Skate

"R.I.P. Tony Hawk"

Proclaimed as the Tony Hawk killer, EA had some big shoes to fill with their latest game, Skate. They went with a more realistic feel to the game as opposed to the more arcade and user friendly game that the Tony Hawk series has become. Does it work though?

Skate opens with a skater pulling off some sweet stunts. He goes to cross a street and gets hit by a vehicle. Now you're in the hospital and you're that skater. Now you're starting all over and are trying to work your way up the ranks of the skating world. It works I guess but the opening movie isn't skippable and kind of dumb.

Graphically Skate is a looker. The character models look good and clothing moves almost realistically. The location in the game also looks good and at first I was annoyed by a lack of people but suddenly there was a ton of people just walking around doing there thing. They don't react to you though but more on that later. The game looks very clean and it's all nicely detailed.

The game has a really good soundtrack. Some songs I knew while a number I had never heard of before. The problem is that I either kept hearing the song all of the time or most of the time no music was playing so the world becomes a silent bore. Not saying there isn't sound effects because there are and they are amazing. From the wheels hitting the cobble stone to the sound of you hitting a car, it's all amazing. It's just the lack of music makes it all kind of bland.

Control is the games biggest downfall. In hopes of bring skating to a new realm of play EA has brought their dreadful right stick play into the entire control scheme of this game. You move around with the left stick. X button controls your left leg and the B button controls your right leg. Think of the left as gas and the right as brake. It works well. The trigger buttons are used for grabs. Again, it does work.

The problem as usual is the use of the right stick. Everything else is done here, from the basic Ollie to whatever else you want to do, be it grind, jump, or whatever. To Ollie you ouch the control stick down and flick up. To do another a kick flip you push down and flick to the upper right. In thought this works but when you need to do little tweaks like that it becomes very sensitive a most times it wouldn't work for me. That's a problem in a game where tricks are a key element.

After a few hours I became use to the control and was able to get my game on. The game takes place in one giant city. It's long and takes about 20 minuets to skate from one side to another. It's full of life but like I said before at first it felt like a ghost town. People do not respond to you. Bump into one and you both end up on the ground. It's kind of dumb that they don't react at all, as if a person going uphill on skates wouldn't make any noticeable noise...

Speaking of up hill that's another problem with the game. See that hill? You're in for a slow chug up that bad boy. See those stairs? Sorry can't get up them. That's a big problem this game has. Because you're stuck on the board at all times and because of the jumping being Ollie based you're unable to access simple areas that in real life a skater would just pick their board up and walk. What would be a minor gripe turns into a bigger one because it restricts so much in the game.

The city is full of little odd jobs. Play a game of Skate (think HORSE), follow someone or do whatever the contest asks. It opens more to you but as I said it can get very frustrating as the AI is rather good even early on and with such a new control set up it just gets too frustrating to make it fun.

Another problem is the camera. The idea is that you're a skater being filmed and while a cool idea, keeping the camera so low and centered leaves you unable to see what's around you and can lead to you being run over or whatever. It's annoying when you're trying to string tricks and you randomly get hit by a car you didn't see.

The load times also cause some havoc as they are way too long. The game also crashed on me a few times. The on-line portion of the game seems well done. 6 people allowed per session and there are 5 or so modes. Nothing very exciting and it takes way to log for a game to start. There is no voice chat or chat room or lobby. You sit on the loading screen until there are enough players. I did create a match and it allowed skating around while the ranked match didn't. Not sure what's up with that.

Skate's actually a pretty good game and my true lack of details is due to me not getting all that far into the game. I couldn't get use to the controls and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm all for realism but if it makes the game less fun then why bother. Either way I think Skate is worth a try. It has some flaws but if you're able to feel comfortable with the controls then it might be for you. While it doesn't stand up against the old Tony Hawk games it does destroy the past 4 games in the series.

Story - 5/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 6/10
Control - 6/10
Game Play - 7/10
Replay Value - 6/10

Final Score - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/07

Game Release: Skate (US, 09/14/07)