Rockstar Games’ library is full of random side quests, from table tennis titles to Austin Powers GameBoy games. Although the developer is best known for the Grand Theft Auto series, it made a notable departure with the release of Midnight Club 2. Released 22 years ago, Red Dead Redemption studio Rockstar San Diego shows players the thrill of street racing months before Need For Speed: Underground would debut. These days, however, playing the game on Steam or other platforms proves to be easier said than done.
Midnight Club 2’s time on Steam was short-lived, as the platform has already delisted the game. Before it disappeared, revisiting it when I got a Steam Deck at launch didn’t fail to bring a smile to my face. While I can thankfully access it on my Steam Deck alternative, the Asus ROG Ally, Rockstar seems to have forgotten about the racing game franchise entirely.
Midnight Club 2 follows up Midnight Club: Street Racing, a positively received start for the franchise with over 1.5 million copies sold. It’s a solid foundation for Rockstar to begin with, but Midnight Club 2’s hypnotic soundtrack and neo-noir iteration of Los Angeles is on another level. I have fond memories of cruising around back roads and the highway, the glow of my headlights illuminating taxi cabs and civilians roaming through the night. Jack Henderson’s ambient sound vista titled Syntrax flows out of my tinny CRT TV speakers.
It’s the kind of atmosphere that movies like Drive and Nightcrawler exude in spades, riding the line between Hollywood sheen and grimy underworld. The influence of The Fast and the Furious is incredibly apparent, too, as Rob Cohen’s 2001 slice of Vin Diesel cinema hit cinemas two years earlier. Rockstar embraces street racing culture wholeheartedly with a playful tone.
Midnight Club 2’s characters are almost parodic, but it’s all part of the game’s charm. Beyond Los Angeles, the roads of Tokyo boast blinding lights of neon, whereas Paris wraps the player in tapestries of historic architecture. You can even venture into the Paris Catacombs.
While there’s a robust selection of tuned-up sports cars, muscle vehicles, and motorcycles, more ludicrous selections include the SLF450X, a vehicle I’d describe as Batman’s racing unit. It’s an absolute beast of a car, merging Bugatti-style design choices with raw power, standing tall as the fastest vehicle in the game. All the pieces that Need For Speed would riff on later are already here, and arguably better than the first Underground entry. Of course, there’s no touching Need For Speed: Underground 2 – even I know that.
As the years pass, Midnight Club’s imprint on the genre sadly continues to fade. Rockstar Games’ full pivot to open-world games is understandable, but the wait between titles isn’t easy. GTA Online shows flashes of Midnight Club, but only in fleeting moments. GTA 6 is likely to do this, too, but a part of me wishes Rockstar would veer off the beaten path again.
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