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It's time to get back to San Vanelona and prove you've still got what it takes to become a top skater in Skate 2.
February 2, 2009 | 11:09 PM PSTby: Jeff Rivera
Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
Skate kind of creeped up on the gaming world back in September 2007 when EA decided to take Activision's Tony Hawk series head on. Many skateboarding games came out and tried to muscle in on Activision's market, but typically these games ended up in the bargain bin. Skate, however, introduced a revolutionary way to execute tricks, a more realistic physics model, and a very authentic infusion of skater culture. The bold entry Skate made into the gaming world caused many longtime Tony Hawk fans to jump ship and flock to EA's newest franchise. The game was an instant hit and it brought about a revolution in the genre. Skate 2 doesn't look to revolutionize anything, but it is a refinement and an evolution of an already solid formula. As gamers return to San Vanelona, they'll find that everything that they loved in Skate is back, and that plenty of improvements have been made across the board.
What's Hot
With Skate 2, it's not like Black Box went back and reinvented the wheel, but rather opted to further perfect their art. Upon dropping the Skate 2 disc into your 360, you'll notice a few differences over the original almost immediately. While the game ran at 30fps in the original Skate, Black Box has doubled the framerate for Skate 2. The game runs at a silky smooth 60fps, with only occasional hiccups here and there. The game's lighting and modeling system is largely unchanged, but everything seems to look a bit tighter and more polished.
While the visual improvement is appreciated, the gameplay tweaks are what really help Skate 2 move the franchise forward. For starters, the number of tricks in the game has doubled. All the original tricks from Skate are in there, but the added tricks will keep veterans from getting bored any time soon. There are so many things that you can do with your skater now that each section of San Vanelona offers up a lot of possibilities. Along with the new tricks, you can now also hop off of your skateboard, walk around, and move objects. This allows you to alter sections of San Vanelona to create your own "Own the Spot" setups which you can save and upload via Xbox Live to share with friends and the entire Skate 2 community. You set your highest score possible on your custom spot and others can try to do you better. There's even an Achievement for downloading someone's custom spot and besting the current high score.
The game is very much an open world. You're free to accept challenges in the order of your choosing, and you can choose to either go directly from challenge to challenge or to mess around for as long as you want. You also have the option of skating to each challenge (marked on your map), our using a fast travel option. The freedom here is excellent, as more adventurous gamers will most likely opt to skate around and find Easter eggs en route while more focused players can just get to their next task without the time consuming commuting to stand in their way.
This time around, the game is a little more challenging as well. The trick system is a touch less forgiving than in the previous installment, so you'll have to be a bit more accurate with your rotations and landings. For veterans, this will give them a new challenge to deal with, while newcomers to the series will just learn to be more accurate from the get go. The result of the tighter tolerances is that big tricks and combos feel more rewarding, and the likelihood of racking up big points with lucky slop is much lower.
One of the best upgrades that we're seeing in Skate 2 over Skate is the overhaul to the replay system. The game now offers much more camera control for replays, including the option to set up tripod cameras. Replays now look much more like the popular real life skater videos that you'll see online or in DVD sets. As you record and save your replays, you can upload them to EA's online server, tag and categorize them, and allow the rest of the Skate community to see your big tricks, painful bails, or hilarious set of events.
What's Not
With all the refinement, it's hard to nit pick much in Skate 2, but there are a few things that could have used a bit more attention. During cut-scenes your skater is just a notch below lifeless, and many of the animations get recycled. As you complete challenges and win street events, you'll notice a lot of repetition in the post-event reactions. This doesn't have any effect on gameplay, so it's hard to really nail Skate 2 to the wall over it, but it's a little on the lazy side by the devs all the same.
During competitions, you're bound to run into other skaters and wipe out. This may be a nod toward increased realism, but it can be frustrating when you're in the middle of a killer trick sequence only to get clipped by a fellow skater. It would have been nice for the competitions to have allowed for the skaters to pass through one another. It might look a little goofy, but it would save the gamer a bit of frustration.
The soundtrack in the game is going to be pretty hit and miss for the gaming audience. For starters, it's not a very large track listing, and the variety isn't all that strong. If you don't find yourself clicking with the soundtrack early on, you're going to be best served making use of the custom soundtracks and rocking your own tunes. The music isn't bad, it's just not the type of stuff that has the broadest appeal, and you'll hear many of the tracks repeat several times in the same play session.
The biggest complaint that anybody is going to have is with the on-foot controls. When you hop off of your board, it almost feels like your character stiffens up. Moving around feels awkward to the point where positioning objects is harder than it needs to be when you start dragging stuff around. It's a great feature, but it's easily the least polished portion of the game.
Final Word
Skate 2 takes the great start that Black Box and EA got with Skate and elevates it a few notches. The gameplay is very fun, and the game does a great job nailing down a good representation of skater culture. There are many real life skate pros that you come across in the game, and a lot of the tricks and challenges feel very authentic. In the extreme sports genre, there's far too often a tendency to push things to a ridiculous level, but Skate 2 manages to provide a very satisfying and addictive experience without resorting to silly extremes. There is tons to do in the game, and if you're a fan of online play and the community interaction elements, Skate 2 will keep you busy for as long as just about any other title slated to ship this year.
