Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Midnight Club II

Written by Chris Reiter on May 05, 2003

Full Review: If this club were open any earlier, then you'd realize that hot chick you've been racing all night is really a man!

Racing isn't just about cars winding a racetrack. There are alternatives: some of which are the "dangerous" method, if you know what I mean. Midnight Club II is a prime example of the racing world taking a flipside into the darker territory of street racing under the moon's light. Rockstar's PlayStatuion 2 launch release, Midnight Club: Street Racing, one of the more interesting titles at launch time did something for racing no other game did -- and that was to reflect a side of the racing syndicate that's so secretive, so intense, so illegal it's no wonder the franchise's original became one of the PlayStation 2's favorites among fans. Now Midnight Club II takes the franchise a step up, with the entire fill the first had to offer and much, much more.

Here's the lowdown you need to know now, mofo. There exists an edgier side of the racing streets. You? You're just some nobody new guy that happens to stumble upon this underbelly of the racing scene. The task at hand is that you've got to earn respect by showing the lowlifes of this secret society what you're made of. Winning the pink slip to a new car comes with the territory, ya know. Either beat each bad a$$ at his or her own game, or beat it on out of here, punk.

Ready for a pulse pounding adrenaline rush? Then Midnight Club II has just the thing, or things for you. Assorted over multiple styles of racing gameplay, Midnight Club II offers the player the satisfactory benefit it dished out for gamers in the first, only this time with a few surprises. The biggest surprise being Rockstar's doing of bringing the franchise into the arena of online. As one of the first ever racing releases to follow its rightful direction, Midnight Club II serves a well amount of nuances to enhance the driving performance further onto a widespread plane. Up to eight racers in all can go at it in different modes of either straightforward challenges (competitions through the heart of the city using checkpoints to navigate the course), or in multiplayer mayhem formation: Capture the Flag or through a game of Detonate. Those also willing to show off their creativity to the teeming masses can even load and link up their own modified track courses with saved files from the Race Editor mode, letting you select different possibilities of checkpoint, finish line markers, etc., through one of the game's three available cities. While only those with broadband are eligible to link up through an Internet connection in use of the network capabilities (sorry narrowband people), the online feature should make useful for hours of replay bliss.

Don't worry if every other kid in class has a leg up in getting online, and you're the only loser without it...loser. Each mode presents itself in online or off. And only those with LAN can vie against seven others in multiplayer options. But if you've got a friend or someone like a friend to face your driving victories with utter defeat, then take them to the hole in one of the aforementioned team conditions of play. Like the wind brushing behind your ride at limitless speeds through the darkness of city alleyways as your mate recklessly tries to catch up in hopes of ending your wining streak? Then you'll want to head on over to Midnight Club II's two-player mode, Circuit Races. Or if you've got a craving for something more original, Midnight Club II paves the multiplayer way for its return of Capture the Flag and uniquely fashioned Detonate stylings.

Capture the Flag is a take from what you might recognize from such First Person Shooters as Unreal Tournament. Basically you need to be the first car to swerve around the city locales retrieving flag positions and then heading back to the goal, only to return for another round all before the opposition does first. Similar, different -- Detonate operates like this: you're the driver, the other vehicle or vehicles are the enemy. Be the first one to find the bomb, and the first one to make it back to the goal with the bomb before the competition takes it from you. Using pickups, you or others can also zap, freeze, or even force vehicles to drive in reverse temporarily in order to beat out or destroy those sorry victims bearing the responsibility of carrying the bomb. Whoever has the bomb and makes it back to the winning spot wins the points -- simple as that.

