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Midnight Club II for PlayStation 2
Midnight Club II for PlayStation 2 is an arcade racing game in which you find your own way through Los Angeles, Paris and Tokyo. The checkpoints are fixed, but the streets between them are open. You weave through traffic, find a passage beneath buildings or take a jump to cut out a detour. The direction arrow tells you where to go; you decide how to get there. A fast car only really helps once you learn to read the city.
In the career, you challenge other street racers and earn new vehicles and races by winning. You now ride motorcycles as well as driving cars. They fit through narrow gaps, but require a different cornering technique and leave less room for a collision. Along the way, you learn techniques such as slipstream turbo, weight transfer and driving on two wheels. You are therefore not just choosing a route: you also need to know when your vehicle can handle a tight, sharp turn without losing valuable speed.
Cruise gives you room to explore the cities and unlocked vehicles without the pressure of a race. The Race Editor lets you place your own checkpoints and change settings including traffic and weather. Two standard controllers are enough for local play: up to two players race simultaneously on a split screen. The original networking support belongs to this release's history; plan on playing its single-player content and local races, rather than relying on old internet services still working.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 2 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
The manual is missing from this copy of Midnight Club II for PlayStation 2. That is why the product title says “No Manual”. You receive the game in its box, without the instruction booklet. This makes the contents clear before you order.
The original printed manual usually contains at least English and often around six European languages. The languages vary by edition; Dutch is not always included. This information describes the original booklet and does not mean that it comes with this copy. A copy with a manual is offered separately when available.
The history of Midnight Club II
Rockstar San Diego developed Midnight Club II, which Rockstar Games released for PlayStation 2 in 2003. The European PAL version arrived on 2 May, after the North American launch in April. Behind the new studio name was Angel Studios, the developer of the first Midnight Club. Take-Two had acquired the team in November 2002. The sequel therefore came from the same development background, but appeared under the name the studio would use within Rockstar from then on.
The foundation remained a race through an open city, with checkpoints instead of a fully closed circuit. Los Angeles, Paris and Tokyo replaced the first game's two cities. Motorcycles increased the differences between vehicles, while additional driving techniques added more actions to route selection. The original manual explained those techniques alongside the different cities. New skills were thus connected to your progress, rather than simply sitting beside the racing as a long list of buttons.
The PS2 release also included a Race Editor and networking support, features that at the time placed more emphasis on creating races and competing beyond your own living room. That historical offering is no guarantee of current internet functionality. Local play remains limited to two players on one console; the Xbox version's four-player split-screen option is not included here. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition later continued the series with licensed vehicles and much more extensive garage customization.
Similar games for PlayStation 2
Midnight Club: Street Racing introduces the free city routes with New York and London as its setting. As in the second game, you earn vehicles by beating other racers, and knowledge of side streets helps you progress. You only drive cars, and it has fewer of Midnight Club II's additional driving techniques. The original game therefore focuses on learning two street maps, while the sequel connects more vehicle-handling skills to that route knowledge.
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition retains driving through open cities, but makes the garage a bigger part of the career. You choose licensed vehicles and change wheels, appearance and performance in much greater detail. Midnight Club II uses its own vehicle designs and places more emphasis on unlocking the next opponent and their vehicle. The same search for a faster city route remains, but DUB Edition also gives you more control over how your own car looks.
Need for Speed: Underground 2 also lets you explore a city between races, find shops and meet other drivers. The tuner car and its parts take center stage; you work on appearance and performance as you enter different events. Midnight Club II switches between cars and motorcycles and gives you more room during a race to find your own route between checkpoints. One game asks for more garage decisions, the other more often demands a quick choice at a junction.
Burnout 3: Takedown shares the high speed, heavy traffic and brief windows for reacting, but runs its races on fixed routes. Collisions with opponents become a way to earn extra boost. In Midnight Club II, the main freedom lies in the route: a side street can make a fight over the same patch of asphalt unnecessary. Both call for nerve between other vehicles, but Burnout steers you toward direct contact, while Midnight Club more often points toward an unexpected turn.
Smuggler's Run also uses an open environment in which you decide how to reach a destination. You transport contraband and evade pursuers across unpaved ground, with slopes and jumps as major obstacles. Midnight Club II brings that route-finding to city traffic, tunnels and junctions. In both games, a straight line on the map can turn out to be a poor choice; the difference is between reading a ridge and judging a busy street.
