  Some races have checkpoints you must clear
while others lean to a more chaotic fastest-one-to-X-location wins.  If you
don’t know much about illegal street racing (or haven’t seen the Fast and
Furious films) the basic rule is if you challenge a racer and beat him or her
then you win the loser’s tricked-out ride.  In this game, you don’t really lose
your car if you lose but you certainly win new vehicles when you win. 

Aside from this deep
single player mode, Arcade Mode offers some fun challenges that can even be
enjoyed with up to four other friends (or eight if you have a System Link cable
hooked up to another Xbox setup).  Circuit Races has a small number of
traditional lap races using any of the vehicles you unlocked during Career Mode
as well as any of the other cities.  Battle has two game types: Detonate (grab a
detonator and make it to trigger point in one piece) and Capture the Flag (which
speaks for itself).  There’s also a Cruise mode where you can just test out new
vehicles and get to know the streets of any of the cities you unlocked.  There’s
also a Race Editor that allows you to create your own races.

Thanks to the
arcade-styled controls that are downright perfect, the racing action is both hot
and fun.  The game offers a few new tricks such as weight transfer and a nitrous
boost when you need an extra push during the most extreme races.  You also get
to race on speed bikes, a new feature to this series.  In all, these things help
make the races both challenging and amusing enough that even if you’re
attempting the same race for the seventh time, you won’t mind it at all. 

This game, though, scores
big points for going online with the Xbox Live service and you’ll quickly find
many racers just waiting to show their stuff–there’s even a Stats screen that
tells how other racers stack up.  Imagine Los Angeles at midnight, the streets
nearly empty and eight online racers in their favorite vehicles of choice (most
of which are available to you through the single-player campaign) revving up
their engines and ready to burn rubber.  And, because of the Communicator is
used; you’ll hear them boast and brag about beating the best.   “Eat my dust,”
you’ll say out loud as you tear through the streets and on to victory.  

As for the game’s
graphics, Midnight Club II looks great.  Whether you’re in Los Angeles, Paris or
Japan, the surroundings are wonderfully detailed and feel as if they’re
breathing with life.  You’ll encounter traffic and law-abiding citizens that
easily get frightened by the speeds of the racing vehicles.  The vehicles
themselves are recognizable despite the fact that no actual licenses are used.
The cars reflect the lights of the city as they speed through the streets and
smash lamppost or cars in the freeway.  You’ll also be treated to a few cut
scenes where you’re introduced to the various zany characters you’ll race
against.

Silky smooth trance music
makes up the game’s soundtrack and, for the most part, it actually does fit the
driving theme.  There’s quite a collection of tunes too and you can cycle
through them with the directional pad in the same way you’re skipping tunes on a
CD player.  While the tunes are okay, the sound effects and voice acting found
throughout are far better.  Crashes, for instance, have that awful crunching
sound and it sounds even more horrific when you hear the other racers besides
you get into these crashes.  The engine sounds are also authentic.  As far as
the voice acting is concerned, the dialogue is done nicely–although the
personalities of the characters in Career Mode are urban stereotypes.

Midnight Club II is racing
action at its most finest and most enjoyable and, to top it all off, it offers a
real excellent online experience as well.  While there are a small list of
little things that would have put this game over the top–a customizable
soundtrack, for example–it’s not enough to drag down the truly fun racing this
game has to offer.  Trust me on this one, loyal readers, this is a worthy buy.

#Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 9.1
The game goes for an arcade feel and
pulls it off wonderfully.  The controls are actually pretty tight and the action
is smooth as ice throughout the single player modes as well as the multiplayer
action.  There’s seldom a time during System Link play or online when the
framerate drops.  As for the controls, they’re pretty basic and easy to manage
without throwing in anything too complicated.  When you need a boost, just press
the nitro button.  When you want make a much sharper turn on your motorcycle
just press the weight transfer button.

Graphics: 8.2
Visually, Midnight Club II doesn’t
push things to the limit but what is here is actually fantastic.  The three
cities are amazingly well detailed to the point that you’ll be glad there’s a
Cruise option just so you can check out the beautifully lit buildings and
businesses.  Aside from the stoplights and other things you’d normally find on
the streets, you encounter actual traffic (that obeys traffic laws and
everything) as well as pedestrians (that can get hit if they’re not lucky).

The vehicles are actually
decent looking and, despite the fact that they’re not licensed vehicles, anyone
who knows a thing or two about cars could quickly identify them.  Watching these
cars slam against each another or tear through lamp posts or slamming into an
RTD bus as shards of vehicle pieces rain down is done excellently . . . although
it would have been cooler if the damage would have shown up a bit more than it
does.

Sound: 8.0
The mellow trance music isn’t that
bad at all and actually does fit the midnight theme . . . although I’m not
really sure illegal street racers actually listen to house and trance music
during races.  Still, there are plenty of tunes to listen to by trance masters
such as Kansai and Art of Trance and you can change tunes any time you want.  It
would have been nice if gamers could use their own custom soundtrack, but what
is here isn’t at all that bad.

As far as the sound
effects go, this game actually handles sound perfectly.  Each vehicle,
naturally, has its own unique engine sounds and Midnight Club II does a great
job of displaying these sounds–especially when you’re in a race where every
racer is driving different vehicles.  Listening to the tires literally burn
rubber sounds just as good as the spectacular crashes when you collide against
oncoming traffic.  Great work.  

Difficulty: Medium
Gamers will find that this sequel
certainly improved on the computer-controlled racers in the single-player modes
enough that their aggressive racing style gives you a nicely balanced
challenge.  While they’re challenging enough to keep up with the race, they are
also prone to some real boneheaded mistakes or can also lose control of their
vehicles in the same way you do.  While this ups the realism factor–which is a
plus in an arcade-styled racer like this one–it also makes each race different
each time you attempt it.  You’ll find plenty of challenges in Career mode and
most of the racers in this mode are quite difficult, but never enough that it
will leave you frustrated.

Concept: 9.0
Midnight Club II manages to capture
the true essence of illegal street racing by way of the hot rides, the way you
flash down potential racing opponents, win vehicles from the losers and the many
personalities (never mind the character stereotypes) you encounter in the single
player mode.  One of the best features available is the Race Editor that allows
gamers to design their own race down to the type of weather you’ll encounter.
You can also race on motorcycles as well.  And did I mention you could play
online?

Multiplayer: 9.5
Can multiplayer action get any
better than this for a racing game?  Up to four players can take each another on
in modes such as Detonate or Capture the Flag and although there aren’t many
other multiplayer modes you can sink your teeth into, these modes are great
fun.  And, using a System Link cable, you can get up to eight of your friends in
on the action as well.  Yet the cherry on top of this highly sweetened cake is
the online feature.  Oh yes, you can race up to eight die-hard street racing
fans on the Xbox Live service and even talk trash while you’re in an intense
Capture the Flag session.  It just doesn’t get any better than this.

Overall: 9.2
Cancel my membership to the DVD club
because this is the only club I’d like to join.  Midnight Club II is 2 fast and
2 furious and way 2 fun.  Racing fans will find much to love about a game that
keeps the excitement going even after your twentieth race and with Xbox Live
capabilities there’s no end to the racing action.  Start your engines, race
fans–this one is HOT.