Tony Hawk's Underground 2

"If at first you don't succeed... throw in MTV?"

Introduction

All right, first things first, for the lazy people - if you're a Tony vet, you'll be disappointed. Rent it, wait a month or two, then buy it. You'll be happier. Unless, of course you have online. Then just buy it.

Now, on to the actual review. THUG2 is a skateboarding game where you play as a character (which you get to create yourself) who participates in a 'World Destruction Tour', where your main goal is to get as many destruction points as possible. Anyone who's played a Tony game before knows that this isn't how Tony should play. For those people, there's Classic mode, which I'll get into later.

Now, what makes a Tony game so great (generally), is the level design, the new tricks, the fun goals, the big list of skaters and the freshness. This is where THUG2 falls flat on it's face - the level design is pretty poor, the only new tricks are the Fontflip and backflip tweaks along with the Natso spin (I believe), the goals are either not that fun or confusing, most of the pro skaters have been taken out of the game (in replacement of characters such as a Jester) and the only thing fresh in this game is the new tye of story mode - which isn't ven all that fun to begin with. So, why give this game an 8? Try reading on.

Graphics

The graphics in THUG2 look just like those in THUG, meaning they haven't improved. They weren't, however, bad in the first place. When you look at a skater, you can tell which skater that is - the faces are great. The buildings and walls and such have the little expected details like scratches on them, and some rails look thrashed. The animation is another big thing in graphics, and for the most part THUG2 does it good in here, partly because it looks like all of the trick graphics were ripped from from the original THUG (and the original THUG had great trick animations). The pedestrian animation is good for the most part, but some in the distance look very choppy. The environments look alive, with shifting times (you can start skating in the day, it'll slowly go to night, and then dusk, and then day again). You can still scratch your board. The screen sometimes gets choppy and some animation glitches occur, but it's easy to look past that.

Sound

When you're skating around, you can tell you're skating around. When you slide on a rail, you hear a very realistic sound of exactly that. And, of course, no Tony game would be without it's music. THUG2 gives you more than 30 music tracks to listen to while playing the game, and the different selection range from Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire to The Ramones' Rock and Roll High School. Chances are there's something for everyone here on the soundtrack, with even more recent bands like Jimmy Eat World. So the sound isn't really an issue. Skater's also use their own voices for their characters in the game, and you yourself can choose between three different voices, which is a good thing.

Gameplay

Ok, I'll divide this into three parts...

Story Mode

Story mode of THUG2 is basically the one player game. In Story mode, you make your character, and go on the World Destruction Tour, visiting places such as Australia, all over the globe. Sounds like fun, right? Well, it is, when you're actually skating around. In the beginning of the game, you're put through some training in the old THPS Warehouse level, so that you can learn the basics (if you didn't know them all ready). Afterwards, you go to the first level, Boston. In Boston, you're given the freedom to skate around and do whatever you want. You can bust some skating combos (which are multiple skating tricks linked together), spray your 'Tag' (grafitti) on the walls, chuck stuff at people (like Apples) or go on and do your goals. It's actually a lot like Grand Theft Auto, when you think about it. While the actual skating is fun(and remains fun), spraying your tag and chucking stuff at people seems cool at first, but it soon gets very old, and becomes a gimmick. Some goals have some skating in them (like the Arcade Game goals, where you have to get a high score within a time limit), but others just aren't Tony-like (Such as spraying your tag over others' tags, or releasing a wild bull by chucking food at it's cage). Some will find this to be quite fun, but people expecting another solid THUG or THPS will be disappointed. The Story mode is filled with goals like that. Also, it's possible to beat the Story mode the day you get the game. Luckily, you can select a difficulty, which offers a second playthrough if you found the first one fun. But to be honest, I found the Story mode more of a chore than a game.

Classic mode

What the Tony veterans like myself will be playing (and finishing in one or two hours). The Classic mode throws you as a skater in a level, gives you a set of goals and throws a 2 minute time limit. You're to do those goals in that time limit. It plays exactly like THPS3 (it even uses the same sounds, which were probably ripped right from the game). Here you can string together combos, bust tricks, and have a good time with goals that usually require your skating actions. They even threw in some classic levels from the old games (like the Airport from THPS3, or the School from THPS) which really bring back the good memories. It's a fun mode that any vet will find entertaining, but it comes at a price - a skilled Tony player can finish the mode in one or two hours, so it's over before you know it, which is a real shame.

The other modes

There is, of course, many other gameplay modes. There's High Score/Free skate mode, where you can just skate around and do whatever you want without anything holding you back. And, when you feel like it, you can start a 'High Score', where a two minute timer comes on and you ty to get as many points as possible. This is one of the funner modes. Then, there's 2 Player, where you can challenge your opponent on the same system via split screen to a High Score challenge, a free skate, and many more, including a weird but fun Fireball mode, where the goal is to hit your opponent with fire balls by performing certain tricks. Then, of course, there's the reason why this game got an 8, and why you should buy this game - the online mode. Here, you can set up a session, or join someone else's, and then go head to head with an unknown human opponent, in the same modes as in 2 Player offline. This is funner because there are others online better than you, people who give you a challenge, and people skilled just the same as you, which is always a fun bout. Hours can literally fly by online.

Relay Value

Will you reply this game? If you have online, for sure - this game will last you a long time. If you're stuck without the online advantage, this game will keep you busy for a bit, but after you completed the game 100% and played all the levels out, there's just not much more to do.

Buy, or rent?

If you're stuck without online, this one's a rental - A lackluster Story mode puts this game down, and the super-fun Classic mode only lasts 2 hours. 2 Player is fun and all, but split screen doesn't give you the same feeling, and you're playing against the same people every time. If you can go online, this game is a buy without a doubt - insanely fun, with a new opponent almost every time. Either way, you should at least try this game - it is worth it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/04