Midnight Club: Los Angeles Hands On

It was purely by accident that I hit the nitrous button on my blat with Midnight Club: Los Angeles. I am a considerable novice when it comes to racing games, so the sudden boost of exhilarating nitrous gave me a fright – and then had me biting my tongue from whooping out loud as I avoided an oncoming truck. ‘Most people crash when they do that for the first time’, one of the Rockstar developers said, kindly. Zooming down Sunset Boulevard in my Mazda RX8 Shinka, I felt like I really was in total control, no matter how rubbish my driving skills actually were. I just looked so damn money.

The fact a newbie can find this game so accessible is testament to how Rockstar have expanded the series with Midnight Club: Los Angeles. The pressure to evolve was very much on their shoulders, due in the most part to the near-perfection of the formula in their last title, GTA4. There are comparisons to be made - as GTA4 evoked a giant simplified New York (Liberty City), so does MC:LA evoke a giant, simplified LA. You don’t have every avenue, but you do have the feel of the place. Certainly, rolling down a very realistic Rodeo Drive made me feel like a superstar of the Kanye West ilk – slick, wealthy, and very respected.

The basic premise of every Midnight Club game remains the same: cruise around looking for some fun, using your sidekick (phone) to get the info on the latest tournaments, challenges etc. MC: LA takes this premise a step further by completely wiping loading times, liberating the player from that tedious assault on the suspension of disbelief. Rockstar have also kept menu distractions to a minimum, which adds to this feeling of a city that doesn’t sleep – a 24/7 speedfreak heaven. Cruise, don’t cruise. Race, don’t race. Whatever you want to do, you can do it fast without the constant reminder that you’re playing a game. Even if I turned off the console, I felt the city would still be buzzing without me, tempting me to jump back in. The game makes loading times seem ridiculously archaic.

The controls remain typical of the series and are fairly easy to grasp, and the cars feel appropriately weighty and respond to intuition. Classic features return such as slipstream turbo, weight shift and the aforementioned nitrous – a burst of immense speed that blurs the scenery and pulls the camera wheel-side. Such abandon of tight control while screaming down a stretch of brightly-lit LA road is a rush, aided by a pumping (and generally un-irritating) doof-doof soundtrack.

Thankfully, if you do lose control of your car during one of these maneuvers, the game won’t punish you. You can pull out of a race at any time and you won’t be sent back to the start, or stripped of your car or cash. Everything you do in the game earns you money and reputation points, so in theory if you come last in every race you can still finish the game, however long it may take you. Of course the game still encourages victory, as quick cash and rep reward you with meaner cars and race modes earlier on.

During my time with MC:LA I played only a few out of the large pool of race modes on offer, beginning with a traditional ordered race (racing through a series of checkpoints to the finish line), moving through to a red-light race (first person to find the quickest way to the end-point wins) and finishing with a race on the freeway. Blinking your beams at a challenger triggers most of the races, and in some cases there is a ‘pre-race’, a short competitive jaunt against your challenger to the start line. You don’t have to participate in these, although you will be rewarded if you do. The idea is to keep you always moving, always racing, without the filler.

The freeway race mode is a response to positive fan feedback of hooning around on the freeways in previous games, and demands a paragraph simply due to the sheer ballsyness of the concept: scattered about the freeways of LA are race-junkies waiting to own your ass in a frantic competition. The heights of velocity your car can reach down a freeway into oncoming traffic are insane. One mistake will cost you the win, and you’ll be left blinking dumbly, wondering what the hell happened. It’s unforgiving and it’s brutal and a hell of a lot of fun. Look out for cops, though, as these guys now appear randomly in the game and aren’t afraid to ram you and your competitors off the road, whether you’re racing or not.

A great way to spend rep points in MC:LA is to buy parts in the numerous customization garages scattered around the city. You can not only tweak an existing car in these garages but also build your dream ride from the ground up; we’re talking exterior and interior. Real-brand mags, breaks, tires etc are all available, and you can go as crazy as you want a la Pimp My Ride. A vinyl editor makes the customization even more extensive, giving you the option to layer your own shape or pattern or tweak an existing one onto your car. In terms of existing rides I was shown only three: the Shinka, a 1969 Mustang Boss, and a 2008 Saleen S302. Check out Rockstar’s website for a bigger list and expect plenty more to be added.

Ultimately, if breakneck arcade racing floats your boat, then Midnight Club: Los Angeles looks to be an essential purchase. The detail that’s gone into it, the absence of load times, and a complete sense of freedom to play as you choose is a huge step up for the series. Keep an eye out for it when it hits the shelves in October, and in the meantime keep it locked in to NZGamer for future updates, particularly regarding the yet to be announced online/multiplayer additions. Trust me, yo. This game’s gonna be mean.