Midtown Madness Review

9.0

Format PC

Developer Angel Studios

Publisher Microsoft

Genre Racing / Driving

Eyes peeled for the fuzz, Steve Hill takes a cruise round the Windy City. Parp!

In these cynical days of 'reissue, repackage, re-evaluate', an original game is about as rare as proverbial rocking horse shit. And when it comes to racing games, you might as well forget it, with most developers showing about as much ingenuity as the average boy band.

Not so Angel Studios, the talent behind Microsoft's Midtown Madness. Instead of pissing about inventing hover vehicles that race on the moon, or resurrecting some obscure sport, what they've done is to take a modern-day city and fill it with authentic vehicles. No guns, no gimmicks, just accurately modelled cars and a meticulously recreated city.

That city is Chicago, Illinois, which to the less geographically minded is somewhere in America near a big lake. Clearly, some kind of artistic licence has been taken, and what we have is a slightly compressed version of the real thing, comprising all the major landmarks. It's very well done though, and effortlessly conveys the sense of being in a fully functioning, living city. Planes fly overhead, traffic stops at red lights, and the police even have their own network.

SIM CITY

City simulation is a different game altogether though, and what we're talking here is action-packed racing, the game featuring a variety of different modes, with success unlocking further vehicles and tracks. Circuit races are over charted courses, with other roads blocked off; Blitz races take place against the clock; and Checkpoint races involve clearing all points before your opponents. The latter two modes take place with incidental traffic in full effect, often leading to the midtown madness of the title. The police obviously take a dim view of unauthorised street races, and once alerted to a felony will be all over you like a cheap suit. Having a police car slew across your path with the finish line in sight is enough to provoke a wry grin at best, and a volley of foul and abusive language at worst.

However, the cops appear to be graduates of The Blues Brothers' school of motoring, and the artificial stupidity has been particularly well-implemented. There's much fun to be had in giving them the runaround, and great satisfaction to be gleaned from glancing into the rear-view mirror to see a police car drive straight into the bollard that you've expertly negotiated. In fact, in some races you can actually plan your route in order to avoid the busies.

TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER

Chicago may be synonymous with wind, but rain and snow play their part here, and driving is noticeably affected by adverse weather conditions. It's a case of horses for courses, and the ten vehicles on offer have genuinely different characteristics in terms of handling, speed, durability and so forth. So whether it's a VW New Beetle for weaving between the traffic, an 18-wheel truck for ploughing through the traffic, or a Ford Mustang Fastback for performing Starsky & Hutch-style turns, all tastes are catered for.

And if you simply want to put your choice of vehicle through its paces, as well as learn the intricacies of the city, the Cruise mode enables you to do just that. In fact it's quite easy to crank up the tunes (see Music Sounds Better With You panel) and spend an hour simply cruising around, either legally or otherwise. Clearly, there's more fun to be had in the latter, and there's plenty of scope for it, be it jumping the odd red light or playing chicken on the freeway. And to add variety, the density of police, traffic and pedestrians can all be altered.

HATEFUL LUVVIE

It's a comparison that's been used before, but Midtown Madness is as close as any game has come to recreating ITV's Police, Camera, Action! The carnage is relentless, and although some of it is scripted to an extent, moments of pure comedy occur naturally, although this being a Microsoft game no one actually gets hurt.

Of course, the cynics will dismiss it as Carmageddon Lite, berating the fact that pedestrians leap out of the way instead of exploding over your windscreen like a big bag of blood. However, if pretending to run over pretend pedestrians in a pretend car is one of your criteria for a piece of entertainment, then it might be worth taking a look at what's missing from your life.

Midtown Madness is anarchic fun, plain and simple, as well as being on the right side of challenging. The balance of vehicles is superb, and some ingenious design has gone into the courses. And if you're thinking that the game looks a bit like the forthcoming Driver, you'd be absolutely right, and the inclusion of a classic muscle car provides a further parallel.

We're still expecting Driver to be a superb game (as are GT, having splashed out a million pounds on a TV ad), and judging by what we've seen, it should be. Until it's released though, Midtown Madness more than fills the gap and is as refreshing a game as its pseudo predecessor Motocross Madness was. We said it then and we'll say it again: Microsoft in good game shock.