Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a racing video game released on the Playstation 3 and developed by Rockstar San Diego.
Story : Not much story here. It’s a racing game. Try something else if you’re interested in a story.
Graphics : The game has some glaring graphical errors. The cars look great, they’re animated well, and have great amounts of detail in the textures. The other graphics on the other hand, could use some work. Though pretty, there’s not nearly enough variety around and eventually you senses go numb from seeing the same thing over and over. When going at high speeds, the game appears blurry and there’s tons of bright lights. It hurts my eyes and I couldn’t play for long periods of time. Unfortunate.
Sound : The sounds are not much better. The engine roar, which is pivotal to any racing game, sounds really great on some cars but really tiny on others. Other sounds could only be described as underwhelming at best. The metal scrapes sounded like they were just recorded with two small wrenches in a foley room. Actually most of the sounds just seem really artificial. The music in the game is the trite top 40 stuff you’ve heard everywhere and pretty much automatically makes the game unplayable if you have any taste at all.
Game play : This game is centered on street races, not fancy ones with closed tracks. One awesome thing is you can take dozens and dozens of paths to the final goal, including going through buildings and down alleys. Very cool. There are several different modes and races here, more than most other racing games. This is great because I feel like racing games over the years have lacked variety so it’s good to see one offer many different things to do. This game does have a few things I dislike. Car theft is apart of it, and I’ve never been a fan of those types of games so why Rockstar decided to include it in this one when they already have Grand Theft Auto is a mystery. The police are in full force in this game, and though it’s a good idea it ultimately is pretty annoying. Mostly because it’s a very big time sink. There’s a huge, massive variety of vehicles in this game, which is mind boggling. Choosing your own personal car has always been a joy. Unfortunately, to unlock or obtain certain things in the game you must use certain cars that you dislike. Definitely a feature I wish was not included.
Re playability : There aren’t enough maps in the game, and really once you’ve seen it all or even half there’s no reason to play the game anymore.
Overall: 2/10. Painful graphics, pathetic sound with an unrefined selection of music, limited game play, no re playability. I’ll give the game one point for it’s non-linear races.
