The Power Review

Midnight Club: Los Angeles Review

Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Rockstar Games for the PS3/Xbox360

Overview
What can I say about this game that hasn’t already been said.  Let me preface by saying that I am from Los Angeles and was excited about this title coming out so that I could race around my hometown without getting a ticket like I normally do.  However (and I’ll just come out and say it) this game let me down.  Whether it was because nothing in this game was believable, from the storyline, the characters, the voiceacting, anything?!?!  Or for various other reasons, this game was a struggle to complete and get through.

Controls and Gameplay
Thank God that you could change the default controls.  I would have set this game back immediately if I had to use the right stick to accelerate and brake for the entire game.  However, because they allowed me to change the settings, I can’t hold that against them too much.  As far as the rest goes, it handles like a standard racer, you can tell the difference in how tuners handle compared to muscles and exotics.  But what really through me for a loop were the bikes.  They might as well call this game “Use a bike if you want to win”.  Owning a maxed out Kawasaki Ninja is like unlocking God Mode for any other game.  Physics does not apply when you hit a wall with the motorcycle.  If you hit a wall from any angle besides head-on then you simply avoid crashing… As if the accident never even happened.  It barely even hinders your speed.  This is a major flaw in the game, and is evident in online play, as you can tell that EVERYONE uses motorcycles.

Graphics
“meh”.  That’s all that really needs to be said.  Sure, that graphics are okay… But is that what we’re aiming for now when we’re making games?  Mediocrity? They built the city of Los Angeles decently well, but there are some major glaring flaws in the simple structure of the city.  First of all, the LA River:  This is a site that is used time and time again in the game to race through, everyone knows this structure.  They didn’t even build it the way it is in real life!  There is no water running through the middle.  There is no canal through the center.  It looks merely like a long running half-pipe with bridges over it.  Sure, if they put the canal in it may hinder racing.  How do you think people race through it now!?!?!?  If your goal is to make a lifelike representation of a city, please don’t half-ass it, because people like me who live there will call you out on your bullshit.  Essentially the game looks GTAIVish, without the details and close attention paid to building the city.

Story
WTF were they thinking?  The story is just lame.  Half the time you have to wait for people to call you on your phone for the actual storyline to progress.  Waiting is not my idea of having fun playing a game.  Unlike games like GTAIV where you have to wait for the story to progress, there are not “side-missions” that you can do to continue moving forward in the game.  The extra missions are pointless and accomplish nothing in the grand scheme of the “story”.  The characters are ethnic sterotypes and honestly kind of bothered me.  The voiceacting is atrocious to say the least.  The only comparison I can think of for how bad the voiceacting and dialogue is would be the new Price of Persia.   It is full of nonsensical one-liners that make you groan and return the game to get a refund.

The Bottom Line
7.1/10
Do not buy this game if you are expecting Burnout.  The online mode leaves much to be desired, and the single-player is lacking in all aspects.  This game is trying to be what Burnout Paradise accomplished years ago, but didn’t even come close.  Go out and buy a copy of Burnout instead of wasting your money on this game.