Midnight Club II - for my money the best racing game I have ever played.
User Rating: 9.3 | Midnight Club II XBOX
Maybe it is just me, but growing up as a gamer I always wanted a racing game that put you in the middle if a city racing through the busy traffic and would let you drive anywhere, i.e. you were not confined by invisible walls to the predetermined track. After many years of waiting enter Midnight Club II. Now before going any further let me make it clear that despite my best efforts I cannot play every game in the world and Midnight Club I was on of the games I missed, and if it was half the game that its successor is I feel I missed out. The graphics are good, nothing special but at the speeds you will be travelling you won’t have time to sit back and take in the scenery. This game is hectic from the moment you pick up the pad and the further through the game you get the busier the cities get and the longer the races get. This ‘story mode’ of this game includes several different race types making you, for example, complete a set of checkpoint (in a predetermined or random order) faster than any of your opponents. The game breaks down into three cities. In each one you drive around until you find someone wanting to race, you flash your lights at them to indicate this and then follow them to a start point. Beating them and winning their car in then the name of the day. Beat everyone in the city and the city ‘boss’ character challenges you. Beat them and move on to the next city. Sounds simple but some of the later challenges are really tough, however for some reason never so tough that you give up, it has that magic quality that makes you keep coming back until you finally do win - the hallmark of a good game if ever there was one! My one rant about this game is the inclusion of the bike levels. I was not a big fan of the way the bikes handled so did not find those levels much fun, but as they were few and far between this did not have much of a negative impact on the game. One last thing that deserves a mention is the course design - this is where the game really excels. Many races you will have to do again and again to find all the required short cuts to enable you to beat your opponents and they can be most imaginative: huge jumps over buildings, tunnels under the city, leaping on and off of boats... you get the picture If I have not sold it to you by now I guess I never will. If I have, go get it now, you won’t regret it
