Gaming Target - Xbox: Midtown Madness 3

Written by Matt Swider on June 20, 2002

Full Review: Greatest Irony Ever: In Paris, some French person told me I smelled!

Seeing chase scenes in 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Italian Job always gives me the urge to drive my car home with the same tricked out moves as in the movies. Unfortunately, this isn't very practical in a Toyota Corolla. A safe alternative to acting out such a dangerous desire comes with the Xbox release of Midtown Madness 3, a game that picks up on the reckless driving behavior that Microsoft produced in its pedal to the metal predecessors on the PC. Though this is the first installment of Midtown Madness for the home console and the first to be developed by RalliSport Challenge creator Digital Illusions, there's plenty of vehicles, two extensive cities, and some intense multiplayer gaming along for the ride. Despite a few bumps in the road, those who have access to Xbox Live will benefit most from what Midtown makes available.

Midtown Madness 3 functions as an arcade driving game, but cruising around Washington D.C. and Paris France shows how realistic it can be in relation to its design. Both cities recreate famous neighborhoods to be driven through, statues to be driven over, buildings to be driven into, and bodies of water to be driven in. Since this is no history lesson, among these recognizable structures are alleyway shortcuts, jumps that lead to rooftops, parking garages spanning many stories, and entrances to underground railways. Just about everything within the game is destructible too, so slamming into something will likely leave an impact on the object as well as your car. For some reason, this doesn't apply to trees. Cars still knock down street signs and drag fallen lampposts, but somehow ride right through trees only to be slightly diverted upon contact. Given the size of the two environments, detail is often sacrificed and repeating textures are easy to notice. These setbacks on top of the fact that the game is limited to two maps might not sit well at first, but rest assured, one quick spin around the city can lead to hours of examining the many structures and simply being in awe of its capacity.

The single player mode starts out with tasks that one would encounter in an everyday job. As an undercover agent, you take on missions that include being a chauffer, police officer, ambulance driver, delivery boy, and so on. The ability to freely roam the streets sends regular racing games in reverse as players are able to experience the city while attempting to complete the objective at hand. This concept, first seen in the Driver series on PSOne, helps add variety to the game. Still, the offline portion is essentially split between racing through checkpoints like Midnight Club II and riding people around to different destinations as in Crazy Taxi. It eventually causes the game to feel tedious and, at times, dull.

The typical Xbox Live entry message of СESRB Notice: Game experience may change during online play' is the game's saving grace as it has more than one meaning for Midtown Madness 3. It gives eight players a chance to experience new game types that make the undercover mode seem like a distant memory. There's no more artificial traffic to avoid or pedestrians to swerve from (or into if you're a lunatic), but Capture the Gold, Tag, Hunter and Stayaway still manage to be entertaining and rather addictive for several hours at a time. Capture the Gold runs along the lines of a Capture the Flag match hence the similar name and all of the same madness players go through to retrieve the gold, bring it back to a random base, and avoid players attempting to steal it along the way.

Tag is one of the more obvious games where its name explains that it's a bad thing to be the one who is Сit'. On the other hand, Stayaway works the opposite way. This mode starts out with a rabbit icon hovering above a random player that risks having it stolen by others. Whoever clocks the most time with the rabbit wins the game. Hunter is the last of the new game types and my personal favorite because the setup is like a game of Cops and Robbers. One player begins as a police car while everyone else must avoid him or else be subjected to joining the force upon impact. Many players work together in an effort to ditch the fuzz and end up turning on each other when one becomes a police recruit. To no surprise, the secret locations players discuss over the headset are the first places new cops check. As this game type winds down, up to seven police cars end up chasing a single speedy vehicle around the map, making the entire pursuit thrilling for everyone involved.

As solid as playing games over Xbox Live is, Midtown Madness manages to step up online support with a convenient setup. Players can converse when cruising the streets, navigating the menus, or even waiting for the game to load up. New opponents will be able to join midway through the game without interfering with a late win and cars can be switched between matches without the risk of dropping from the game. With such a large allotment of vehicles online, each game can have a different spin, or spinout depending on what you are driving. Games can be set to specific cars by the online host, which is especially humorous when nothing but trucks and buses can be used. While the maps mimic real life locations, the licensed vehicles don't exactly handle the same way. This ends up giving the game the arcade approach that we have associated with the series since 1999.

Fast cars might seem like the best idea at first, but reaching grass spots will throw the handling out the window. Hummers, though slow, take turns rather well and have the ability to move objects like dumpsters better than any of vehicle. This is always fun when climbing the many stories of a parking garages and then taking the time to ram a dumpster down the single entrance. In Hunter mode, cops tend to be weaker against such obstructions, but it's only a matter of time before they break through. As soon as the pigs make it to the top though, they discover that you are long gone as the parking garage lets you jump off the side and flee to another safety zone on the huge map. The entire experience makes your heart beat as you hear the cops ramming into the dumpster and their sirens sound just below your position.

The music matches the environments of Paris and Washington D.C., but after many of hours of playing online, the songs may get on your nerves. Fortunately, custom soundtracks can be used. Unfortunately, the last track on the music set plays first and it starts off each time a new race begins. Since online matches are usually short, you end up hearing the same thing time and time again. So, it's back to the mainstream music for players unable to work their way around this problem. Though the issue is minor, many hope it can be fixed when the first downloadable content for this game makes it way to Xbox Live. In addition to the patch, there is also eagerness for an extra map since Washington D.C. and Paris become passщ after a couple of weeks of play.