Tony Hawk's Underground

"In Depth Review: THUG - Tony Hawk's Upper or Under Goings?"

Introduction

I picked up a copy of Tony Hawk's Underground about two weeks ago and my first impression was rather mixed, so I thought I'd wait just a little longer to see if my first impressions swayed toward one way or the other. Even after playing through alot of the game, my opinion is still rather mixed.

Main Game Play - 8/10

Yeah, so it's the same great game play that extreme-sports-video-game fans have been drooling over for years now. The only changes I've noticed so far are some small, minor tweaks in the physics, driving, the ability to walk acid drop and caveman, the addition of hip transfers, and the removal of a glitch that allowed you to maintain speed after using the revert. A drastic and unexpected change in the game play could anger many fans. The physics are hardly anything like skating in real life; this isn't a simulation.

Tricks can be strung together into 'combos' which multiplies a base score of the addition of degrading point values of tricks by the number of tricks you do while you're in your combo. Combos can easily extend past the standard 2-minute time limit if you're a Tony Hawk veteran, but don't expect to pick the game up and get a 1-million combo on your first try.

Another new addition to the game play is the way you increase your skater's stats. Your stats will now increase after completing certain challenges that are based on that stat. Don't expect to gain max stats immediately though. About half the stat challenges are locked until you get further into story mode.

The additions of abilities like walking, acid drops, and cavemans will be very easy to get used to if you are familiar to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater engine. Moves like these at first seem very unneeded, but as time goes by it's realized how useful these are.

Driving is pointless. The physics are horrible. I hated all the driving-based goals because they were no fun at all. You can't use driving to get around quicker because once you exit the vehicle, it takes back to spot you started at, right by the vehicle. If you are really looking forward to the driving, don't.

Features - 8/10

New features in this year's update include a story mode rather than career, Create-A-Trick, creating your own goals, a deck editor, and mapping the face onto your created skater. Returning features from previous games are Create-A-Skater, an updated Create-A-Park, and the ability to play online with a Sony Network Adapter for Playstation 2.

The story mode is nothing huge to fawn over, in my opinion. It seems alot like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4's Career mode, except there are some cutscenes, story-based goals, and difficulty settings. However, even with these nice additions, the story mode lacks alot of what it should have. I felt it stressed too much on walking to remain fun. Gone are the fun S-K-A-T-E and C-O-M-B-O letters and also alot of score challenges. Even on sick difficulty the highest score challenge was nowhere near what it was for THPS4. Unlike previous games, the main mode begs so much or so little of you that it's disappointing. I don't want to run around without my board finding all these things; I want to skate like the game was meant to be. The difficulty settings are nice to have if you're new to the series or just not great. But if you're a true Tony Hawk veteran, then the 'Sick' difficulty can even be a let down.

Creating your own tricks is easy and can be fun, but don't expect to have a huge advantage over someone who doesn't create their own tricks. To create a trick, you use an easy to use real time interface in which you tie different animations together. Simple, but the results in animation can be cool. Unfortunately, though, the point values that go with the created tricks are low and offer very little benefit toward using your trick. You also can only create tricks that can be performed in the air, so this was an overall disappoint to me as well.

Creating your own goals is where I believe this game really shines. With an infinite number of possibilities for created S-K-A-T-E and C-O-M-B-O letter goals, and the option to download other peoples goals and upload yours to the Neversoft vault, this feature will keep you playing alot longer than if this wasn't included. You can choose to create goals varying from the S-K-A-T-E and C-O-M-B-O letters to finding a specific gap and the option of doing a specific trick with the gap to the standard high scores to doing the tricks that appear on your screen. Although the goal creator is somewhat lacking in style, it's still a lot of fun to use and I've already enjoyed the goals other people and I have made.

Another new feature in Tony Hawk's Underground is the ability to design your own deck. This was a feature I feel was over-hyped because the most amount of customization you're given is slapping a few stickers and letters on pre-made base graphics and tiles. The least Neversoft could have done was have a basic paint-like program to design our own graphics. There are alot of stamps to choose from, but you're only given four layers other than your base graphic and tile layer, leading to very little ability to actually customize your deck how you really want it.

Finally, you can put your digitized face (or whatever else you want to) on your created skater. This feature can only be used, however, if you have access to THUG Online. Having your face on your skater is fun, and makes your created skater feel more like you. Figuring out how to exactly download my face took a while though and was very hassling.

There aren't very many other improvements in Create-A-Skater; more additions in every category from choosing what your skater wears to what their hairstyle is like to what logos they have on their clothing to their tattoos. Logos can now be resized and rotated to fit the wearers liking.

