User Reviews (1 - 11 of 37)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Ho-hum graphics, tough races, but fun nonetheless

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Midnight Club II is a decent but unspectacular racer that is pretty tough but fun if you have the patience to stick it out.

The game obviously has its origins in Rockstar's "Grand Theft Auto III". Everything from the feel of the cars to the look of the city and the behavior of the pedestrians can be traced to that game. MCII obviously adds lots of bells and whistles to the basic driving controls. You have nitrous boosts, can control the balance of the car in mid-air, and can earn "slipstream turbo" by drafting behind other cars until a meter fills up and turns red.

The cityscapes are great, with nice recreations of L.A., Paris and Tokyo. There are tons of hidden alleys, jumps, parking garages, and shopping malls to explore.

The cars are mediocre. You won't find actual Acuras or Ferraris here. Instead, the game gives us cars loosely modeled on actual vehicles. The models are okay, but are not as polished as, say, Burnout 2, another game with fictitious cars.

The actual racing is pretty fun, though. Most involve having to hit a series of checkpoints scattered throughout the city. There is lots of room for finding your own path, taking advantage of the aforementioned alleys, ramps and passages.

However, the game is pretty tough. I found I probably have to replay each race about 10 times before winning. Also, in each race you basically have to come in first. There is no bronze medal for placing third, you'll have to start over. Basically it is impossible to win a race on your first time out, as you can do in Project Gotham 2 and Burnout 2. The difficulty may be one of the game's biggest drawbacks. In fact, when I first got it, I eventually just quit because I wasn't having any fun doing the same race over and over. But recently I picked it up again and have been having quite a bit of fun trying to figure out the best routes, even if it does take a dozen tries.

In short, I would dock this game one star for the bad graphics, and one star for the difficulty, but give back one star now that the price has come down. Gamers who like casual driving games should definitely consider picking this up.

I really wanted to like this game.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: August 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I really did, It's stylish, has great graphics, and great responsive controls.
But there are too many problems with this game, making it frustrating. First off the get the checkpoints in any order is a really annoying way to race. And while I don't mind a challenge I don't want to play a race 20 times until I beat it if it's not fun after the first 5. The gamemakers really should have put in an difficulty setting, instead of making you use a cheat code which either makes it way too easy or doesn't seem to do anything at all.
There are problems with the controls. Not the steering, the steering is tight and feels natural; none of the button set-up make much sense. Another problem is no option to use your own soundtracks as BGM. Every other racing game I've ever played on the Xbox has had this option so why not this one?
While the game has a nice sense of speed and style, it's just not nearly as fun as Burnout 2.

I ran over Mother Theresa - is that entertainment?!!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: August 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I agree with several of the other reviewers regarding weaknesses in the game: you can't play your own sound track, there is no difficulty level choice and the cheat codes don't seem to work.

Let me mention one other item, though. You kill people. Sure I know it's an illegal street racing game. I'm prepared to run from cops and drive on the wrong side of the road.... But I wasn't prepared to hit pedestrians - dozens of them - in every race. I actually killed a woman and dragged her body under my car for about a block!

I'm not a great race game driver, but anyone playing MC2 will kill someone in each race. You don't have to drive on the sidewalk or anything - it just comes with the territory and you ignore them and drive on. At least that's what you're supposed to do, I guess.

It's a level of realism I can do without. If you want to kill someone there's plenty of first person shooters out there. I don't consider it entertaining when some poor guy flies over my windshield.

Wait for Project Gotham 2 instead!

Homage to "The Fast and The Furious"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: June 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This has to be the best racing game out there currently. The scenery for this game is fantastic in that you see taco stands, nightclubs, civilian traffic and pedestrian traffic throughout the city. This game even has a Cruise Mode to permit you to drive through the city and test out new rides in different weather conditions and foot traffic. The addition of motorbikes is the primary reason that I got this game since I have one myself (a Yamaha). The game, from what I've heard, also has some Ducati's (or copycats thereof) and Suzuki's (I think). Driving a motorbike is totally different than handling a car in this game in that you have advantages and disadvantages over a car. I personally favor the motorbike over the cars for its speed, control and the cutting ability, but you have to give yourself some ride time to adjust how to control the motorbike correctly. The voice-acting in this game is okay but not incredible. In the game itself, you do meet different main characters and each has their own way of driving. Some drive recklessly and some drive by the book, but each seek not to lose their rides to you. They also talk smack to you while you are driving. The controls for each of the cars are also excellent; they are arcade-like, I admit, but at least you aren't spinning out every time you make a turn (e.g., Driving Emotion Type-S or AutoModellista). The controls in of themselves closely imitate Gran Turismo's controls, tight and responsive. The cars in of themselves pay homage to the movie "The Fast and the Furious" and its sequel. From the stunts you can perform such as riding on 2 wheels to flying over other cars during the race to the rides you can obtain. You even get increasingly better cars with more NOS!

