by: Dameon White

October 25, 2008

To help you navigate around the city a spectacular GPS map that’s both in the bottom lefthand corner of the screen, as well as being able to display it during a race to get the full view of the city layout. My only gripe with the map is that when viewed in its entirety being able to locate your car is very difficult until you start to learn the layout of the city. The marker indicator assigned to your car is a measly arrow that in no way is difficult to see, especially when compared to all of the race markers on the map .

Behind the wheel is what this game is all about, as any good racer should be and Midnight Club delivers on almost all aspects. All of the cars have very tight, controlled handling and each car feels uniquely different from the next. There are several car types in the game, which are Tuner, Muscle, Exotics, Luxury and Bikes. Each vehicle and vehicle type feels different and they also have their own strengths and weaknesses that are appropriate to them. For example, Muscle Cars feel heavy and have pretty good straight line performance and make for some very entertaining power slides, but what they do better than the others is being able to withstand damage or spinning as a result of bumping into other cars. Tuners on the other hand will spin out of control at the slightest glance of car contact, but will have better, more controlled cornering. Each new experience behind the wheel of a new car is very engaging and a blast. The game never gets stale by delivering similar handling cars across the board as many games do.

Slipstream Turbo (drafting the car in front of you to fill up your boost meter) and Special Abilities also make a return to the game, as do power-ups during races and a wide range of range types are available, such as Time Trials, Circuit Races, Ordered Races, Red Light Races, Freeway Races, Wager Races, Pink Slip Challenges and more. The game definitely doesn’t lack in variety and because you can typically do what you want when you want, the game’s pace is whatever you’d like to be. Go for broke and go straight for the difficult races to try to win larger sums of money or extra cars or work your way up the latter slowly by picking off the easier races. It’s entirely up to you. There’s plenty to do in Los Angeles.

For the newbies to the series, the game’s Special Abilities allow you turn an ordinary ride into a Transformers ride by giving you special powers that can only be found in videogames, such as Aggro (plow through the competition), Zone (slow down time to maneuver through traffic without wrecking), EMP (shuts down cars in your vicinity for a short time), and Roar (make everyone GTFO of your way). These are part of the signature that is Midnight Club and brings the game to ridiculously fun levels.