This Need For Speed knockoff tries to innovate but that gets in the way of its overall playability.
(-) turning controls are too sensitive that it's hard to drive in a straight line; races are more like wondering through a maze faster than your opponents; the other characters are irritating; the story couldn't be more generic if it tried; it's derivative and do I really need to explain why?
Around the time the original Playstation was unveiled in 1994, it was common place for the system to release big-bang titles at launch to help the new console go off to a good start. We got things like Twisted Metal and Gran Turismo for reason to go out and buy the new system. Launch titles are very important because they give you an idea of what the system you purchased is capable of in the present and future, as well as a way to determine if the system is truly right for you. And after the initial launch, game developers learn what works and what doesn't work through the system's lifespan, and stronger efforts are ported to the public as time goes by. Then another system is born after so long, in this case the Playstation 2, which promises even more capabilities and they mean to show that with the launch titles for that system. Take Midnight Club for example, which was a title that was even mentioned on the first Playstation 2's retail box, to be remembered as one of the first games to be produced for the solid system. And how was this impression?
To tell the truth, not a good one. Not a good one at all. Your frustrating journey begins as you drive the streets of New York City in your Taxi cab, the only available car from the start, and you go out to prove your worth. That's the story. You drive up to other people with a green arrow hovering around their car, and you challenge them to a race. Really? All this action is done at a chaotic and hectic pace, driving here and there chasing after people, and roaming the streets at breath-taking speeds, (insert sarcasm. The game actually has a pathetic sense of speed) but what is the purpose of all that? The game never makes it clear. You even meet other characters as you follow the lead of the so-called story, some with personalities like the flurtsie Keiko Hatang and the business man Kareem Windross, and even more appear as you advance, but the depressing thing is all these characters make no attempt to blend the story in an interesting, or meaningful, way. I know not ever game needs a story to be good, but seriously if it's going to be dull and boring then the developers would be better off leaving it off the game from the get-go.
And if the monotonous story isn't enough to keep you from enjoying this game, then it's likely you'll be flustered by the game-play thinly disguised as races. There are two cities where you play around in, New York City and London, and these two cities are both made up of an orgy of roads and buildings cramped together like an industrial yarn ball. Now ordinarily this would serve only as a minor inconvenience, but how the races are handled just throws salt in the wound. During each and every race, you have to drive through a series of yellow check points scattered through the levels, looking like a blind man plotted them on the map with no correlation with one another, and in addition to reaching each of them, making it to the finish before your other opponents. But the problem is, you must determine the quickest of every single turn to reach the finish line before your opponents, and sadly there are only one or maybe two different routes of at least 20 possible you could take through the complicated track. So winning each race is more of a test of your logical IQ as well as your toleration of frustration than a hard earned race in the superior Need For Speed or even Mario Kart.
As if the entire game was build from the ground-up as a device for frustration, the irritating opponent racers also like to tease and taunt you with their repetitive and annoying voice overs. The characters you meet through the game can easily tell if you're struggling through the race, and they'll say things that could have been easily copied and paced through any racer, like "Think you can keep up?" and sometimes their vocals are hardly distinguishable at all, like one feminine man saying "I'm right behind you! I'm right behind you! Boople." that gets old literally after the first time hearing it. Their voices are irritating and it can be very difficult to make out what their saying.
And it isn't like the game has spot-on controls to make up for all these shortcomings either. For some reason the controls are overly sensitive to the point that it interferes with your ability to drive properly. Just the slightest tap of the directional pad can very easily turn your car a decent degree, no matter the attributes for the car, which this can lead to frustration really fast. It's difficult to drive in a straight line, because in order to maintain a single direction often you'll have to shift between left and right. It's awkward to watch and oblivious to play, and just a tint down on the control sensitivity would have gone a long way.
As much irritation as I have gotten from the game during my short hour of playing it, I must say there were certain parts that weren't horrendous. For example, the two playable cities can be selected in cruise mode, where you can drive around without a particular mission to embark in. This was easily the most time I have spent playing the game, and the only one which I could stand without getting frustrated. Although it gets repetitive fast, while it lasts it poses as a calm and relaxing experience exploring the area, which has a decent perimeter, but its a shame that all the game's features have to be closed out in order for me to get some enjoyment.
And while the career mode is a mess from top to bottom, if the rare moment comes that you actually want to go in a race in Midnight Club, then there is an arcade mode where the difficulty is stripped down to a more acceptable level. The races are still documented through the dreaded check-point idea, but for the most part these races were easier and just more fun than the career mode. However, this is not nearly enough to warrant a purchase of this game for any more than five dollars.
The visual effort for Midnight Club is solid at least. Everything is done in the dead of night, you can choose among dusk, midnight, and dawn, as well as different weather effects like storm and rain, and each of these selectable features paint a different coat over the environment that gives it visual fluidity. The feel of speed is pretty sluggish, as I mentioned earlier, so the races themselves really don't compliment any of the visual styles very well and only drag the experience down even further. The midnight theme does give the game a sense of guilty excitement and soothing enthusiasm, if that combination made any sort of sense, and the graphics do a great job at portraying that state of mind. However they are by no means pushing the PS2's hardware, as they do have jaggies that flicker around when you gain speed, but they do serve their purpose. It turns out graphics were focused on more than anything else in this game.
It happens all the time in the gaming industry. Somebody comes up with an idea, and another tries to try their hand and copy that idea with their own hands and use specific changes to make it seem less original. With Need For Speed having been out since the PSX generation, it seems that Midnight Club's only purpose through and through is to be a derivative rival to try and chomp at that franchises' success without adding much new to the established formula. That right there is the only reason this game exists. But in order to seem less like a Need For Speed knockoff, this game tried to innovate by creating a closer-compacted city design and races done by passing check-points. The bitter irony is those two facts mate with one another and give birth to this game's biggest flaw, where playability is taken a hit, therefore it could have done better in the market if it even copied the Need For Speed formula from the roots up. It may be more derivative than ever before, but at least it would be a more playable game and somebody may forgive it for copying a successful game because that formula has been proving to work.
Midnight Club Street Racing has an identity crisis that gets in the way of the game's own ability to offer something to the player. While it does have a passable arcade mode, two sizable cities to roam around in, and decent visuals, these just don't solace the player from the many, many frustrating moments this game will punish you with. Turning controls are jacked too high, the racing design is just plain stupid, the story makes no sense, the other characters are annoying, and this entire game from title screen to credits is nothing more than a Need For Speed wanna-be. As a launch title for the Playstation 2 this just didn't cut it, indicating that the numerous different releases of the system would be nothing more than merely average or not even worth playing, and Midnight Club Street Racing can be thought of as the president of that collection of games. I know I've referenced Need For Speed throughout this entire review, but rest assured that Midnight Club will never creep up on any of my Need For Speed reviews, because by then I'll be reviewing a better game and I'll have too much to cover to even revisit the frustrating streets of Midnight London in my mind.