Number 51: Tony Hawk's Underground, Neversoft 2003 (PS2 version)
Intro:
Much unlike before, the introduction to this game doesn't tell the player about all of the skating superstars features: this time, the story mode is emphasized by a faceless character and the stages of his struggle towards stardom interspersed with clips of real skaters doing real tricks, but none of their faces are featured or recognizable. This and the darker hip-hop music gives this game a much darker, more serious and purposeful mood from the start.
Getting Going:
The menus are mostly straight lists. Customizing a character is multidimensional, however, though using the Square and Circle buttons to navigate left and right feels very awkward and won't aways put you right where you want to be, thanks to the menus they switch between having their own sub menus. The game begins well, where each trick and special ability are taught to the player through the missions. This is the same as it was in Tony Hawk 4, but the story overlayed onto the goals makes it possible to create a beginning tutorial for new abilites and some important basics, which makes the game a lot more accessible and justifies the free-roam format which felt tacked on before.
Fun:
I took to and enjoyed this game much more, thanks to the motivating story and small tutorial that helped me understand the game much more effectively than any of the series had previously. As a story-driven player, this was a huge improvement to me and made me want to play a lot more. Otherwise, all the challenges and such were derived directly from previous games, and while fun are losing their charm due to the repetition. Car driving is new, but difficult to control and the roads are far too thin to get serious with.
Visuals:
The gritty visuals are pretty standard, simply shaded PS2 fare that isn't far from the graphics of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. Levels are nicely detailed and complex enough to hold my interest, but there weren't any special effects or new lighting schemes to make it special.
Intelligence:
Other skaters just do their own thing with no regard to the player. Boo this AI.
Immersion:
The game's rediculous physics and maps fail to let the player dream they were really skating, but the game does immerse the player in the sick and twisted world Tony Hawk games have been weaving for ages. Invincibility, strange skate culture inspired characters, and abbreviated cities are accepted by the player, and the challenges keep the player's mind in the game and in character. It doesn't create anything believable, but the strange charms of the grotesque world have grown their own world and mythos to be drawn into.
Cameras:
The camera shows no improvement from previous games: its good for following the player around the course, but quarterpipes have to be taken by practiced timing and critical jumps (especially in the middle of grinds) must be learned as they disappear behind the avatar at the crucial moment. Using the right analog stick to adjust the camera is only good for setting up for a jump, as the player is out of controll as soon as the character is in motion and the right thumb is suddenly occupied again by the trick buttons.
Control:
Despite using the same control set-up throughout the series, its still frustrating and arbitrary to new players. Aside from the jump command and the movement with the left analog stick, the controls are all arbitrary and demand to be learned the hard way. After lots of practice, the controls become managable, but the harsh learning curve is very frustrating.
Ideas:
Creating a story for the aging skateboarding series only served to justify the free roaming missions introduced by Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 and create some clear direction for the player. Outside of that, the controls and level design are more of the same and hardly worth a second look, especially considering this is the fifth entry into a series of games whose mechanics have changed little since the first version.
Memory:
The story mode managed to suck me in, but aside from that this game was more of the same gameplay and level design. The series is still fun to play, but after so many from the same series, I wonder if they could've taken it somewhere else and made real improvements to the game, or at least improved the camera, instead of just giving me different maps.
Much unlike before, the introduction to this game doesn't tell the player about all of the skating superstars features: this time, the story mode is emphasized by a faceless character and the stages of his struggle towards stardom interspersed with clips of real skaters doing real tricks, but none of their faces are featured or recognizable. This and the darker hip-hop music gives this game a much darker, more serious and purposeful mood from the start.
Getting Going:
The menus are mostly straight lists. Customizing a character is multidimensional, however, though using the Square and Circle buttons to navigate left and right feels very awkward and won't aways put you right where you want to be, thanks to the menus they switch between having their own sub menus. The game begins well, where each trick and special ability are taught to the player through the missions. This is the same as it was in Tony Hawk 4, but the story overlayed onto the goals makes it possible to create a beginning tutorial for new abilites and some important basics, which makes the game a lot more accessible and justifies the free-roam format which felt tacked on before.
Fun:
I took to and enjoyed this game much more, thanks to the motivating story and small tutorial that helped me understand the game much more effectively than any of the series had previously. As a story-driven player, this was a huge improvement to me and made me want to play a lot more. Otherwise, all the challenges and such were derived directly from previous games, and while fun are losing their charm due to the repetition. Car driving is new, but difficult to control and the roads are far too thin to get serious with.
Visuals:
The gritty visuals are pretty standard, simply shaded PS2 fare that isn't far from the graphics of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. Levels are nicely detailed and complex enough to hold my interest, but there weren't any special effects or new lighting schemes to make it special.
Intelligence:
Other skaters just do their own thing with no regard to the player. Boo this AI.
Immersion:
The game's rediculous physics and maps fail to let the player dream they were really skating, but the game does immerse the player in the sick and twisted world Tony Hawk games have been weaving for ages. Invincibility, strange skate culture inspired characters, and abbreviated cities are accepted by the player, and the challenges keep the player's mind in the game and in character. It doesn't create anything believable, but the strange charms of the grotesque world have grown their own world and mythos to be drawn into.
Cameras:
The camera shows no improvement from previous games: its good for following the player around the course, but quarterpipes have to be taken by practiced timing and critical jumps (especially in the middle of grinds) must be learned as they disappear behind the avatar at the crucial moment. Using the right analog stick to adjust the camera is only good for setting up for a jump, as the player is out of controll as soon as the character is in motion and the right thumb is suddenly occupied again by the trick buttons.
Control:
Despite using the same control set-up throughout the series, its still frustrating and arbitrary to new players. Aside from the jump command and the movement with the left analog stick, the controls are all arbitrary and demand to be learned the hard way. After lots of practice, the controls become managable, but the harsh learning curve is very frustrating.
Ideas:
Creating a story for the aging skateboarding series only served to justify the free roaming missions introduced by Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 and create some clear direction for the player. Outside of that, the controls and level design are more of the same and hardly worth a second look, especially considering this is the fifth entry into a series of games whose mechanics have changed little since the first version.
Memory:
The story mode managed to suck me in, but aside from that this game was more of the same gameplay and level design. The series is still fun to play, but after so many from the same series, I wonder if they could've taken it somewhere else and made real improvements to the game, or at least improved the camera, instead of just giving me different maps.