Midnight Club Los Angeles Preview
A Preview - By Gaetano Prestia
The Midnight Club franchise first appeared on the Playstation 2 as a launch title and has since then been the leader in street-racing video-games. Its realistic car handling, open worlds and wide array of difficulties have made it one of the most critically and commercially successful racing franchises ever. With each new addition to the series we've seen improvement and innovation. After our first hands-on experience with Midnight Club Los Angeles at the Rockstar Games offices in Sydney, we can say that this latest addition is no exception.
Midnight Club LA sets out to be the most unique and free-flowing racer ever. There are no load times during the game, with the only load screen appearing when you first pop the game into the console. The free-roaming city is a near-identical virtual creation of Los Angeles, and anyone who is familiar with the city will notice landmarks and districts. Never has there been a more accurate depiction of a city in a video-game. It’s very impressive. The entire city is open from the get-go, so you’re free to cruise down Rodeo Drive or along the beach while the sun sets as soon as you pop the game in.
The gameplay has been altered to side by a more free-flowing and load-free experience. You’re never forced into participating in a race and even if you lose, you don’t have to replay it over and over again to progress. You play at your own discretion and pace and unlike Burnout Paradise where you were forced to trek back to where a race began, Midnight Club LA is a living and breathing title, so competitors move around the city as time rolls on.
Each race rewards a certain amount of reputation and money. Interestingly enough, you’re rewarded both even if you finish last. There were several races were we came in last and our rep and money stocks increased slightly. Of course, the higher you place the greater the increase, so it’s probably in your best interest to try and win as many races as possible to build up your reputation and bank a lot faster. As you progress, new cars and parts are made available to you as well as several new racing options.
There are plenty of racing types in Midnight Club LA. A marker will appear on your map, with its colour distinguishing its difficulty. A green marker means an easy race, while a dark orange marker means an extremely hard race. After you complete the first few races the map will become populated with challenges all across Los Angeles and the more experienced Midnight Club gamers can head straight into the harder races, which are open fairly early on.
There are thirteen different modes, all of which have their own guidelines and we got to check out a few of them. Ordered Races are routes marked out with yellow flares, which act as checkpoints that must be passed before you reach the final red flare.
Freeway Racers takes place only on (you guessed it) freeways. All you have to do is match the speed of the racer, flash your lights and the race begins. The route is not pre-determined and is totally dependant on where you choose to flash the opponent racer.
Red Light Racer begins at the nearest red light and ends at a designated landmark on the other end of the city. You can choose your own route with this mode and cut corners because you’re not forced to drive through checkpoints to complete it.
There are plenty of other modes available in Midnight Club LA, ranging from Telephone Challenge (where you choose to meet a competitor via your Sidekick), to Wager Races (where you can bet a desired amount of money against one other opponent) and Series Races (first-to-win-three racing series).
Most of these race types also have a “Race to the Start” feature implemented, where you race your opponent to the starting line, indicted by a red flare and smoke. This mini-race still rewards you money and rep even though it’s not a real race. All you have to do is pull behind a competitor, flash your lights and race them to the start. It’s not a compulsory race though, and you can press Y to skip it and start the race straight away.
Your Sidekick (phone) is an important part of the gameplay. As you progress through the title, your name gets thrown around the streets and people start contacting you about new racing opportunities. You can look at your map for new challenges and set locations by using your GPS.
The Garage is your main hub for customisation. Rockstar have made an effort to make Midnight Club LA all about owning your dream car, and with real car parts - just like in DUB Edition - you can build up your car from scratch into your dream machine. When you first start up, there will only be a few cars at your disposal with limited performance upgrades. These increase in numbers as you progress and you’ll find that once you unlock only a small amount of the upgrades, there are plenty of customisation options available to pimp up your vehicle, as well as an almost endless array of customisable decals.
Police return in Midnight Club LA and the impressive aspect is that they’re not pre-determined. They’ll only chase you if they see you speeding, running red lights or knocking down pedestrians. If they start chasing you mid-race, no matter where you end up finishing, they’ll still be chasing you once you pass through the finish line. Their presence is not scripted so don’t worry about particular races being infested with police chases, as each race has the same amount of chance of them appearing.
We took control of several different car types and models, ranging from a muscle car to an Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Each car drove differently depending on their size, with the muscle car turning harder and the Aston Martin spinning out quite frequently. You have to be able to adapt to the car your driving and understand its strengths and weaknesses, as this title takes full advantage of the style of each model. For example, drifting at high speed is an absolute given when driving a sporty model, while slower, more accurate turns are required when driving a heavier, slower vehicle.
The speed of the cars has been countered with a very accessible turning mechanic, which makes avoiding cars on the streets a lot easier than it has been in the past. We were weaving in-between cars with skill and precision after only a few races and it’s definitely important to acknowledge the city environments when participating in a race.
Plenty of the classic Midnight Club gameplay features have been included in LA, including nitrous and slipstream turbo. Nitrous must be used wisely and at the perfect time. Being able to know when and when-not to use it will be integral to your success in this title, as we found out when using it too early in some races. Slipstream turbo is a great addition that allows you to sneak up behind an opponent and generate a boost. You must stay within their “stream” and once the meter on the screens hits green and starts beeping, you can hit nitrous to get a nice, hefty boost past your opponent.
The virtual city of Los Angeles feels like a sunny, alive city. It’s recognisable right down to the quality of streets that help distinguish between the more upper class and lower class areas. The top-down map view of the city is quite spectacular, giving you a full 3D, satellite view of the entire map. It looks particularly amazing at night, when it mimics the view you get from a plane when coming into land over a city. The buildings and streets as you ride through them at high speeds are all very impressive, with the entire city having a very vibrant and bright feel to it.
Midnight Club Los Angeles is fast. Blisteringly fast. That’s as simple a way to describe this game without giving away too much. It leaves Burnout and Need For Speed at the lights and before they realise the race has even started, this title is back at the starting line, ready to go round one more time. It has a sense of speed never before realised in a video-game and when it’s finally released this October, gamers may very well consider it to be the closet thing to actual street racing.
Overall, Midnight Club LA is shaping up to be a very solid racing experience. The racing mechanics flow freely and well, with the open-world style of gameplay perfectly matched together with a real-time based racing system. There’s a wide range of customisation options for your vehicle as well as a lengthy single-player mode on the horizon. October couldn’t race around faster!
27/08/2008
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