Midnight Club II

Midnight Club II
Developer(s)	Rockstar San Diego
Publisher(s)	Rockstar Games
Series	Midnight Club
Engine	Angel Game Engine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2 Xbox Windows
Release date(s)	April 9, 2003 (PS2) June 2, 2003 (XBOX) July 9, 2003 (PC)
Genre(s)	Sandbox, racing, simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Distribution	DVD, download

Midnight Club II is a racing video game developed and published by Rockstar San Diego (formerly Angel Studios). It is the first sequel to Midnight Club: Street Racing, published for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. Players can race through cities based on Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo. The game also features an online multiplayer component. It is the second game in Midnight Club franchise, followed by Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition.

Cities

Dry, hilly suburbs and congested interstates can be found throughout Los Angeles, and just like Midnight Club: Street Racing, the city contains many landmarks, as well as numerous shortcuts and jumps. Paris is the home to cobblestone alleyways, monumental roundabouts, and the Paris Catacombs. Also featured are a lot of jumps taking you across the river of Paris and into alleyways. Tokyo is a city of neon-glittering avenues and tight alleyways, and contains an equal array of tourist sights and attractions.

Gameplay

Races consist of a series of checkpoints, represented by columns of light. In most races, the order in which the checkpoints must be cleared is prescribed. In this case, a transparent, glowing arrow points to the next checkpoint. In a few other races, the checkpoints may be cleared in any order. In that case, the arrow spins randomly without pointing in any particular direction.

In-game screenshot of Midnight Club 2 in Paris.

It is up to the player which route to take from one checkpoint to the next. There are no artificial barriers in the game's open-world environment that force the player to stay on a specific course. Any area that is drivable or jumpable in the free-roaming cruise mode between races may be used to get to the next checkpoint.

Some areas can be driven upon that are not intended for such use outside of a computer game. Examples are escalators, roofs, railways and riverbeds and many ramps. However, many areas that would be drivable in reality, for example entrances and some stairs, are fenced off with invisible barriers. In some areas, the player can jump or drop down. Using this to the player's advantage can be necessary in order to win a race. If the car falls into deep water, the damage meter goes to its maximum stage and the car is instantly totaled, the race being immediately lost.

The game also features damage models. The amount of damage inflicted upon a car is indicated by both an HUD indicator and visual damage to the car. The performance of a car does not degrade with damage like some other racing games. When the damage limit of a car is exceeded, the car explodes or stalls. After a delay of a few seconds, the player can continue with a undamaged version of the same car.

Vehicles

The vehicles in Midnight Club II all resemble real-life vehicles but have subtle differences to their counterparts, such as different headlamps or tail lights. Also, most of them have aesthetical modifications commonly found in street racing and import scenes, such as spoilers, hood scoops, and body kits. In the car selection menu, descriptions and stats of each vehicle can be seen, along with the option to choose among 4 colors. Once a car is viewed, a sound effect unique to that car is played in the background.^[1]

Since the game is not very capable of replicating AWD vehicles, the cars are only available with RWD or FWD setups. An example of this is the Knight (based on the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V, with an AWD transmission in real life), has a FF layout, the power being delivered only to the front wheels. In addition, the Stadt has a FF layout instead of the MR layout of the real-life Renault Clio V6 that it is based on. The reason for this is that FWD cars usually offer a more stable driving in-game with less risks to spin out, and thus its description available in the menu states that it has formidable handling.

Below, listed in a table, are the original cars, followed by the car that they are based on and their location.

*The SLF450X seems to be the only "original" vehicle in the game (though it has visual resemblance to the Batmobile). Although no stats are seen of this vehicle, practical exercises show it has the highest performance capability of all of the vehicles previously listed. It can reach more than 400 km/h without any nitrous and is unlocked by completing all of the career mode races in the career mode menu.

Since the game is not very capable of replicating AWD vehicles, the cars are only available with RWD or FWD setups. An example of this is the Knight (based on the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V, with an AWD transmission in real life), has a FF layout, the power being delivered only to the front wheels. In addition, the Stadt has a FF layout instead of the MR layout of the real-life Renault Clio V6 that it is based on. The reason for this is that FWD cars usually offer a more stable driving in-game with less risks to spin out, and thus its description available in the menu states that it has formidable handling.

Characters

Each character will cruise around the city, waiting for a challenge. This excludes Moses, who helps the player begin the Career Mode, as well as the four champions who will seek you out after all predecessors are beaten. They will talk to the player or "think out loud" during pre-race cut-scenes, during which the player can discover their motives, learn the statistics of their vehicle, and preview each character's theme song.

Character List:

Los Angeles: Moses, Steven, Maria, Angel, Diego (not mentioned), Gina, Mouro (not mentioned), Hector, Dice ( Los Angeles Illegal Street Racing Champion)

Paris: Blog, Jewel and Julie (twins), Primo, Stephane, Ian, Farid, Owen (not mentioned), Parfait (Paris Illegal Street Racing Champion)

Tokyo: Ichiro (not mentioned), Shing, Ricky, Haley, Nikko, Zen, Kenichi, Makoto (Tokyo Illegal Street Racing Champion), and Savo (World Illegal Street Racing Champion)

Soundtrack

Midnight Club II: Original Soundtrack
Soundtrack album
Released	2003
Length	03:50:00
Label	Rockstar Games
Midnight Club soundtrack chronology
Midnight Club: Street Racing Soundtrack Midnight Club 2 Soundtrack (2003) Midnight Club 3: DUB edition Original Soundtrack (2005)

The album was released at E3 in 2003 as a promotional gift.^[2] It consisted of mainly electro and techno music along with rap music.^[3] Altogether, the soundtrack contained a total of 38 tracks.^[4]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 87.45% (Xbox)[5] 85.85% (PS2)[6] 84.88% (PC)[7] Metacritic 86/100 (Xbox)[8] 85/100 (PS2)[9] 81/100 (PC)[10] Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com B+ (PS2) B- (PC) Allgame [11] Eurogamer 9/10 (PS2) 8/10 (Xbox) GamePro [12] GameSpot 7.9/10 (Xbox) 7.3/10 (PS2) 7.2/10 (PC) IGN 9.1/10 (PS2)[13] 8.8/10 (Xbox) 8.8/10 (PC)

The game received positive reviews from critics. For the PS2 version, IGN called it "An excellent online game that offers an ostensibly limitless amount of replay value, given the range of courses and numerous race alterations and variations".^[13] In contrast, GameNOW, grading it a B- for the PS2 version, states "One thing about the game will really piss you off, though, and that's the difficulty. In plain English, the A.I. is brutal, and if you make one mistake in most courses, you may as well restart the race".

For the Xbox version, GamePro rated the game a 4.5 out of 5 stars, stating "Visually, the game doesn’t disappoint—lots of shiny cars, detailed environments, and lighting effects that prove crucial during these after-hours races".^[12] In contrast, Allgame stated "The online component is addictive and is almost reason enough to purchase Midnight Club II, but solo players will be yearning for things to do in the cities outside of competing in more checkpoint races".^[11]

The game has sold 1.28 million copies worldwide on the PS2.

References

External links

• Midnight Club II official website
• Midnight Club II's channel on YouTube
• Midnight Club II at MobyGames
• Midnight Club II on the Open Directory Project