Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

"Things have gone from bad to worse..."

After a very disappointing instalment in Tony Hawk's Underground 2, the series definitely needed to steer into a new direction. THAW looked to be the title to do that, but in reality, it's all too similar to the last game, with very few new additions and the same flaws as before. In fact, it's a step backwards if anything. Fans of the series could end up sorely disappointed.

The simple and effective control set-up remains, making things easy to get to grips with as always. However, you will find a distinct lack of new moves. The only notable addition to the gameplay aspect is the ability to drop your board in favour of a BMX. Whilst this does add some variety to the game, it doesn't really fit with the overall theme and feels very out of place. Plus, it can be difficult to adjust to, considering just how different it feels to the skateboarding size of things. There are plenty of BMX gaming titles out there...no need to extend this ever popular skating series into a market where it doesn't belong.

The next major disappointment is the story mode. As fans of the series will know, the first four games included no storyline and focused entirely on basic skating tasks. Then came Tony Hawk's Underground, where an element of plot was introduced and this was a welcome change. However, THUG2 brought this idea into the wrong direction entirely. It was up to THAW to put things back on track, but it has sadly failed miserably in this area. The storyline itself is highly uninteresting, largely predictable and nowhere near as funny as it's intended to be. You have to wonder just how much time was spent and how much space was wasted on the ridiculously exaggerated voice acting.

The goals themselves are no better. There is literally nothing particularly exciting or innovative about anything. Grind this...grind that. Do this trick...do that trick. It seems as if the development team is running out of ideas. What makes things worse is that the player is forced to learn all the tricks from scratch; at the very start of the game, only the basics are given. As you progress, you learn all the tricks that - if you are a fan of the series - you would already be accustomed to. Plus, the biggest let-down of all is the free roaming aspect. We were promised a large open city environment with no loading times. What has been delivered is quite different. The city is made up of several individual skating areas, linked by tunnels. Travelling between these through a tunnel becomes somewhat tedious, especially since the pace is slowed down throughout the journey. Effectively, all that has changed here is the introduction of dull areas to skate around while you wait for the game to load. A minor improvement at best.

Classic mode returns too, yet isn't anywhere near as enjoyable as it was before. For those who don't know, this mode takes the format of the first four TH games, with about ten goofy tasks to complete in a 2-minute time limit. These were always great fun back in the day and came across quite well in last year's classic mode too. Yet once again, Neversoft have failed to deliver the expected quality. The stages provided are not really "classic" stages, but mostly just expansions of PSP levels - not something a lot of fans will have played on in the past.

Speaking of the levels, they're fairly disappointing on the whole. The majority of story mode levels are just large generic cities; with nothing particularly inventive about them. Only one of the new additions truly stands out and this is the Oil Rig. Otherwise, don't rush out to buy the game in the hope of some great new maps to skate around, that isn't going to happen.

Graphics are pretty much the same as before. The range of music tracks is pretty similar too, with a blend of hip-hop, rock and punk rock. Whatever suits you, something in the list should suit your taste. One major improvement with the game is the choice of pro skaters...for the first time in the series, we are not reduced to the same old list of pros or an array of useless comedy characters. Some new skaters are introduced.

The whole experience has probably come out of this review sounding awful, but to be fair, it isn't a bad game. It's just a hugely disappointing effort in the successful series. Maybe 5/10 is a bit of a harsh score, but bear in the mind this is coming from a long-term fan of the series and is a very honest opinion.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/05