|
Although the game is titled “Tony Hawk’s Underground 2," THUG 2 features a healthy dose of Viva la Bam’s Bam Margera. Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (“THUG 2”) is the sixth game in the Tony Hawk series and as such includes only mild changes to the already great gameplay. While this isn’t really a problem, as the fundamental gameplay is excellent and some of the new additions are pretty cool, it does make you wonder how long Neversoft can pull off these yearly sequels.
Like THUG before it, THUG 2 tries to make a story out of its skating gameplay. In the game, you’ll need to pick team Tony Hawk or team Bam. Along the way, the game, via cutscenes, reveals a bit more about the rivalry of these two guys.
In the Story Mode, you’ll once again create a character and have to accomplish an assortment of goals, usually not related to pulling off a certain number of points in a combo, while being helped by very random characters including Phil Margera, Wee Man, Steve-O and Ben Franklin but also more typical characters like Eric Koston and Chad Muska. Meeting up with these characters will give you additional goals for whatever level you are in. You’ll need to accomplish a certain amount of goals to the get the required amount of points needed to move on.
One of the big “additions” in THUG 2 is the game’s “Classic Mode,” which is a throwback to the gameplay style of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 to 3. In Classic Mode, you’ll once again have the two-minute timer and will have to complete certain objectives in that time period. Classic Mode includes many levels from THUG 2’s story mode but you’ll also be able to play in a number of classic levels from the first few Tony Hawk games.
Six years of refining an engine goes a long way in the world of videogames. Each successive Tony Hawk game has added something new to the series which fundamentally changed the game. In the first four Tony Hawk games, these were new ways to link up combos or have better control over your character, and THUG introduced the whole get-out-of-your-skateboard deal. THUG 2 doesn’t feature any revolutionary change; you’ll find a vertical wall plant, a nata spin (which allows you to spin on top of objects like trash cans and a sticker slap (used to continue a combo) but nothing too different. You’ll also be able to pull off a tantrum move when you bail so you can begin after a fall with a few points to begin a combo, spray graffiti, which is required in some levels and enter a slow-mo focus mode, as well.
Like previous Tony Hawk games, THUG allows you to create skaters (which is actually a predicate for story mode), parks, and graphics which you can then import into decks, among other things. The PlayStation 2 version of the game allows you to send your photo to Neversoft to use in the Create a Skater mode but also includes EyeToy support for those with the peripheral.
THUG 2 can go online on PlayStation 2 and you’ll find the series’ gameplay mode staples like capture the flag, trick attack, king of the hill, graffiti and more like slap, score challenge, combo mambo and firefight. New this year is a scavenger mode where players, including you, hide coins in a level and then everyone runs around trying to find these coins. The person that has the most coins at the end of the time wins. Additionally, Neversoft added an elimiskate mode where the player with the lowest amount of points is eliminated until one remains. The game supports eight-players online, but also includes two-player offline multiplayer.
The game’s visuals are good, but like always, never quite reach great status. The environments are large and pretty detailed, and they all certainly have their own unique little charm. The character models are respectable and animate fluidly, a landmark of the Tony Hawk series. The cutscenes in this version are more cartoon-like than previous games but do fit the crazy story rather well.
THUG 2’s sound effects vividly show the many sounds of skating very well. The soundtrack is most impressive with 53 songs from Metallica to Sugarhill Gang and all the way to Frank Sinatra. For a list of all of the game’s songs visit this news story. The game allows you to turn off songs which aren’t to your liking so you don’t have to listen to any song you don’t want to. Finally, the voice acting from the story cast is solid throughout.
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 is a great skateboarding game that effectively wraps up everything that Neversoft has learned until now. The game, while it doesn’t provide anything drastically different like previous versions, is still quite fun and as I mentioned, the most in-depth yet. Nonetheless, it does make you wonder how long Neversoft can pull off these yearly sequels. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 8, 2004
|
