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Matt Noyes kicks into high gear with an intense racing video game review.
Game:“Midnight Club: Los Angeles”
Publisher:Rockstar Games
Price:$40-$60
Game systems: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
If there’s one thing that separates “Midnight Club”from other racing titles, it’s the intensity level. “Gran Turismo” didn’t have rush hour traffic for you to dodge in your $2 million Tommy Kaira ZZII, and “Forza Motorsport” doesn’t have wrong turns. “Midnight Club: Los Angeles” employs a free-roaming approach, leaving you to wander the ozone-ridden streets of L.A. at your convenience, as in “Need For Speed Most Wanted,” “Carbon” and “Undercover.” It’s pretty fun to do in an impossibly fast ’71 Dodge Challenger.
Back in 2000, when the first MC came out, it was one of the first games to give the impression that you were slowly rising through status levels in another world. It featured two large, fully explorable cities (London and New York City), which, albeit rather bland, were exceptionally large for this time.
“Midnight Club 2” had three cities (L.A., Paris, Tokyo), more cars and a longer story mode. It wasn’t a vast improvement over the first title, and I can’t say I loved it or even liked it.
The third installment in the series included more cars and customizing options than you can shake a controller at, special abilities such as being able to crash through thick traffic without losing any speed and slowing down time so to drive more precisely, and actual cut scenes. People actually got out of their cars and spoke face-to-face instead of flashing their highbeams stylishly to communicate.
Which brings me to “Midnight Club: Los Angeles.”First off, where are the other cities? For the entirety of the game, you’re stuck in the same (they say) larger-than-the-other-three-cities-from-the-last-game-combined (not convinced) map. Also, the intensity from previous titles has made a stark increase. This game is HARD. Even on lower difficulties, you can muck up a race completely even if you’re a stone’s throw from the gleaming red smoke flare that represents the finish line.
On a positive note, there is some genuinely good trash-talking, and the interior camera is, I have to say it, rock-solid awesome. If you look down, you can see the driver’s feet working the pedals,and his hand moving the gearshift. The courses are great, driving is fun and, let me tell you: This game looks great.
But it just isn’t.
“Midnight Club: Los Angeles” isn’t a bad racing game; it’s not even close. There merely seems to be a lack of real innovation in the series. Sure, it utilizes the open-world aspect in races. Sure, it’s one of the first free-roamers ever. But how much does the series actually evolve? Not that much.
