Midnight Club: Los Angeles Review

Midnight Club is back, but is it back in style? Rockstar has decided to release another sequel to their popular street racing series Midnight Club. The last Midnight Club, released in 2005, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition was received well and even got a portable release on the PSP a few months later. It was a game I played for hours, the customization was there, and the excitement was there, the graphics, sound, it was better than Need For Speed in my opinion. Now, three years later, Rockstar sends out a new game and hopes we buy it.

Midnight Club: L.A. for the XBOX 360 and PS3 obviously takes place in L.A. The game suffers from lots of product placement. But hell, we gamers want realism right? With a new DLC pack soon to be released soon, a look at the current map, features, and cars are due right? Right.

The story is a very simple one. You just entered town, in this case Los Angeles, and you want to race, bad. You get a hook-up and a new car is yours. You are then thrusted into this world of street racing. That's really the story, there isn't much going on here. A few less than exciting twists are attempted and it's a shame that Rockstar, the creators of GTAIV's wonderful and deep storyline couldn't make magic on L.A. The characters in this game are boring stereotypes and frankly, the main character is a douchebag. Or he looks and sounds like one.

Though the story isn't really there, the gameplay is more than. Gameplay in Midnight Club has always been fast and aggressive and ordered you to think on your feet. This style of racing is still used and that's a good thing. Many camera angles are used to display the racing, I prefer the first person cockpit view, this view makes the game seem very realistic thus making me even more shocked when I total my car in a quick bumper to bumper collision. Easy to use controls, good response times, and a 10-20 minute learning curve defiantly help this game climb back up on top. Free roaming is something we've seen in recent street racers and its present here, it's simple, but could be better. It would be nice to be able to record shortcuts, collect useful parts, etc. Customization was a huge part of the last Midnight Club and once again it's something carried over. From the front bumper, side doors, neon, seats, and wheels there are dozens of different ways to customize your cars and bikes visually and in performance.

Graphically this game shines. The character models aren't as good as GTAIV's but they closely resemble them. The cars and streets you race on and with look great. Glimmering of the hood of your car the sun shines and L.A. is really captured. The whole gigantic map of Los Angeles is shown pretty accurately, not store by store, but it's a good transition. The only downside is slow texture loading. Sound in this game consists of easily recognizable car and bike sounds, pretty good voice acting, and some good track choices. Rock and rap makes its way onto the list as the main focus, as it has always been.

The online in this game is interesting. Adding to the customization aspect of the game, you can post, rate, and buy rides in the rate my ride mode. Buying rides is cool as you get all the custom decals and vinyl's that others create. You can put your own ride up for money too. You don't earn profit though. The online racing is fun indeed and it has some pretty aggressive battle modes. A capture the flag keep away game has 16 people racing for the flag in an intense ride wrecking. It's awesome. Like all racing games, once they're beat, you're done. Same goes here. You'll want to get all the cheats by collecting secrets, but that's really it.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is defiantly one of those sequels that are actually good, and this game proves you don't need to release a new game every year to keep up with the features and overall quality, ala Need For Speed. It's safe to say Midnight Club beat Undercover on this one. With new DLC expanding the experience coming out soon, you should be excited. If you are a street racer fan, you better have this game. It is worth it.

- SmellyDeadHobo