Midnight Club: Los Angeles - First Impressions

I have finally gotten myself a copy of Midnight Club: Los Angeles, and I must say it’s been great so far! I’m going to write a short First Impressions on this game, but not a full review like I did with Grand Theft Auto IV. Generally, I think Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a really fun game, and if you like racing or have loved any Grand Theft Auto games, you should definitely get it.

The races were pretty hard, I swear, but it gets easier when you finally unlock the special abilities as well as newer and faster vehicles. I have never had so much fun with a non-Grand Theft Auto game for a long time already, and I must say that Midnight Club: Los Angeles is heart-pounding fun with it’s intense police chases and challenging street races.

The first thing I did when I booted the game up for the first time was to drive around the streets of Los Angeles, as well as check out the new Google Earth-like map. Everything’s been cool so far. Then I checked out the music, which was great - I have realized that it shares a lot of similarities with Grand Theft Auto IV’s soundtrack, using different tracks from the otherwise same pool of artists. I am not going to complain about this, since the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack was pretty good.

One really strong point about Midnight Club: Los Angeles is that the Multiplayer modes are seamlessly integrated into multiplayer, with almost no clear distinction between these two modes, the money you earn from an online race can be used in single player mode to upgrade your vehicle, and the same vehicles you own in single player mode will be used in multiplayer, so be sure to trick out your ride before going online, since there will be many Lamborghinis around.

Customization of your vehicles are also very flexible, and unlike the Need for Speed games, you only need to purchase entry to the Vinyl and Paint stores only once per vehicle, and you will not need to pay for every single piece of vinyl or even unlock vinyls, since all will be available from the start. At the vinyl customization screen, you can also adjust each vinyl’s position, size and colour.

There’s also the community features, such as “Rate My Ride”, where you snap two photos of your vehicle and submit it online for others to rate, and the Photo Album feature, which lets you attatch 16 photos that you have taken in the game by moving around the right thumbstick while the game is paused. Below are a few sample shots from my Midnight Club: Los Angeles photo album, check it out!

My only gripes with Midnight Club: Los Angeles is the rather loose camera control in the Photo mode and the map, as well as some poorly-documented features. The game’s difficulty could be a frustration, but it’s challenging. The game is pretty forgiving, so the difficulty is not much of a problem, since you can restart any race, time-trial, challenge or delivery missions without any penalty. You are also awarded reputation points and/or money even if you don’t win a race.

So, here’s about all I think about Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Generally, it’s a fairly good game, and from the looks of it, it’s better than Need for Speed: Undercover. Like I said above, get this game if you liked racing and Grand Theft Auto games. I hoped you enjoy this really short review of Midnight Club: Los Angeles! Stay tuned for more Grand Theft Auto and Rockstar Games news and articles!

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