What the Game's About
Skate kind of creeped up on the gaming world back in September 2007 when EA decided to take Activision's Tony Hawk series head on. Many skateboarding games came out and tried to muscle in on Activision's market, but typically these games ended up in the bargain bin. Skate, however, introduced a revolutionary way to execute tricks, a more realistic physics model, and a very authentic infusion of skater culture. The bold entry Skate made into the gaming world caused many longtime Tony Hawk fans to jump ship and flock to EA's newest franchise. The game was an instant hit and it brought about a revolution in the genre. Skate 2 doesn't look to revolutionize anything, but it is a refinement and an evolution of an already solid formula. As gamers return to San Vanelona, they'll find that everything that they loved in Skate is back, and that plenty of improvements have been made across the board.
What's Hot
With Skate 2, it's not like Black Box went back and reinvented the wheel, but rather opted to further perfect their art. Upon dropping the Skate 2 disc into your 360, you'll notice a few differences over the original almost immediately. While the game ran at 30fps in the original Skate, Black Box has doubled the framerate for Skate 2. The game runs at a silky smooth 60fps, with only occasional hiccups here and there. The game's lighting and modeling system is largely unchanged, but everything seems to look a bit tighter and more polished.
While the visual improvement is appreciated, the gameplay tweaks are what really help Skate 2 move the franchise forward. For starters, the number of tricks in the game has doubled. All the original tricks from Skate are in there, but the added tricks will keep veterans from getting bored any time soon. There are so many things that you can do with your skater now that each section of San Vanelona offers up a lot of possibilities. Along with the new tricks, you can now also hop off of your skateboard, walk around, and move objects. This allows you to alter sections of San Vanelona to create your own "Own the Spot" setups which you can save and upload via Xbox Live to share with friends and the entire Skate 2 community. You set your highest score possible on your custom spot and others can try to do you better. There's even an Achievement for downloading someone's custom spot and besting the current high score.
The game is very much an open world. You're free to accept challenges in the order of your choosing, and you can choose to either go directly from challenge to challenge or to mess around for as long as you want. You also have the option of skating to each challenge (marked on your map), our using a fast travel option. The freedom here is excellent, as more adventurous gamers will most likely opt to skate around and find Easter eggs en route while more focused players can just get to their next task without the time consuming commuting to stand in their way.
This time around, the game is a little more challenging as well. The trick system is a touch less forgiving than in the previous installment, so you'll have to be a bit more accurate with your rotations and landings. For veterans, this will give them a new challenge to deal with, while newcomers to the series will just learn to be more accurate from the get go. The result of the tighter tolerances is that big tricks and combos feel more rewarding, and the likelihood of racking up big points with lucky slop is much lower.
One of the best upgrades that we're seeing in Skate 2 over Skate is the overhaul to the replay system. The game now offers much more camera control for replays, including the option to set up tripod cameras. Replays now look much more like the popular real life skater videos that you'll see online or in DVD sets. As you record and save your replays, you can upload them to EA's online server, tag and categorize them, and allow the rest of the Skate community to see your big tricks, painful bails, or hilarious set of events.
What's Not
With all the refinement, it's hard to nit pick much in Skate 2, but there are a few things that could have used a bit more attention. During cut-scenes your skater is just a notch below lifeless, and many of the animations get recycled. As you complete challenges and win street events, you'll notice a lot of repetition in the post-event reactions. This doesn't have any effect on gameplay, so it's hard to really nail Skate 2 to the wall over it, but it's a little on the lazy side by the devs all the same.
During competitions, you're bound to run into other skaters and wipe out. This may be a nod toward increased realism, but it can be frustrating when you're in the middle of a killer trick sequence only to get clipped by a fellow skater. It would have been nice for the competitions to have allowed for the skaters to pass through one another. It might look a little goofy, but it would save the gamer a bit of frustration.
The soundtrack in the game is going to be pretty hit and miss for the gaming audience. For starters, it's not a very large track listing, and the variety isn't all that strong. If you don't find yourself clicking with the soundtrack early on, you're going to be best served making use of the custom soundtracks and rocking your own tunes. The music isn't bad, it's just not the type of stuff that has the broadest appeal, and you'll hear many of the tracks repeat several times in the same play session.
The biggest complaint that anybody is going to have is with the on-foot controls. When you hop off of your board, it almost feels like your character stiffens up. Moving around feels awkward to the point where positioning objects is harder than it needs to be when you start dragging stuff around. It's a great feature, but it's easily the least polished portion of the game.
Final Word
Skate 2 takes the great start that Black Box and EA got with Skate and elevates it a few notches. The gameplay is very fun, and the game does a great job nailing down a good representation of skater culture. There are many real life skate pros that you come across in the game, and a lot of the tricks and challenges feel very authentic. In the extreme sports genre, there's far too often a tendency to push things to a ridiculous level, but Skate 2 manages to provide a very satisfying and addictive experience without resorting to silly extremes. There is tons to do in the game, and if you're a fan of online play and the community interaction elements, Skate 2 will keep you busy for as long as just about any other title slated to ship this year.
November 20, 2009
