Midnight Club Los Angeles (View comments)
Posted by: Nikolas Mason
While racing games aren’t usually my thing, the Midnight Club games from Rockstar have been one of my favourites ever since the first one on the Playstation 2. Their free roam, full city maps were always one of the biggest attractions to the games, especially when other racing series kept you in closed areas, such as Need for Speed. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition then introduced real and deeply customizable cars, making it one of the most addictive so far in the series.
After the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, I began to get really high hopes for Midnight Club Los Angeles, the first Midnight Club to make it’s way to the newest generation of consoles. The vehicle handling in GTAIV was very realistic, something I loved about that game. I was hoping that trait would move over to the new Midnight Club, but it didn’t. However, in Los Angeles, the car handling is still almost perfect for a racing game. Repeat: almost perfect. At times turning can be a little too hard, making you take a turn too wide and run into trees while the AI takes the turn sharply. Other than some small problems, the handling is great for a racing game.
One thing I loved about DUB Edition was the huge variety of cars to choose from and the massive amounts of customization for each. While Los Angeles does have a decent car selection, it is notably smaller than DUB Editions, with fewer upgrades and parts also. This isn’t too bad because the game still gives you a decent variety, but it was definitely a step down from the previous entry in the series.
Graphics wise, Rockstar has managed to beautifully recreate the city of angels. The cars are all very detailed and the city has many details strewn about, most noticeably are the placement of real businesses and ads. While it does look good, it doesn’t feel quite up to par with most other current generation games as sometimes the graphics feel a bit flat. This isn’t too much of a problem though, and at times I’ll find myself straying away from the races just to explore the city.
The races have a steep difficulty curve. They start out incredibly easy and quickly become more difficult, forcing you to cough up your hard earned cash for upgrades. And by hard earned, I mean hard earned. It takes several races to earn enough money to be able to afford anything decent, and upgrading car parts or buying new vehicles are definitely a necessity to progress in the game as opponents become tougher and tougher.
And speaking of opponents let me take a minute to stray away from my review to send a message to game developers: What happened to the good old days of local multiplayer? Almost every racing game I’ve played on the current generation consoles is lacking local multiplayer. This really annoys me because I simply don’t know anyone in real life with a Playstation 3 besides me. If I want to play against another human, I have to play online with people I’ve never met or that are sitting in a room completely across the country. I miss the days of having a group of friends over and just racing against each other rather than taking turns. And if you haven’t caught on, Midnight Club Los Angeles’ largest fault is it’s lack of local multiplayer. This game would’ve probably earned a 4 stars from me if it simply had this feature.
Aside from the subpar graphics, low number of vehicles, and complete lack of local multiplayer, Midnight Club Los Angeles is a great game. It’s better than most racing games available and is a very decent time-waster as the races can get addictive. The game features a very interesting menu and pretty cool soundtrack, something I’ve come to expect from Midnight Club games. The story attached to the game is simple at best and the main character can get pretty annoying during races, but Midnight Club Los Angeles still has earned three stars. If you can, rent it and give it a good play through.
