Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

Written by Chris Reiter  on June 16, 2005

Review: Damn you look sexy. Engine that purrs like a kitten. "Doors" that stay open all night. And girl, your car ain't bad looking either.

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Be it bike, car, or truck, Midnight Club 3's control scheme never fails to live up to the good name Rockstar's franchise sets in managing techniques. Players already familiar with past Midnight Club driving will feel at ease soon enough with the directions for every vehicle being guided under the directions from the previous games. Well, almost. All the same functions are here, from X to go, square to brake, triangle to change the view, circle to flash the headlights, the left analog to steer, and the back buttons used to do almost everything else from hitting the emergency brake to firing up nitrous bursts. Don't worry if you're a newbie, since in-game video instructions are always laid out after coming upon a new vehicle type or a new feature, for instance. A couple of things that have changed for Rockstar's third Midnight Club though, is that special powers are activated with the press of the L3 stick. Another important factor deals with the fact that all cars, trucks, and variations of bikes need to evolve over the course of the game. Buying or winning a new vehicle doesn't mean it'll run perfectly to every player's preference. You could be a Jetta fan and buy one from the list, but the performance of the car's not going to handle as smoothly without all the numerous engine upgrades made possible by the shop. This two-way deal of racing for cash and then figuring out where that money's going to gives Midnight Club 3 a worthy amount of lengthened time you'll definitely spend going back and forth to play.
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Got friends, cuz? Because if you don't, taking your game online is the next step that'll set you free from your loser life of single player exclusivity. Up to eight players can engage in several modes of play spread out in formations such as in the series' traditional game of Capture the Flag, where teams of drivers attempt to steal the flag from separate destinations and run it back to their base location in the city without getting caught. There's also Frenzy mode, where the objective to speed through traffic toward a specific location with no brakes and multiple nitro bursts in between makes things interesting. Something more interesting is Paint, which has players gaining territory by being the fastest to drive through a series of individual checkpoints that are spread out along the streets. Battling between other racers for total dominance in conditions like these pops open a can of some great old fashion fun in familiar multiplayer styles, in addition to some that have yet to be treaded. There is of course a way for players to exhibit the same multiplayer veins offline too. Unchanged from previous Midnight Club iterations, just two players can go head to head in the many options of Arcade. The Racing Editor that allows for anyone to set their own desired checkpoints, daytime and weather conditions, player and vehicle regulations, and so on, are also back for players to mess around with and show off to others online for anyone drawn to create all different scenarios in the interchangeable world of this racing verse.
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Fast, Midnight Club: Street Racing was the initiator for interfacing a capital racing series that would blow everyone away with its large levels, high speeds, and street racing approach. Faster, Midnight Club II was the prime purveyor, the pusher of limits, the tester of tank-filled testosterone, taking the game to the next level where larger and slicker intertwined conventions were produced. Fastest, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is the final collaboration for Midnight Club's long voyage on the PlayStation 2. Whatever visual pieces were missing from Midnight Club II's jigsaw puzzle have now been filled in. And the thing about that is, not much apparently was blank. For those who've enjoyed Midnight Club II in the past, get ready to say hello to the game again. Two years ago, Midnight Club II released and wowed gamers with a sharper and more stylistic approach to what had been done with the original even two years before that. Cities were an enormity compared to the ones in the first Midnight Club, with all sorts of directions that could part your car's passage through, beneath, and over. If you've seen what Midnight Club II had looked like, Midnight Club 3 isn't much different. But that's not totally bad news. After all, Midnight Club II was and still is a great looking game amongst the PlayStation 2's vast arsenal. However, even back then Midnight Club II was never perfect. Windows and doors that were painted onto buildings, and clean and clear but not definitive car models were some of the quips that still remain evident in Midnight Club 3 today.
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One way or another, it's just easy to tell that Midnight Club 3 isn't much more than its predecessor because both games look similar. Whether it's possible for the Midnight Club II graphics engine to receive a superfine polish to its finish remains to be seen, as Midnight Club 3 very much shares a likened quality with that very game. Buildings contain glass entries that can be rammed and shattered into flying shards to make way into a sort of lifeless and ordinary baseball stadium in one city. Streets and alleyways flip papers through the air as the sense of speed rushes forward, knocking over poles, and busting open trash cans and mailboxes. Ramps can be found here and there making for long distance leaps along the moderately textured, stoplight reflecting streets. But one thing that's definitely changed is the name of the city locations. These aren't the same grounds as in previous games (they never are), and with the shift in effect comes more hills. Unlike the former Midnight Club games, Midnight Club 3 strips itself of sticking to mainly straightened lines. California for example is a state known for its steep downhill curves. Just like a woman's breast, its San Diego location gets them. Another unique twist happens to be the effect of the game's super powers. Slip into the zone of time pausing benefits, and the screen goes from a blazing display of motion blurred lights and objects to a steel blue fragment of time where your vehicle will wiggle a few seconds quicker than the rest of the screen's activity. Use the call of the wild on the other hand, and a translucent wave will push aside pileups of cars as if someone were blowing on a gathering of ants. Naturally, the time of day still turns from black night to clear morning on some occasions, and the weather still pours down fleeting rain and blinds one's vision with grayed fog clouds from time to time. In truth, vehicles still look about the same as they did in the past. The AI traffic especially still sports basic models with tinted black windows. Customizing vehicles now with fancy extras such as flash-enabled neon lights underneath the car and a combination of other elements allows each vehicle to look extra special, fixing the game up with those few missing touches it was begging for.
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Up, down, jump around, Midnight Club's come to town. Setting the music scene straight like a rocket, Midnight Club 3 will wrap your ears around the sound of funky beats like a locket. Rap, rock, trance: if you like these groovy genres you're going to dance. Some tracks and groups are recognizable (i.e., Marilyn Manson, Jimmy Eat World, Nine Inch Nails), the others are undefinable, but most of them man are filler material in this fast-flickering motor land. Now that I got your attention, did I forget to mention all the solid audio that'll be refreshing? Nitrous jetting out of the rear, turns that force the tires to screech in a steer, and crashes with cracked windows and rising smoke makes it look like you drank beer -- it's all here. More comes in the form of each city's garage keeper that steeps ya with a voice that'll always meet ya. Street thug slang derives from the gang of mechanical guys whose wise words tell no lies toward building your ever growing enterprise. Tuning in when you win to lay the low down on new tricks and such, and you can come home to meet them in the shop for a 3D animated view of the story's progressive nature with who wants to race you of the bunch. With these garage characters, the game's personality isn't just a one-note derivative racing subject -- but it is lacking the faces behind those you racing in all the uh...um...DUBject?