The Create-A-Park feature has received some new improvements such as being able to create much larger parks, create goals for your parks, adding buildings, and the very nice rail tool. The rail tool is very interesting and different than the rails of before. You can now place rails on anything in the level in any direction and slope. The memory size of created parks has increased slightly, allowing for less room to able to be stored on your memory card.

Story - 6/10

Tony Hawk's Underground's story mode is a nice addition. However, since there's only one ending and you don't make the decisions in the story, it's very limited as to how great of an addition this really is. You get to make a few choices along the way like what skate team you want to join, but the outcome is all the same and the only true gain from picking a different sponsor is unlocking deck graphics from that company and getting a new interface for your menus. You never decide what you really want to do as a skater. The story is one-tracked and just doesn't feel like there's any freedom to the story as a whole.

The main character of this story is you. You start your adventure in as a skater-punk who lives in an old run down city in New Jersey. Complete with street racers, drug dealers, and a nuclear plant. Your goal is to become a huge pro skater and be the model for what skating is all about. The story starts off with you in your house, trying to fix up your pretty trashed board, when your friend, Eric Sparrow, tells you about a skate demo that Chad Muska is taking part in. You then go outside and talk to Eric and learn some basics of the game or new features if you're already familiar with the old ones. It's easy to realize that a rivalry is quickly established between you and Eric.

The story has many twists and turns and involves alot of conflict, so it's still a little interesting even though you don't determine much of your fate.

Graphics - 7/10

At first glance, it seems there hasn't been much improvement graphics-wise, which is close. There's much more detail and just feels like alot more effort was put into this year's graphics.
These are not the same graphics of both Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4. The graphics have improved so much since THPS3 came out for Playstation 2. The images are clean and vivid, and the levels are very spacious and well thought out. The night/day effects and fog in the morning seem to have been put into alot of consideration. However, these graphics just don't add up to what is capable and what has been seen of the Playstation 2, but the Tony Hawk games have never really been known for their incredible graphics.

Sound - 9/10

Sounds are crisp and clear, and have improved greatly. The soundtrack is amazing. There are over 75 songs ranging from Punk Rock to Heavy Metal to Hip-Hop. There is option to customize the playlist of songs so you can skip the ones you hate and listen to those songs that are just good to you. The ambient sounds in the game are also amazing. It's nice to take the time to turn off the music some times to hear ticking of a clock, the chirping of the birds, and the alarm of a bank going off.

Controls - 8/10

The controls on your board are great, even better than they were in 4. Quick, responsive and easy.

Walking controls take some getting used to. By using the D-Pad, you normally just walk, but by holding the X button, you go into a sprint. It's hard to adapt to holding X to run and annoying to hold X because you always end up having to jump, so I suggest quickly switching to the Analog Stick and back for running to easily run at full speed.

Driving controls are sluggish and seem very unresponsive. This is another factor leading to the dullness of driving.

THUG Online - 10/10

If you have a Sony Network Adapter then you can play against other people from across the globe. The online interface is very nice and organized. People ranging greatly in skill level can be found and played against. Games that can be played online include Trick Attack, Combo Mambo, Graffiti, King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, Score Challenge, Slap, Firefight, Goal Attack, and Free Skate.

THUG Online also features a ranking system. If you have a Gamespy Profile, your online ranking is recorded into the Online Stats. The ranking competition is very fierce, so only the best are ranked high.

Another feature of THUG Online is the Neversoft Vault, which allows people to upload and download Skaters/Stories, Created Parks, Created Tricks, and Created Goals. This sends the replay value sky rocketing and is one of the greatest features of the game.

Replay Value 8-10/10

Depending if you have access to THUG Online, Tony Hawk's Underground can have a nice replay value or an outstanding replay value. You can create your own game and play it through, or possibly download someone else's game and play through it. Competition online is also always high, and if you like to search for the gaps yourself, you can spend some time doing that as well.

Conclusion

Tony Hawk's Underground feels somewhat incomplete without access to THUG Online. There is already a lot to do in the game and there is always more waiting for you if you can get to it. It's a little harder to jump into than previous games, as it always is when the controls get more and more complex each version. It has alot of additions to gameplay and features, but alot of them lack any usefulness or just tie in so seamlessly with what's already been put into the games that it's hard to think that they weren't already there. It felt so weird when I went back to play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 recently just because I couldn't walk.

Tony Hawk's Underground is a great game, but just lacks that something that games need to be perfect. I suggest a rent if you don't have access to THUG Online, but if you do, it's pretty close to a certain buy.

Overall Rating - 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/03