The game does a good job of keeping track of what you have and haven’t done, and you can always check your percentage to see just how close you are to that desired 100%. The game rewards you all the way through, only fueling the addiction. Chances are, by the time you’ve actually completed the game, you’ll still want to go through and play with the vehicles you didn’t try out in your first run through. Without a doubt, I found Midnight Club 2 to be one of the most compelling racing games I’ve ever played, and I didn’t take it out of the system until I hit 100%.
And if that wasn’t enough, Midnight Club 2 also comes equipped with its own course editor, allowing you to make up to fifteen races in each city. This option is nice, if limited in a few ways. For one thing, you cannot put your checkpoint anywhere, in fact, they have specific locations for you to choose from. You
do have control over what time of day, and weather conditions you want. And you can pick if you have to race the checkpoints in order, or as a mad scramble to collect them all.
Of all the problems Midnight Club 2 could have had, I was somewhat shocked that its most blatant flaw was the sound. I suppose I expected too much, since Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was equipped with 100 classic songs, or maybe I just don’t like the music here, but whatever it is, I had an extremely painful time listening to this game.
The soundtrack is cluttered with almost 40 songs, two or three of which I found to be worth a listen. The rest just seemed to be generic hip hop, gangsta rap, and techno knock offs, none of which were by artists I’ve ever heard of. It feels like the music was put in almost last minute, and lacked a real direction. As far as I was concerned, none of the songs matched the race it was accompanying, and I ended up turning it off more than a few times.
The sounds are also extremely generic, and don’t exactly put you in the middle of the high speed chase it is. There are sounds of the cities mixed in here and there, and the occasional pedestrian comment, but the game just doesn’t sound very authentic. The game does offer a nice Dolby Pro Logic II mix, using the front and back speakers very effectively, it’s just a shame the sounds weren't more realistic.
Also worth mentioning is the DTS mode … or lack thereof. Usually this would not be such a big deal; after all, most games don’t offer a DTS mix in the first place. But being as it is advertised on the back of the box, I find it a little suspect that it is missing in the game. This isn’t such a big deal, as my lack of interest in the music already had my reaching for my own tunes. I have a feeling that if Midnight Club 2 sells anywhere close to Grand Theft Auto III, the third installment of this street racing franchise will feature a host of big name bands.
It’s in the multiplayer modes where Midnight Club 2 really shines. Not only does it offer a standard two-player mode offline mode, but you can also connect it to the PlayStation 2 Network Adaptor and play your friends online, or even hook it up to a network, and have a multi-television LAN party at your house. Each of these modes feature the essentially the same games and features, and they are all a lot of fun.
When the online mode works, it is without a doubt the best feature going for Midnight Club 2. While it’s not difficult to get online, the game has a few problems that can make connecting with your friends (or anybody, for that matter) an almost worthless endeavor. For some strange reason the game won’t let you play with everybody, every time, so sometimes it is essential for you to boot people to start the race. This doesn’t happen that often, though, and the rest of the bugs aren’t all that tragic.
Like I said, when the mode works, it’s exactly what you’ve been waiting for. You are able to race just about every mission you’ve completed in the one-player mode, and a whole host of team games, like Capture the Flag. These games are generally lag-free, and feel exactly like they do offline. It’s evident that Rockstar spent a lot time getting the online mode right.
Everything that is accessible to you offline, is playable with up to eight people online. This is great when you are playing the arcade levels, since these races have laps, and often have clear cut paths to follow. The career mode isn’t nearly as accessible online, mostly due to the fact that most of the missions are pretty short (usually only one lap long). Thankfully, you can switch through the races between levels, making it pretty easy to navigate.
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