Review
Played on: Xbox Series X & Xbox 360
Released: 2008 (OG release), 2009 (Complete Edition)
Back on the Xbox 360 I played a ton of racers, but there was always one that I felt bad for ditching before properly digging into it. That game was Midnight Club: Los Angeles. The last in a series of arcade racers focusing on illegal streetcar racing in the 2000s, living off the hype of the Fast and Furious movie popularity.
Regardless of car licenses and a massive number of licensed songs in the soundtrack, MCLA somehow made it all the way to backwards compatibility on Xbox. Although I have the physical release from 2008, I was reminded of its existence through a digital sale on my Xbox Series X. The digital version is the Complete Edition from 2009, featuring all the added DLC, cars, races and a substantial map expansion, all in one package. So, I ended up just buying it digitally.
Let’s take a close look at this street racer!
Replaying MCLA I was reminded of how incredibly well Rockstar San Diego has captured a buzzing city, with great graphics and lighting for its generation. Even with features like a day/night cycle, rain and lots of traffic. Albeit, running at 30fps, it’s an incredibly looking title considering its age and the hardware it ran on originally. Plus, it’s an open world racer, not an easy feature to do when looking this good on the seventh generation consoles.
Behind the scenes, it’s Rockstar's RAGE engine, running the show. This engine also ran Grand Theft Auto IV, released the same year. Just like the Xbox 360 version, this backwards compatible version runs at 720p, sadly without any added enhancements.
Luckily, the automatic Xbox Series X/S enhancements bring out some extra spice to the visuals. Auto HDR makes the lighting and colours pop, especially the difference between dark and light benefits strongly from HDR. The forced 16xAF helps roads texture look crisp far into the distance too. Framerate is rock solid, but locked to 30fps. However, the extreme low latency on the Series X/S really helps make it feel responsive regardless! Loading is also considerably faster.
Replaying MCLA reminded me of how slow it kicks off, recalling why I wasn’t hooked into it straight away back in the day. It sets off with slow cars, an overeager “friend” that calls you consistently on a old flip-lid cell phone(!) and a progress system where you need to find racers on the streets, throwing you in at the deep end with oncoming traffic in races. Furthermore, there’s a restrictive money and unlock system, thus you have a slow burner title in its opening hours.
You need to put in work in low powered cars, then level up, unlock more parts and finally have enough money to upgrade. Don’t even think about buying a second car before getting a large amount of cash. MCLA needs an hour or two before getting up to steam.
Once you hit this mark though, it really begins to shine. With a bit of practice, racing between traffic, cutting streets corners and using nitrous at the right moment, becomes second nature. The handling model begins shining too. It’s arcade for sure, but has a solid, grounded feeling when it comes to the weight of the cars being shifted into corners. There's rubber banding on your competitors for sure, but it's well balanced and I never found it unfair.
Added to the mix, at a later stage, are the four abilities you can use, albeit only one at the time. First ability is slow motion turning, which lets you take turns at incredible angles, reminding me of Franklins ability in GTAV! Second is a ramming mode, so you can crash other cars without taking damage, the third is a sonic boom that pushes everyone around you away and the fourth is an EMP that messes up electronics in other cars.
Progressively, your cars will unlock both performance, allowing you to get the edge on competitors cars, and aesthetic parts. Often, upgrading an existing car is a cheaper option than buying a new one. There is an impressive number of visual customisation options for your rides, even allowing you to change colours on the interior.
Replaying MCLA reminded me of how slow it kicks off, recalling why I wasn’t hooked into it straight away back in the day. It sets off with slow cars, an overeager “friend” that calls you consistently on a old flip-lid cell phone(!) and a progress system where you need to find racers on the streets, throwing you in at the deep end with oncoming traffic in races. Furthermore, there’s a restrictive money and unlock system, thus you have a slow burner title in its opening hours.
You need to put in work in low powered cars, then level up, unlock more parts and finally have enough money to upgrade. Don’t even think about buying a second car before getting a large amount of cash. MCLA needs an hour or two before getting up to steam.
Once you hit this mark though, it really begins to shine. With a bit of practice, racing between traffic, cutting streets corners and using nitrous at the right moment, becomes second nature. The handling model begins shining too. It’s arcade for sure, but has a solid, grounded feeling when it comes to the weight of the cars being shifted into corners. There's rubber banding on your competitors for sure, but it's well balanced and I never found it unfair.
Added to the mix, at a later stage, are the four abilities you can use, albeit only one at the time. First ability is slow motion turning, which lets you take turns at incredible angles, reminding me of Franklins ability in GTAV! Second is a ramming mode, so you can crash other cars without taking damage, the third is a sonic boom that pushes everyone around you away and the fourth is an EMP that messes up electronics in other cars.
Progressively, your cars will unlock both performance, allowing you to get the edge on competitors cars, and aesthetic parts. Often, upgrading an existing car is a cheaper option than buying a new one. There is an impressive number of visual customisation options for your rides, even allowing you to change colours on the interior.
Expensive, higher performance cars become possible to buy as you keep playing, where later races earn you bigger cash prices. Cars are typically categorised in various types, be it muscle, high performance, low riders, luxury sedans etc., there's even motorbikes in there!
Speaking of races, they can be found scattered across the map as competitors driving about their daily city life. They require you to flash your headlight behind them to start a race. They’ll typically set a predefined race route from A to B, or a circuit with laps. Some races will begin at traffic lights, featuring pre-race to the nearest cross section. Highway races require waving between heavy traffic on LA’s raised highways to successfully get ahead. Ordinary racing tournaments feature either point-to-point or lap races, where the highest total amount of points will win you the tournament.
