mrmonkeyman
10-08-2004, 11:07 PM
Alright, I'm gonna make this pretty clear from the start.
If you are a gamer, you should hate this game.
If you are a skater, you should hate this game.
If you didn't play THUG (tony hawks' underground) 1, I'll recap the story/ethos of the game. It was to build up your down-and-out, but enthusiastic skater, from his crappy home somewhere in Jersey and get him sponsored by a skating team, along with your friend, while helping out people on the way and in general having a good time with friends. Organising parties, taking videos, that sort of thing. The game boiled down to in the end returning home, both you and your friend at eachother's throats for a video that you created, which he stole to stop you from reaching professional status.
Tony Hawks and the rest of the pro skaters pretty much made it clear that skating was all about having fun, and being skillful and creative.
Enter THUG2.
You're a GREAT SKATER. In...a shitty town. OH NO WAIT, A TRUCK. A truck stops mid-way through your skating, knocks you out, and takes you away. You wake up with other GREAT SKATERS FROM LITTLE TOWNS. You've been captured by Bam Muegera and Tony Hawks to go on their ultra-cool-super-brilliant WORLD DESTRUCTION TOUR. Straight off the bat, you're told there's no money or professional nature to it, it's just about CAUSING DESTRUCTION.
Let's step back here. Remember what the first four games were called. Tony Hawks Pro Skater, 1, 2, 3, 4. Underground was the buildup to being professional.
In this case?
You're suddenly obviously at "professional" level, because TH and the whole jackass crew are here to take you on a whirlwind adventure of destruction and mind-numbing frustration!
So, the whole ethics of the game are changed. You have two modes. Classic, and Story.
Story is all of the above, plus you have a few goals to get. Except you have to singularly identify every single one of them through randomly throwing yourself at the environment. Unlike the first game, that was like this but you could select the mission from the pause menu and be transported to it, thus removing the utter frustration of speeding around at an uncontrollable speed, hoping you bump into what you need.
Then, there's the vehicles.
From the cow on a conveyor belt to a fire-powered segway, they're completely and utterly bullshit to control. They make me hate living. And they're partly required for advancing through levels. This, coupled with unclear tasks and no real guide when advancing through said tasks...makes the game make me want to murder Mr. Hawks and set Wee Man on fire.
I don't really blame the jackass crew for this game. I blame activision for being so convinced they had to change the formula of the game. Updating the graphics and new music was enough for me. More moves. I liked some of the new ideas, but all of the driving sections were horrible. EVERYBODY said this. Somehow, they took this to mean "yes, let's improve the driving."
I wouldn't find the frontend so repulsive if it obviously hadn't eroded the core of the game. If the game hadn't been so set around arrogant shitheads cameoing it and driving around aimlessly, it wouldn't be so horrible to play. If there wasn't the jackass motif, then the storyline could be better. But it isn't. It just hurts to play.
I've bought every one of the THPS games from 1-6. Looks like it ends here. And that makes me really, really sad.
PS: I think I may hate it as much as the windwaker.
If you are a gamer, you should hate this game.
If you are a skater, you should hate this game.
If you didn't play THUG (tony hawks' underground) 1, I'll recap the story/ethos of the game. It was to build up your down-and-out, but enthusiastic skater, from his crappy home somewhere in Jersey and get him sponsored by a skating team, along with your friend, while helping out people on the way and in general having a good time with friends. Organising parties, taking videos, that sort of thing. The game boiled down to in the end returning home, both you and your friend at eachother's throats for a video that you created, which he stole to stop you from reaching professional status.
Tony Hawks and the rest of the pro skaters pretty much made it clear that skating was all about having fun, and being skillful and creative.
Enter THUG2.
You're a GREAT SKATER. In...a shitty town. OH NO WAIT, A TRUCK. A truck stops mid-way through your skating, knocks you out, and takes you away. You wake up with other GREAT SKATERS FROM LITTLE TOWNS. You've been captured by Bam Muegera and Tony Hawks to go on their ultra-cool-super-brilliant WORLD DESTRUCTION TOUR. Straight off the bat, you're told there's no money or professional nature to it, it's just about CAUSING DESTRUCTION.
Let's step back here. Remember what the first four games were called. Tony Hawks Pro Skater, 1, 2, 3, 4. Underground was the buildup to being professional.
In this case?
You're suddenly obviously at "professional" level, because TH and the whole jackass crew are here to take you on a whirlwind adventure of destruction and mind-numbing frustration!
So, the whole ethics of the game are changed. You have two modes. Classic, and Story.
Story is all of the above, plus you have a few goals to get. Except you have to singularly identify every single one of them through randomly throwing yourself at the environment. Unlike the first game, that was like this but you could select the mission from the pause menu and be transported to it, thus removing the utter frustration of speeding around at an uncontrollable speed, hoping you bump into what you need.
Then, there's the vehicles.
From the cow on a conveyor belt to a fire-powered segway, they're completely and utterly bullshit to control. They make me hate living. And they're partly required for advancing through levels. This, coupled with unclear tasks and no real guide when advancing through said tasks...makes the game make me want to murder Mr. Hawks and set Wee Man on fire.
I don't really blame the jackass crew for this game. I blame activision for being so convinced they had to change the formula of the game. Updating the graphics and new music was enough for me. More moves. I liked some of the new ideas, but all of the driving sections were horrible. EVERYBODY said this. Somehow, they took this to mean "yes, let's improve the driving."
I wouldn't find the frontend so repulsive if it obviously hadn't eroded the core of the game. If the game hadn't been so set around arrogant shitheads cameoing it and driving around aimlessly, it wouldn't be so horrible to play. If there wasn't the jackass motif, then the storyline could be better. But it isn't. It just hurts to play.
I've bought every one of the THPS games from 1-6. Looks like it ends here. And that makes me really, really sad.
PS: I think I may hate it as much as the windwaker.