"Midnight Club," the better of the two versions, provides the first title in the urban-driving genre for the PS2. Unlike set-course driving games, which put you through a series of maps, "Midnight Club" and its ilk allow you to roam freely in much fewer, but larger, maps. Reaching a goal in some part of the city — however you choose — without destroying your car or running out of time becomes the object of the game. You must "avoid" traffic and pedestrians and police.
Size and verisimilitude are the key factors in such games, and "Midnight Club" has both. Though it has only two maps, of Manhattan and London, both are extremely large and reasonably accurate. They include most of the major and some minor landmarks, and have the important avenues and streets in the right place.
The problem is in the design of the game qua game. The two major modes, career and arcade, are exactly identical — literally exactly the same races, except that career mode has much stricter requirements for completion. So strict, in fact, that I predict you will not complete it. And why bother, since the prizes of bizarro cars are all available through the arcade mode anyway? The races also get repetitive, especially because many are so difficult you must do them over and over to win.
My pleasure in video games has always been in getting different kinds of challenges and exploring new areas. And to be sure, I found myself returning to the game for the sake of driving around and in "the sites." "Midnight Club" also has plenty of satisfying destruction potential. Lampposts, newspaper boxes and windows are just some of the objects that can be smashed for the sake of a faster time. But speaking as a New Yorker, please do not come here expecting as little traffic or as few pedestrians as you'll find here. The most outrageous fantasy fulfillment of this game is driving from 125th Street to Battery Park in under one minute.
Oh yes, "Smuggler's Run." The "Midnight Club" vehicles are turned into buggies and SUVs and such, and you drive around the wilds of nature instead of a city. The object is to go around collecting pickups within increasingly difficult time limits. "Smuggler's Run," however, becomes impossible after just seven such missions. The fun simply stops and the maps aren't nearly as interesting.
Practical Values (out of $50):
"Midnight Club": $20
"Smuggler's Run": $5