Furthermore, there are race clubs to challenge, wager races with money betting on the prize and even more daring yet: pink slips. For the latter you have to wager your whole car! Lose, the car is gone, win and the opponents car is yours. Side missions, like time trails or moving expensive cars for other people in the fastest way possible, without damaging them, are also available. In short, there's a lot of variety to keep you occupied here!
Street racing, especially in combination with free roaming maps, are tricky to pull off in a satisfying manner in racers. Often pulled down by narrow paths, 90 percent angular turns and confusing circuit layouts. MCLA does a lot of smart things to avoid these annoyances. During races, the route is marked by giant pummels of yellow smoke, usually giving you a far ahead view and time to prepare yourself for your next turn.
Speaking of races, they can be found scattered across the map as competitors driving about their daily city life. They require you to flash your headlight behind them to start a race. They’ll typically set a predefined race route from A to B, or a circuit with laps. Some races will begin at traffic lights, featuring pre-race to the nearest cross section. Highway races require waving between heavy traffic on LA’s raised highways to successfully get ahead. Ordinary racing tournaments feature either point-to-point or lap races, where the highest total amount of points will win you the tournament.
Furthermore, there are race clubs to challenge, wager races with money betting on the prize and even more daring yet: pink slips. For the latter you have to wager your whole car! Lose, the car is gone, win and the opponents car is yours. Side missions, like time trails or moving expensive cars for other people in the fastest way possible, without damaging them, are also available. In short, there's a lot of variety to keep you occupied here!
Street racing, especially in combination with free roaming maps, are tricky to pull off in a satisfying manner in racers. Often pulled down by narrow paths, 90 percent angular turns and confusing circuit layouts. MCLA does a lot of smart things to avoid these annoyances. During races, the route is marked by giant pummels of yellow smoke, usually giving you a far ahead view and time to prepare yourself for your next turn.
In addition to just visual variety, ranging from office areas, mountain sections, highway roads, shopping areas and housing estates, the LA map has wide roads, with a lot of sidewalk space to cut corners in a more curved fashion. Traffic is believable, and impressively numbered, but never overly dense. Except on highways, but here the road is wide and easy to wave between the cars. There’s plenty of shortcuts too. So, overall a clever design to make racing on the street fun!
Comparing MCLA to other racers, it reminds me a lot of Need for Speed Underground when it comes to its setting and atmosphere. Both are, after all, influenced by the street racing craze the Fast and Furious movies sparked. However, MCLA is more pleasant to control and has a more solid car feel than the NFS titles, reminding me of something like Driver: San Francisco. While it doesn’t have the benefit of 60fps like Burnout Paradise, it’s a less frustrating racer to master, thanks to more obvious racing routes.
Such is the ambition of using an open world map, and succeeding at it, I’d say it’s up there with Forza Horizon’s variety, just not as refined and realistic in its physics. The cockpit view needs a mention though, it has a well animated effect behind the wheel, think Driver: San Francisco once again, and it helps give a believable driving feeling. Just remember to turn off the camera shake and action effects though, they've aged to an annoying level!
At the end of the day, MCLA easily slides into the top ten racers of its generation. It’s that great. There’s a lot of variety in car types, an action filled and intense city driving feel, brilliant night lighting, has the right amount of coolness not be too annoying and hits the perfect arcade spot of solid car control you’d want from a racer like this.
Comparing MCLA to other racers, it reminds me a lot of Need for Speed Underground when it comes to its setting and atmosphere. Both are, after all, influenced by the street racing craze the Fast and Furious movies sparked. However, MCLA is more pleasant to control and has a more solid car feel than the NFS titles, reminding me of something like Driver: San Francisco. While it doesn’t have the benefit of 60fps like Burnout Paradise, it’s a less frustrating racer to master, thanks to more obvious racing routes.
Such is the ambition of using an open world map, and succeeding at it, I’d say it’s up there with Forza Horizon’s variety, just not as refined and realistic in its physics. The cockpit view needs a mention though, it has a well animated effect behind the wheel, think Driver: San Francisco once again, and it helps give a believable driving feeling. Just remember to turn off the camera shake and action effects though, they've aged to an annoying level!
At the end of the day, MCLA easily slides into the top ten racers of its generation. It’s that great. There’s a lot of variety in car types, an action filled and intense city driving feel, brilliant night lighting, has the right amount of coolness not be too annoying and hits the perfect arcade spot of solid car control you’d want from a racer like this.
Some complaints though, the constant cell phone calls are annoying as hell, there's an overcrowded map of events and lastly the amount of opponent racers is just four other cars per race. Although you don't notice the low amount of opponents once you take the lead, it would have been nice with a ten car race at least. Plus, this is an aged game, you need to be in acceptance of older visuals and presentation to appreciate it.
However, even years later, it looks solid. With a large amount of traffic and light sources to really make the city landscape shine. The amount of race types, map variety, car selection and an insanely big music library, will keep you occupied for hours and hours.
However, even years later, it looks solid. With a large amount of traffic and light sources to really make the city landscape shine. The amount of race types, map variety, car selection and an insanely big music library, will keep you occupied for hours and hours.
I highly recommend checking this out, especially in its complete edition available digitally. How I missed a gem back in my Xbox 360 days!
