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83%
PROS
Great new maps, Stunt and Cabbie school are fun. New cars with paint jobs are nice also.
LOWS
No new multiplayer modes, no real improvement. More of a big expansion pack.
OVERALL
Midtown Madness fans will love it. If you already have Midtown Madness and don't love it, don't expect much more form this one.
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If you have read my review about the original Midtown Madness, you know that my expectations for Midtown Madness 2 are very high. After playing the game, I have come to a few surprising conclusions…
The main menu of Midtown Madness 2 looks a bit different than that of the original game. There is now a ‘Crash Course' mode which is very cool. In crash course mode, you choose either to attend the East End Cab Company of Driving or the Golden Gate Stunt Driving School. Once you choose a line of work, (you have been fired from your job as a telephone psychic) you start to train. There are 3 training missions for every 3 Midterms, and there is one Final. In Stunt School, you will do things like: jump off bridges to get onto boats, criss cross between trees, perform high speed corners, perform forward 180s, lose the cops before you reach your final checkpoint, and much more. I have found that all of these training missions are really cool, and they are definitely something that Midtown Madness was lacking.
As a London Cabbie, you will leap off the Tower Bridge, round corners, weave through obstacles, race from landmark to landmark, follow cars, and learn the reverse 180, and much more. A lot of these training missions are similar to the Stunt Driver training, but since it is in London, it still feels different.
Like in the original Midtown Madness, there are the single player modes: cruise, blitz, checkpoint, and circuit. In a cruise, you simply drive a car that you have unlocked around London or San Francisco. It is basically a test drive with no time limits, and can be used to explore the beautiful city. You are also allowed to change the weather, and change the time of day, traffic density, pedestrian density, cop density, weather, and the ability to hide pedestrians. This ability is very cool because even though you are in the same place every time, it feels different because of the weather settings. In a blitz race, you race other cars by running through checkpoints all over town.
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You have to finish all the checkpoints before time runs out, and before the other cars finish. There are no ‘laps' like in a normal race, so you don't have to repeat the same checkpoints over and over again. In a checkpoint race, you have to go through checkpoints, but can go through in any order! You are timed, and have to beat your opponents. There are also no laps in this mode; the last type of single player race is a circuit race in which you have to finish laps on charted courses through the city. You have to be able to beat your opponents to the finish. This is more of a traditional racing game mode, but Midtown Madness still makes it fun. When you win blitz races, checkpoint races, circuit races, and training missions in the crash course, you can unlock more cars. In addition to unlocking cars, you can now unlock paint jobs for cars. There are 7 paint jobs for the Volkswagen New Beetle RSI, 5 Paint Jobs for the Audi TT, 5 Paint jobs for the Panoz GTR-1, and many more. One paint job on the Panoz is called ‘Secret Shadow.' In the Secret Shadow paint job, your car is invisible. Very cool.
Some cars in the game include: Mini Cooper Classic, VW New Beetle, London Cab, Cadillac Eldorado, Ford F-350, Panoz Roadster, Double Decker Bus, VW New Beetle Dune, VW New Beetle RSI, and the Light Tactical Vehicle. All of these cars are really cool, and it is a lot of fun to drive around in London and San Francisco with them.
