Reviewed: January 27, 2001
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Microsoft Games
Developer
Angel Studios
Released: September 22, 2000
Genre: Racing
Players: 8
ESRB: Everyone
6
5
4
7
5.2
System Requirements
Recommended System
It's been almost 2 years since the original Midtown Madness - Chicago Edition had a home on my hard drive. Even while I was enjoying driving recklessly around the Windy City I was eagerly awaiting the already-promised sequel, which was to take place in San Francisco and maybe New York City. Well, the sequel is upon us and while New York isn't part of it, you are given access to large areas of London and San Francisco to terrorize in several vehicles including many old favorites from the original game plus several new hip urban roadsters.
Aside from new locations and a few new cars Microsoft's Midtown Madness 2 offers little that is new. While the original was unique and offered great fun, MTM2 suffers from MOTS (more of the same) Syndrome. There are a few nice new features but certainly nothing worth the two-year wait.
Don't be fooled. This is no "simulation" despite the claims of improved and more realistic physics. Cars bounce off walls like a pinball and roll and tumble and magically land on their wheels and keep going. Supposedly the new and improved damage model has pieces of your car flying off, but the most I ever saw was a smashed window and broken headlights. There are about a half-dozen texture maps to reflect the half-dozen degrees of damage your vehicle can take before it becomes a derelict mass of smoking metal on the sidewalk.
Midtown Madness 2 offers some new challenges in the form of the Crash Course Mode. In London you will play as a cabbie in training at the "East End Cab Company School of Driving", and in San Francisco you assume the role of a Hollywood stuntman driving like a madman around a movie set performing various stunts and objectives. The old favorites are back including Blitz, Checkpoint, and Circuit modes. There is also a Cruise mode that allows you to drive around the city, enjoy the sites, and learn the lay of the land but the cops seem determined to destroy any enjoyment you may have in this mode. Make sure to turn Cop Density down (or off) if you want to drive more than three blocks without being rammed by a patrol car. Cops seem to target you immediately, even if you aren't breaking any laws.
Controlling your car has the potential of becoming your worst nightmare. I cringe as I even write the following paragraphs. My first attempt to play Midtown Madness 2 was with my Microsoft SideWinder Precision Racing Wheel. Apparently this wheel does not work with this game due to the split-axis nature of the brake and gas pedals. If you attempt to play the game with this wheel/pedal combo your car will only go in reverse unless you press both brake and gas at the same time then you can achieve a top forward speed of about 25mph. After consulting the readme.txt file provided with the game I found the paragraph that talks about the R-Axis (independent brake axis) and said "there is no known fix at this time". It's a sad day when a Microsoft game won't work with a Microsoft controller and they release it to the public anyway.
I then blew the dust off my Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel since those pedals shared the same Y-axis and would theoretically work. While the game was now controllable with a steering wheel there is some sort of conflict with this wheel and the game that causes extreme flashing (almost strobe-light like) of all the graphics on the screen. This makes the game playable for about 30 seconds before my head starts throbbing and I reach the brink of a seizure.
I ultimately ended up playing the entire game using my Gravis Xterminator Digital Game Pad. While I despise playing PC racing games with a non-wheel controller I was surprised at how well the game played, mainly due to the analog stick on the Gravis that offered some sort of accurate steering control. Be warned though that you cannot use any type of analog throttle control on this game pad as it registers as the dreaded R-axis and MTM2 doesn't like the R-axis.
The graphics are a bit disappointing, especially when compared with older titles such as Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed or even Microsoft's own Motocross Madness 2 from a few months ago. The cities are very well modeled and some of the building textures are nice but much of the terrain looks flat and boring. All the cars other than your own are very plain with hardly any textures and their low poly-count makes them look very "boxy". Add to this the fact that there is a very visible change in the number of polygons as cars get closer or further away. Driving across the Golden Gate cars will appear on the horizon as boxes then awkwardly morph into something more defined then as they pass a few textures will appear on the models.
Midtown Madness 2 only supports 16-bit color modes, which is very depressing in this day of TNT2 and GeForce cards. The entire game just has a cartoon look and feel to it that may have been charming in the first game, but really has no place in a second generation title.
Weather effects are present and while the sunsets are gorgeous the wet and rainy London streets are incredibly lame. The rain effects consist of streaks of water flying through the air like video-static and water has no effect on road conditions or your car's handling. The fog effects are pretty good and make some of the races much more challenging. Pedestrians are so poorly modeled it would be funny if it weren't so sad. The population of the cities are these blocky mannequins that hobble around like crippled zombies until you get close then they leap out of the way with amazing agility or stick to the walls as you drive down the sidewalk.
Sound effects are pretty bad. While the authors claim to have realistic sounds I have to doubt their claims. The cars sound little like their real-life counterparts; at least the vehicles I have heard in person, and the voice and speech will drive you insane. While driving the San Francisco courses you are constantly being annoyed by some surfer-dude with an LA speech impediment talking smack. I'm sure they intentionally did this for humorous reasons, but it is nevertheless, extremely annoying.
CD Music is available but it quickly becomes repetitive and boring as well. Some sounds are quite nice like the bell ringing in Big Ben as you drive through London or the unique sirens of the London cops. You'll often hear some humorous rants from pedestrians and other motorists as you endanger their lives or smash their cars.
It took me about 20+ hours to complete all the races in all the modes in both cities. That's after the 3 hours of tinkering with controllers before I found one that worked. There are plenty of secrets to unlock like bonus cars, track effects, and paint jobs, etc. that may keep you playing a bit longer, but for the most part there is little here to make you replay the game once you have finished it. The multi-player modes are certainly a nice feature that will extend the life of the title for those of you who like to play online or on a LAN.
Midtown Madness 2 offers a few modes of online play including the standard racing modes and a Cops and Robbers game, which sounds like great fun. Since this game wasn't out in stores at the time I did this review I had no one to play with so I cannot offer any firsthand opinions of gameplay or online issues such as lag time, etc. Online play is supported through the MSN Gaming Zone for up to 8 racers. If you are fortunately enough to have access to a LAN you can serve up some multiplayer fun with only a single copy of the game.
Originally I had thought the Midtown Madness series was going to be expanded with a series of city add-on modules. That's pretty much what Midtown Madness 2 is; two new cities a few new cars and not much else. A few improvements have been made such as larger and more detailed cities, but with graphical glitches and severe control issues already rearing their ugly heads, this may be a title to steer clear of; at least until a patch is available.