Now that you know what you and someone else or many people can do together, you've still got to be aware of what the single player experience has to offer. It's actually because of the Career mode that makes anything else in the game all the more worthwhile. Not only because Career is where the game's true story lies (if you can call it that), but it's also where you unlock all three cities (as opposed to two from the first release), dozens of cars and wait for it...motorcycles combined. That's right; Midnight Club II does it all. Online. Waste more cities. And motorcycles! Well, you may be thinking, "Yeah, yeah...I've already rode/destroyed atop motorcycles in Rockstar's other/better/bigger game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City!" Yeah...well, you're still in for a shocker I say. Rockstar San Diego, or better known as Angel Studios of their former title and developer of Midnight Club II has perfected the ease of cruising the streets while hog heavy bound.

Physics play an extremely significant role in Midnight Club's successor. That is to say that everything moving in the game relies on it. Be it fast cars or really fast motorbikes, the action to every reaction depends on physics. And especially with motorcycles, a relatively new phase of evolution in the importance of gaming processes, the bar has been heightened with Midnight Club II's pass on the subject. So you say you've played the latest in Grand Theft Auto. But have you ever been able to balance a motorcycle on its back wheel for an extended period of time? Have you had the chance to crouch forward in order to speed up past other racing demons? Here's the kicker: I don't think you've even dreamt about bolstering forward, heightening a bike on its front end, and then spinning it around into a 180║ turn like Tom Cruise did in Mission: Impossible II. Cars too do like the movies. Driving on two wheels isn't a problem, as long as you've got enough torque to let the car to make the impossible possible. Remember in The Fast and the Furious when Vin Diesel lifted his car on its two back wheels into a boost of speed? Yeah, Midnight Club II's got that too. Or how about those nifty nitro boosts that gives every car a winning edge? The game's got it! That's the beauty of Midnight Club II: the physics are so unbelievable, so real, it's all amazing.

But when it comes time down to the big show, the Career module -- you better be ready. In Career, like the first Midnight Club, it's your duty to first begin a race now by flashing your brights at one of the game's speed freaks so to let them know the race is on, meeting and beating them in a tailing challenge, which all leads to earning of their respect for the real deal. The overall objective of Career is to race around three immense worldwide city locales -- Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo -- through street ways, narrow passages, parking garages, outdoor parks, heavy traffic, shattering glass openings in building constructs, sidewalks massing with pedestrians, on rooftops, and more to access each and all checkpoints the fastest you can to unlock the finishing zone.

What's difficult about the game though is that the computer is no fool. Against the main driver and all of its cohorts, these unfriendlies try to make your drive as impossible as they can by causing roadblocks after bashing into the computer controlled traffic, swiping your vehicle into walls, and even using their own dose of nitro boosts to their advantage just so your win is all the less likely. Occasionally cops also get in the way next to everything else, in cars and in helicopters. Get pulled over and you're out of there. And it's obvious to say that Midnight Club II isn't just like every other racing title out there either: the game is completely open ended with multiple pathways for whatever direction you want your ride to steer through. By checking the city's map often, which detail checkpoints, the drivers, and the roads, you'll come accustom to the layout every race throws your way. All you'll really need to do is learn each tactic the game has in store to get ahead (such as getting your vehicle to lift up on its back wheels or wheel with the motorcycle when the race begins in order to get an early lead), and most importantly, you'll need to learn the city -- where the shortcuts are hidden, where the best routes through a race lay, if following the lead driver or lackey is the better choice... Once you obtain knowledge of all of this after a while, you'll be able to vanquish any threat with ease.

Street credit goes out to Rockstar for knowing how to make Midnight Club II a natural pick-up-and-play release. Both car and motor vehicle have their own method of going forward. Eventually you'll find out how to make use of every kink in either type of ride from the game's computer adversaries, but here's the basics. When you're taking the car for a drive around the block, the X button does the gas work, the left analog stick handles the steering, the R2 button lets loose on the nitro, and the R1 button is used as a hand brake to take sharp turns. The same can all be said about the motorcycle controls, only with one tiny difference. Because you won't find nitro charges equipped in your motorcycle, the speeding up process comes along with a press of the L1 button combined with keeping the left analog stick up or down. For those who are brave enough, the harder way to get ahead is to place the analog stick down as this allows the bike to remain on its back wheel, letting you go forward quicker. If you're not up for likely falling off or crashing into an oncoming object easily, then the wussy road is taken by pushing up on the stick to make your rider bend forward in a still speedy manner. Even though, either direction isn't at all that difficult to master.

