Midnight Club: Street Racing - PS2

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Also for: GBA
Viewed: 3D First-person / Third-person Genre:
Racing: Car
Media: CD Arcade origin:No
Developer: Angel Studios Soft. Co.: Rockstar
Publishers: Rockstar (GB)
Take 2 (GB)
Released: 2 Aug 2002 (GB)
8 Dec 2000 (GB)
Ratings: 15+
Accessories: Memory Card, Dual Shock Joypad

Summary

Is doing illegal and immoral stuff on the roads fun? It must be considering the volume of videogames dedicated to exactly that subject. Midnight Club from Rockstar Games is set in New York and London and is concerned with the new sport of illegal street racing. The game features a cast of car-nuts, boy-racers and speed freaks who gather in the murky shadows at night to find out who is bravest and quickest.

Morals aside, Midnight Club is a fantastic street racing game. There is no set track, allowing the player to roam freely through the realistic cities. The only objective is to get through the checkpoints before the opposition does. As you can imagine, the police are not best pleased with this state of affairs and go out of their way to try and stop the races. You simply must keep going until you win or get caught. The game starts in New York and this city must be mastered before you can progress to London.

The game is sure to be popular with fans of Driver and Crazy Taxi, particularly if they are familiar with the geography of New York or London, because this game represents these cities better than most driving games. Major landmarks are included, allowing you to get a good feel for whereabouts in the city you are. There are also one or two hidden easter eggs, which, while they do not form an integral part of the game, are good fun to find and explore in the free-driving mode. In London, you can jump clean across the Thames, and tunnel through a deserted tube line. In New York, you can jump over Times Square to find yourself on the rooftops.

The cars, which are unlocked as you progress through the game, are based on real models, giving a realistic feel to the game. There is little or no pop-up, a great achievement considering the size of the play areas. Midnight Club was the first of a long list of off-beat racing games available for PlayStation 2, and at a cut price, it's definitely worth a look.