When EA
released Skate a long while back, it certainly did give Activision’s
Tony Hawk franchise a run for its money. While the arcade-feel of Hawk’s
brand of skateboarding is enjoyable, Skate’s refreshingly
simulation-style offers skating fans an immersive experience that stood out
nicely. Skate 2 brings us back to a city filled with enough places to
keep any skater happy in a game that outperforms EA’s first skating outing.
“This is the
last time we let Blind Pete come skating with us.”
In the first
game, your skater started as an amateur with some skills and worked your way to
the top of San Vanelona’s local skate scene up until the law got its hands on
you. Skate 2’s Career mode once again features a story as your skater is
finally released from prison to find that San Van has changed thanks to a
corporation called Mongocorp. While the skate scene in the city is still
present, Mongocorp security guards are no friends to skating. Once again you can
help create your skater’s look (as well as gender) and work your way back to the
top with a little help from your friends and some real skaters.
While New San
Van has evolved, the change is definitely for the better. It’s a huge city with
a great number of different skating spots to discover while you explore the
massive city. Just like the first game, there’s even traffic of the human as
well as vehicle kind. Straight out of the big slammer, though, you come to learn
that some rails have been altered so you can’t grind and pedestrians toss liter
that get in the way. Oh yes, the city has evolved and half the fun is
discovering new places that Mongocorp hasn’t ruined.
What made the
original Skate such a brilliant skateboarding game is the controls seeing
as EA has adopted a Fight Night-styled analog control scheme. The Flickit
controls allow you to perform ollies, kick flips, 360 Flips as well as Pop-Shuvit
tricks you can alter with the flick of an analog stick. With plenty of practice
you can perfect better handplants and hippy jumps. You can even go skitching,
which is just another way of saying you can grab a car’s rear bumper while it’s
moving. Want to reach a great place you can grind? Well, all you have to do is
move an object you can launch off to reach it.
What doesn’t
work, however, are the on-foot controls that make walking feel considerably
awkward. Your skater can’t even turn normally, which will give you bad memories
of early Resident Evil games where the character moves like tank. The
fact that liter can knock you off your board isn’t very appealing either no
matter how realistic it might seem. What does work are the bails that look more
gruesome in a spectacular kind of way. The game even incorporates bails in a
mode called Thrasher Hall of Meat where your more hardcore bails earn you big
points. Imagine earning big points for falling off your board and landing hard
enough to scab your knees horrible and break your wrist.
This is still
the cheapest way to travel.
The game brings
back its challenging objectives you can take on at any time during the game.
You’ll be offered a number of challenges from skating enthusiasts as well as
actual skaters that want to see you pull off intricate and complex tricks to
earn points you can use to purchase clothing options as well as better gear.
Importantly enough, you’ll attempt to earn sponsorship to really make a name for
yourself so you will be accepting challenges from photographers. You can even
challenge the pros to fun games of S.K.A.T.E. What’s even more fun is evading
the Mongocorp security as well as taking off many of the anti-skating objects
that get in your way in the beginning of the game.
The
Create-A-Spot Editor is a nice treat for those that like to manipulate the area
in any manner you’d like to make it a cool place to skate and you can even save
it and share it with a friend or two. Speaking of friends, co-op allows you to
skate with up to four friends. You can also go online for some Party Play mode
with others as well as share videos straight out of your Replay Editor.
Visually,
Skate 2 looks good on the PlayStation 3 and San Van looks downright
gorgeous. The city is alive with traffic, pedestrians stopping to take a sip
from their drinks and the locales are just splendidly diverse. While your skater
– boy or girl – looks dull, bail enough times and you’ll see the injuries.
Fortunately, the other characters in the game look great especially during cut
scenes. There are also some really excellent visual effects that come from the
replays rather than Slappy’s bland blog site.
This is how
Flat-Face Frank got his name.
The game’s
sound is another feature that helps sell the fact that you’re moving around in a
living, breathing city from the sounds of the car traffic to the background
noises that come from the different parts of the city. You’ll hear dogs barking
in the distance as well as a passing plane as you skate around the area. The
voice acting is top notch even when you’re talking to the pros that do a decent
voice acting job. There’s even a great soundtrack with plenty of rock (Judas
Priest) and hip-hop songs (Public Enemy).
Destined to be
a true skating classic, Skate 2 is not only a great skating game but it’s
a large step forward for the city to the point that it overshadows the original.
That said, its technical problems are hard to ignore but what the game does
right it does it with more than enough style to make this a Must Have for anyone
he didn’t get a chance to play the original or fans of the skating genre.
Gameplay: 8.0
Pulling off
everything from a kick flip to an ollie is still just as satisfying thanks to
the great controls. On top of the excellent physics and robust trick list, the
events are delightfully challenging and fun. Even the bone-cracking bails are
events. It’s just too bad the walking controls are awful.
Graphics: 8.0
San Van just looks
bigger and better than ever so there are definitely a lot of cooler places to
skate through including schools and busy avenues. On the PS3, your skater looks
really generic compared to the actors and real skaters you’ll come across.
Sound: 9.0
The eclectic
soundtrack offers up tunes from a number of artists that range from The Clash to
the Wu-Tang Clan. The voice acting isn’t bad at all either but it’s the detailed
background noises that make you feel like you’re playing around in a vast
environment.
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
The various
challenges will have you really occupied while some of them will have you happy
that you can retry them as much as you want. We’re also glad that broken bones
don’t mean you’ll be too crippled to pull off complex moves.
Concept: 8.0
The city is massive
and there are enough places to skate through than the first game and even more
Career events to tackle. The Thrasher Hall of Meat mode is great fun but getting
off your board isn’t. Playing co-op with a friend is awesome and online you’ll
have a blast playing with other fellow thrashers.
Multiplayer: 8.5
You can skate with a
friend or four using a single console or up to 6 online for some Freeskate fun
or Party Play challenges. Online the game runs smoothly and supports headset
chat.
Overall: 8.0
Skate 2
does manage to pull of some
refreshingly new and stylish moves that should please fans of the first game.
Despite its few technical problems, though, it makes the trip back to San Van
well worth it. You might even say that this is an improvement over the first
game so if you missed out on the original you should definitely pick this one
up.
