Review: Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a west side thrill ride

October 28, 1:52 PMVideo Game ExaminerQuibian Salazar-Moreno

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The Midnight Club franchise debuted way back in 2000, hoping to capitalize on the rise of popularity of the street racing scene, thanks to movies like The Fast and Furious. And every time Rockstar Games dropped a new game, the experience always got better. That still is the case as the company drops their first Midnight Club title for the new generation of consoles, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles pretty much remains founded on the arcade racing with a variety of different vehicles including tuners, muscle cars, trucks and motorcycles. This time there’s a bit more story added to the game. You play as a new guy in town from the East Coast looking to get in the L.A. racing scene. You start with a raggedy tuner, but luckily the early races in the game are easy enough to make some cash to fix up your ride.

Once you feel comfortable, there’s a couple of ways to race and continue make money and improve your rep. You can cruise around the city looking for people to race who can be indentified on your map and radar, or you can accept challenges and missions which you get by text messages. The more races you participate in the more money you make and the higher your rep goes. In some cases, when your rep reaches a certain threshold, new challenges, races, cars, and upgrades will be unlocked for you. At the same time, races and challenges won’t be removed from your list of options until you win first place in every single one. Winning first place also opens up new challenges and races, plus vehicles to participate in races for only muscle cars or trucks.

The controls are simple and handle like any arcade racer would. The tuners are super easy to handle, but are not as fast as say muscle cars or motorcycles which are a bit more difficult to handle. The game pretty much requires you to be decent handling every type of vehicle, which is a good thing. We can’t be one-dimensional can we? It may take a couple times to come in first during a race or win a series – the game can be difficult – but the practice makes you a better racer for challenges down the road.

Environment-wise, Rockstar did a superb job in recreating Los Angeles. The city looks amazing and landmark’s like Carney’s hot dog spot to the L.A. Convention Center are where they’re supposed to be. You can ride all the way up to the Hollywood Hills or just cruise Sunset Blvd. It’s great just to take time out and cruise the city to check out the environment. For anyone who has ever been there, you’ll be amazed. All the cars, ranging from Nissans to Corvettes look great as well.

The music behind the game ranges from hip-hop to indie rock, but like previous Midnight Blub games, you have the ability to load up your own soundtrack and race to your own tunes. Online racing is just as good as the single-player, albeit a bit easier as well, and after you finish the game, you’ll stay racing online for hours.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles has to be one of the best arcade racers on the market with a great selection of vehicles to race with, amazing graphics, and controls anyone can pick up quickly. Any fan of street racing or just the Midnight Club franchise, this is a must-have title.

Q’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

GameDaily: 8 out of 10

UGO: A-

Check out the trailer: