The missions largely consist of driving from point A to point B within a set limit while an AI controlled vehicle tries to beat you to the checkpoints.
You drive limo’s, pizza delivery cars, armored-cars, and so-on. In “Work Undercover” your involved in a rather flimsy crime caper. The single-player aspect of the game can become mind numbingly boring. As for the soundtrack it gets old pretty quickly but thankfully you have the option to make a custom soundtrack. The voice-overs aren’t that bad, and can actually be hilarious in parts. In the sound department you’ll hear what you’d expect to hear from a game of this nature: a lot of tire screeching, and engine sounds all done to good effect. For an arcade game like this you can’t ask for much more. There is also seasons, and even precipitation in the form of rain and snow represented. So to there is a good sense of speed in the game with a steady frame rate.
The landmarks are detailed, and life-like. The details on the buildings aren’t very high, but you rarely notice them while burning through the city at 150 mph. The graphics of the game aren’t the greatest, but their solid in rendering city streets and auto racing. Overall the physics, and handling of the game is overwhelmingly on the side of arcade-like fun over simulation. Still if you knock into cars or crash into buildings your vehicle will soon show signs of damage, and eventually damage out completely only to be replaced by a new one within seconds. You’ll also have no problem whipping around corners, and almost never have to break at any time. A Mini-Cooper for instance can knock over a vehicle three times its size if its traveling fast enough. The physics of the game are unbelievably unrealistic. In all, the cities feel, and look like real ones. There is also pedestrians which all escape being run over miraculously at the last second to retain the “E“ for everyone rating, traffic, and cops that chase you if you make any traffic violations which is almost impossible not to do. Objects along the streets such as street lamps, benches, bus stops, traffic cones and the like can be run over with the suitable sound attached. The maps are pretty well to scale with their respective landmarks where they should be. Following its predecessors this Midtown Madness also takes place in two cities: Paris, and Washington D.C. If even one of you buys this game because of this review I will have made my contribution to the Midtown Madness franchise. Its for the purely selfish reason that I want you buy this game so Microsoft will green-light another. Before I begin with the review though I want to tell you why I’m writing it in the first place. If your looking for a racing game that provides a fast and furious pace that defies the law’s of physics but still has good graphics and great gameplay then continue reading. If your looking for a racing game with realistic physics, graphics, and gameplay then I suggest you make a search for Gran Turismo.