Sparks are flying, rain is falling, and people are getting killed -- it's the visual essence of Midnight Club II. With the original Club being a launch title, one great thing is to see how much the graphic power for this racing engine has aged, in a good way too. For starters, the motorcycles and the people who ride them are perfectly crafted with every detailed inch. Every car model (not including the sub-par traffic clones) is put through the works. Realistic wheels, flashing blinkers, lubricated bodywork, and of course the models themselves look great in show. However good looking in nature they are, the cars are still not up to par with the likes of Gran Turismo 3's capacity (with the windows constantly being too tinted and all). It's also shocking that vehicles in the second Club haven't followed in the footsteps of the first where instant and more lifelike damage was done to vehicles -- either traffic or the opponent. This time, the real blows hit hardest to the player and other illegal racers, eventually leading up to the point where the front or back end damage so much that they'll set aflame, trail a billowing of smoke, and ignite.

Creating larger, better-standardized cities seems to be the goal Rockstar has set for its second Midnight Club debut. I'd say they've succeeded. The cities this time have taken on a whole new shine, with standout texturing effects across rock walls, gravel roads, sidewalks, and so on and so forth that manage to fit the bill. Traffic actually seems to move more like traffic would if this game were life itself too. With a closer eye on smudged up building entrances and the carbon copy bunches of people walking the streets though, there are a few areas the game could use a little more polish on. But if special effects are your bag baby, then this racer's got a hefty sack full of them. Night or day, there's a nice occurrence of change in the daytime setting for the game's worldly operation. Rain or fog, with a variation of blinding weather inclinations, the reality of racing is exceeding. Bumps or bruises, beat up a vehicle enough and it'll eventually cave in nicely. Best of all, taking your frustration out on streetlights causes some electrifying results with spark particles dancing in the street and shining across the bodywork of your car's reflective surface.

Divinity of Midnight Club II's animation techniques are quite astonishing to say the least. As physics work on so many levels in this game, your guess is correct in saying there's a feverish amount of movement manipulation. When braking and letting loose, the wheels attached to vehicles churn in motion until smoke shrouds vision in surrounding almost everything around you. Each vehicle has a certain distinction about them in their ability to turn corners, or jump ledges, or flip over... And the motorcycles...wow! Forcing a bike to pull every crazy stunt imaginable is a feat that hasn't been accomplished up until now. Noises, backsies, tucking forward, leaning the motorcycle on its edge in a slider move -- it's all done right here, and it's all worth seeing the action come alive.

Pump up the volume -- it's go time! The sound elements of the game are many, but still not totally the greatest cause and effect of the franchise's doing. Effectively made to fit in with the driving theme, Midnight Club II shows off a bevy of decent and different techno soundings through the way of each city. Audio kicks in whenever it's needed as well. Roaring engines, splashing through puddles, crashing, bashing, and kick-assing of other vehicle competition, and you've got some satisfactory guaranteed sounds to compliment the game spot on when they happen, where they happen, and why they happen.

Again, a heavy list of unknown voice actors do what they came to do, which is to insert some kind of attitude into the blend of challengers that await you. Every city holds its own people with cultural chatter, and that's pretty much what you'll get here. With each city casing their own hardened criminal types, you'll receive a new speaker for every boss character with enough monologues to replace Jay Leno that you need to beat. During the race they'll throw several fits, compliments, or of course praise for themselves...that can be amusing, but tiresome if you find yourself stuck in a race that'll take a while to finally complete. Civilians pacing the sidewalks and streets have their own set of vocals for feedback too, but again, have only so much dialogue that can be a little annoying after a period of time.