Midnight Club II

Also Known As: MCII
Genre: Racing
Platform(s): PS2/X-Box/PC
Allegiance: Rockstar Games
Vintage: 2003
Rating: E
Intelligence Agency Report by: Munky
This sequel to Midnight Club: Street Racing is a huge improvement from the disappointing first installment. This game’s all about winning the races, the cars, and being the head racer of each town.

Weapons Expert Report by: Munky 
Story/Premise
Gameplay
Impact
Visual
Audio
8.00
6.00
7.50
8.00
7.25
 
Overall 8.25
(not an average)
Version Reviewed: PS2

This game from Rockstar had me a little skeptic at first because of the first one and the disappointment it brought to me, but I was quickly proven wrong. Thanks to the great graphics and huge variety of unique cars, this game quickly found itself loading up on my PS2 over and over again.

In this game you get more than 28 hot racers and 3 huge cities to earn your titles in. There a few different styles of racing available throughout the Career mode. Depending on the race, players can follow a set course, or in others the course to take is up to you. So you have to be a little familiar with the city’s streets, alleyways, shortcuts, and the like. The game’s graphics are also a far better improvement from the first. It runs at a smooth 30 FPS, and rarely drops in speed. The A.I. of the other drivers has improved a lot since the last game, as well. You won’t find yourself sitting at a stop light while a shaky bus rear ends you. You can also play online via the Network Adapter if you have a high speed connection.

Career mode starts you off in a city and lets you choose you opponents as you wish. First you find a street racer, flash your lights at them, then you follow them to the secret race location, then it’s on. The cars, there are a wide variety of. All but one have at least 1 shot of Nitrous Oxide, which is your turbo and gives you a quick boost when needed. In Arcade mode you can do many things, and one of them is to just cruise around the cities, if you have unlocked them of course. Which is very useful when learning new driving techniques, learning the city, or just cruising for fun.

The downside to this game is that the other characters and their sayings can get VERY VERY annoying. With their taunts and rambling it makes you want to quickly jump out of your car and shoot out their tires. Another downfall is that it can get a little repetitive. As with most racing games, there’s only so much driving through a course than one person can handle, and this brings nothing new to spice things up.