Midtown Madness 2

Gameplay

The game features Blitz, Checkpoint, Circuit, and Cruise modes, which are all derived from the original Midtown Madness game. Winning Blitz, Checkpoint and Circuit races allows the player to access unlockables, and the Cruise mode lets the player roam freely around the two open world recreations of London and San Francisco. A Crash Course can be completed in each of the cities. The Cab Driving School in London follows an extremist view of a London Cab driver, where a player must complete objectives in a London cab. The Stunt Driver course in San Francisco allows the player to gain experience in stunt driving for a Hollywood movie, using the Ford Mustang Fastback.

Players can change the visual appearance of the game before starting a race, such as the weather and time of day. Additionally, the frequency of how many cops spawn around the city can be modified, along with the amount of traffic and pedestrians. In Cruise Mode, this can change where the player starts off. Every race or cruise begins with a commentator introducing the course. These commentators would also be heard at the end of a race saying something that depends on the player's position upon finishing. The commentators would be different for each race, and they are different for each of the two cities. The commentators can be turned off. One of the game's most entertaining aspects is its humor; for example, the new age retro hippie in San Francisco singing out-off-tune variation of John Lennon song Give Peace a Chance. In most races and Cruise mode, people in cars and pedestrians can yell comments at players in different languages.

There are a wide variety of vehicles to choose from, such as the Aston Martin DB7 Vantage, Freightliner Century and the Mini Cooper. Each vehicle includes a number of unique paint jobs. The unlockable special paint jobs accessed by completing certain races or Crash Course challenges, which range from animal print designs, racing schemes, and a paint job that makes the Panoz GTR-1 transparent. Midtown Madness 2 features an original soundtrack composed by Paul Lackley. During the final lap, or the last checkpoint of a race, the song will switch to a faster and sometimes a much more frantic version of the song. This also happens when the player is pursued by the police.

Support for multiplayer gaming via IP address, serial cable, and analogue modem is built-in. Additionally, the game’s multiplayer menu includes a link to the MSN Gaming Zone, which offered Midtown Madness 2 lobbies until 19 June 2006. Similar online gaming sites still support multiplayer gaming and also through instant messenger clients. Multiplayer clients use Midtown Madness 2's built-in DirectPlay support to launch and manage multiplayer sessions.

Reception

Midtown Madness 2 was met with positive reception, as GameRankings gave it a score of 79.03%, while Metacritic gave it 78 out of 100.