Admittedly, there are a few faults such as a Random Track generator, and that the rides you obtain can't be modified with aftermarket parts such as intake valves and addition of NOS tanks. Also, you are limited in the people that you choose and the races; for example, you may choose to participate in one race from one person one time and another race from another person another time and then return to the first person. Additionally, you can't bet anything other than your car per se.

Other than that, it's a great game. I have yet to play online, but I heard it's a blast. I'll be trying it online within a week or so...

WOW

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: June 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is the Ultimate racing game for people who HATE racing games. The mechanics are great. The outlandish characters, graphics,& the cars are supurb. I heard that games that lic vehicles are not allowed to crash them in games causing anterior damage to the car. Thats probally why arcade racers lack that element, which is no biggie for me since I'm not a racing fanatic.

The bad part of the game is the fact that you can't upgrade your ride, obtain prize money, or put cars in YOUR gargage. It was labled as a rpg type racer. It clearly wasn't. The most annoying part of the game is when you cash into building they aren't scratched at all.. Some of the background can be squashed but not much. I was hoping for a WOTM type where everything can be destroyed. The machine gun & rocket launcher cheat is fun but when you blow up a cop car with a rocket it is up & running in a few seconds. How did that happen?? If the makers added crashes like BO2, cop pursues like NFS & upgrades with hundreds of cars like Gran Turmiso this game would be the best, period..

great game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: June 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is a great game because of the live experiance, but without live it would not be so good. On live you can cruise the city, circuit race, and play a destruction game and other things. The graphics look to PS2 and are not to nice. Also there are no licensed cars, but they still look cool. The menu screen is very difficult to find all of your options. I also have midtown madness 3 and it is much better because of the graphics and more online options and licensed cars. But Midnight Club 2 also has three cities including Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Paris. There are alot of nice jumps on this game which make it alot of fun. The option of riding motor bikes make the game alot better. I would recomend you getting this game if you like raceing games.

Very Very Crappy

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game sucks and so did the first one, you want a good street racing game get Need for Speed Underground. Thats all there is too it.

Love is 200 mph and climbing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have to say this game is a huge improvement from the first midnight club which paved the way for street racing games. MC2 goes above and beyond offering great graphics coupled with a high speed thrill ride that'll leave you breathless. The game is directly engineered so that the most skilled drivers will have a challenge but the newbies will still have some fun. There are 3 cities to choose from and a horde of cars that you win by racing for pink slips and street respect. The game has its flaws but they are only minor. One of the main things I noticed is that on some of the later on races you need blind luck and unbelievable skill to pass a simple race. Your opponents are faster than your(no matter what their car's stats are) and the race is so tight that if you screw up once you have to reload the whole level right away. But the good sides are monumental, unbelievably fun gameplay based on drifting around turns, hitting insane jumps, and hopping up on 2 wheels to avoid heavy traffic in the slim roads of Paris and Tokyo. Also there is awesome multiplayer and online modes that make the replay value of the game very good. In all MC2 does a great job of influencing seasoned gamers like myself with great gameplay and the new gamers with....Nos:)

Great Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

well i wish i could give this game 4 1/2 stars but they wont let me :-P, the game itself is great and with the ability to play online makes it even better, however i do have a problem with the online mode which is why i am writing this review... They need to make some new types of games to play online, its all racing! you could cruise and make up a game, many people have made up "cops and robbers" but theres always that one guy who never stops when you have caught him. One game for X-Box that does something like that is midtown madness 3, you can play games like predator, which is basically tag until there is only one man left. Microsoft or Rockstar or whoever should put out a patch or something online that adds more playability cause after you beat the game and cruise for a while, it loses its fun. Besisdes that there are only 2 other minor "dislikes" of mine... First off they dont use the real car names, and second the cars dont act like they should, ex. a skyline can beat out a viper easily.... overall though it is a great game that you should buy!

Great game for a great price!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Midnight Club II is well named, as you drive in darkness. At first, this is very intimidating, but it is changeable (you can drive at midnight, dawn, or sunset). The cars are nice and the response time is very fast. I just wish there was a better selection of well-known cars. The controls are easy to adapt to. However, the game was very difficult for me, as I found myself racing a certain track 20-30 times before I would beat it (and I am an avid racing game fan). But if you love a challenge, and a game with lots of hidden goodies and shortcuts, this might be for you!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 Next 

Actions