But first let's have a little bit of a background first:
Background
If you've read my previous post about the Tony Hawk series, you know that the series hasn't been well in the past 10 years. The games Proving Ground, Ride and Shred had to compete against Skate, and while Proving ground (in my opinion) was either equal or greater than Skate, Ride and Shred unfortunately lost against the Skate Franchise. Because of this, most people don't want a new Tony Hawk game, because they see Skate being a better game, and eventually they go to this "We hate Tony Hawk because it's unrealistic and it's not Skate). While I do like the Skate games, they are never gonna get a 4th installment in the series because Black Box got bust because of Need For Speed: The Run (btw come back later in over a month for my review of Need For Speed)So when I heard about a new Tony Hawk game getting announced, I was hyped for a few reasons. One, it was a new installment in one of my all time favorite video game franchises. Two, it meant I could have another game to play on my PS4 while I'm lazy. And Three, well I don't know, I'm just hyped that's all.
Things to know about the new Tony Hawk
Other than the fact it's the first time in 5 years that a new Tony Hawk game is out (3 if you include Pro Skater HD, which was just a compilation of levels from THPS1-3),this is the first game on the next generation consoles. Unfortunately due to Neversoft closing its studios to combine with Infinity Ward, someone else had to make this, which is Robomondo. The last Tony Hawk game Robomondo made was Pro Skater HD, which while it was better than Ride and Shred, it was not as good as any of the other tony hawk games (although to be fair his was a downloadable title, and not a main series game), although apparently some former Neversoft workers have worked on this so I'm hoping for some enjoyment.Before I play the game:
At first glance I checked to see what the game has and requires. I was disappointed to learn that the game does not have split screen, which loses points for me. It also requires 15gb of hard drive space for all the updates and such.While there is online multiplayer, it requires a PlayStation plus account, and while I could just get it on PS3, that game lacks online multiplayer so yep :(
If theres anything good on the cover, its that it supports Remote Play, yay, except for the fact my PS Vita is just sitting there doing nothing because nobody loves him :(
Other than that, I think we should play this game
The game begins
I boot up the machine, insert the disc and im ready to play the game. It starts up and get the loading screens. Instead of a classic Neversoft thing we are given a Robomondo title movie.I enter the main menu and check out what they have. Apparently the game really wants you to be online, for example if you want to play the main game, you click X, but if you want to play offline, you have to press Triangle.
Now lets start the game, and oh boy what has happened. The controls feel wonky, the physics feel odd, and some tricks are tricky to do (no pun intended).
Now here are the problems:
*Doing wallrides can be really hard, however THPSHD had this problem as well, so clearly Robomondo still don't know how to do wallrides well
*You can't do Hidden Combos while grinding, which means to change tricks while grinding, you gonna have to ollie, then do another grind
*Revert is now R1 instead of R2
*To get some missions done, you have to refer to a path that seems basic instead of having some creativity.
*A few other problems from THPSHD are still present
*Some of the missions seem a little bit easy for me (although this could be because I've been playing this since I was a wee child)
And while its awesome to see that you can create custom characters, the selection is very limited, to the point you can sorta create your own charcater
oh and due to how the thingmajigy works, you can give a male a female body. Yep.
However there are some good to the game, the soundtrack is alright, I mean you do get to skate to Skrillex :D, the park editor is very different, instead of flat squares you get to modify the levels.
And the levels are a good nod to the classic Tony Hawk levels (which I hope get released as DLC)
Oh and the graphics? They don't look anything like a PS2 game so stop bashing it for those reasons
Overall
While I didn't mention the postives as much as the negatives, the game does have some fun to it.PROS:
Some of the levels are fun
Good framerate
Graphics alright
Good Soundtrack
Level Editor is amazing
CONS:
Poor controls
Some of the levels feel slightly lazy
Missions either too easy or too hard
No Local Multiplayer
Tries to force you to play online
Customaztion on character is a bit limited
Can't customize tricks
Tends to be very glitchy
Powerups can be fun at times, but at other times are really annoying and even useless
Game feels short
Score:
4.5/10
It has some fun to it, but at other times it just doesn't want you to have fun. If you want this game, I recommend getting it when it is cheap, like $10 or something. I got mine for $18 but I don't care.
