Tony's getting tired

On the surface, Tony Hawk Underground 2 varies from the usual Tony Hawk Formula. The premise sees you create a skater, he gets captured by Tony Hawk and Bam Margera and gets taken on a trip around the world as part of a big skate competition between Tony’s team and Bam’s Team. Unfortunately you can forget about free roaming environments, forget interacting with different people and forget about a revolutionary new approach. THUG 2 is simply more of the same.

For those who have never played a Hawk game, it is really quite simple. You are given a level and a bunch of objectives to complete and you have all the time in the world to complete them in. Once you have completed enough objectives, you move on to the next level. Quite repetitive but it is quite addictive as it presented really well. For those who have played THUG 1, or Tony 4, you will be in familiar territory. You still move from level to level, which are disappointingly small, and the gameplay is still very much about gimmicky objectives given to you by hilariously animated low polygon idiots.

Other than the story mode, the game also comes with a ‘Classic’ mode, which plays a lot like Tony Hawk 1, 2, 3 and 4. With timed levels and the simple objectives like collect the S-K-A-T-E letters, it is fun for a while, but it would have been better if there were a few more levels. It also contains a few levels from the first Hawk game, its great to see the new levels recreated in 3D. The very first level on Tony Hawk 1 is used as a training area which is a cool addition. Downhill Jam, from the first game is also included and looks quite good also.

By far the biggest crime in THUG2, however, is the fact that Neversoft have done nothing new with the objectives. The vast majority are space fillers, plain and simple. Rather than analyze what makes the skating mechanics fun, Neversoft have simply tossed in a mess of utterly dull challenges that wouldn’t be out of place in a third rate platform game. In amongst the dross are some genuinely cool objectives, bet even many of these are marred by Neversoft’s inability to streamline their gameplay. For instance, like on Tony 4, the best objectives are those that are like real life skating. One objective had us no complying into a manual across a bench then flip tricking out. Sounds great right? Pity that Neversoft haven’t taken into account the fact that the psychics in the game are exaggerated. In other words, you take off faster and ollie higher. Instead they’ve given you a realistic sized bench with little room to move around it. It’s mystifying that they could be six games into this series, yet fail to match the physics of the game with the level design.

Indeed, I really think that this would be a better title if they just slowed it down a little and focused on making a skating game. As it stands, the trick based objectives and skate comps are far and away the most entertaining, yet the fast majority of objectives are collectathons. What the f**k is going on?

THUG 2 is also incredibly rough around the edges. Level design is really mixed and the graphics are patchy at best. The skater models are nice and detailed, but the rest of games graphics are quite poor. The collision detection still feels really glitchy, as do numerous other elements in the game.

There are some good new aspects about the game. Getting off your board and running around is a nice addition. Once you are off your board you can then graffiti the place with your tag, climb walls or start up a new combo. After a while though, this only really adds comedy value to your combos, rather than changing the way the game is played. Another good thing about this game is the new stat system. It rewards actual skills in the relevant areas. The only downfall about it is, if you are good at the Tony Hawk games (I like to think that I’m good) your stats will be maxed out in no time, I managed to max out all my stats in the first level. If they took their time with the new idea, and made it somewhat like the stat system found in Aggressive Inline, then it would have been much better.

Another great thing about the game is its soundtrack. It just wouldn’t be Tony Hawk without a bunch a cool tunes. It has some great tunes which are tossed around in a play list which you can customize. There are the usual Rock, Hip Hop and Punk Tunes but they sound great. There are songs from Disturbed, Metallica, Faith no More, The Distillers, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more.

An interesting addition is that on each level you can find a secret character, which has a new vehicle. Like the secret character you find on the first level has a high powered scooter. You novelty value wears out pretty fast though, as it just looks ridiculous while doing tricks and performing tasks.

This series seriously needs a new direction. I would really like to see a huge GTA-like world which you can explore, make up skating teams and slowly get recognized. It would give a much more realistic skating experience than this game. As it stands, it’s still a fun game, but seriously needs new direction. Another mediocre update.

catch