Tony Hawk's Project 8
Oh Birdman, who clipped your wings?
Published: November 28, 2006
Or at least I am. I'm also glad that the storyline elements haven't been completely lost. I mentioned in the American Wasteland review that Neversoft seemed to be going for a presentation that painted you the up-and-coming skater as the star rather than the pros, and the move toward some of the more recent breakouts in favor of more established pros mirrors that. So too does the storyline that builds your stats through actually doing the moves (e.g. grind 5,000 feet to increase that stat) and constantly moving up the list of 200 skaters vying for one of those top 8 spots.
Though I'm trying not to just point to the preview, there's so much there that it works better than most mini-reviews, so I'll just nudge you that way again and cover the basics. Newly added are three levels of the same goal; Amateur, Professional and Sick. The Am goals probably won't take more than a single try for Hawk vets, but the latter goals can take hours of try-and-retry OCD. In fact, the sheer number of goals (including the absolutely stupid hard Classic Goals that now challenge you to complete all of them in a single run to score Sick) is incredible, and the challenges from pro skaters flex their particular expertise, and completing goals is key, since the end of the game actually depends on how many of them you completed.
Something we didn't talk about in the previews were the skate demos, where you effectively pimp your skills in front of an audience. These can be as simple as recording a demo tape or satisfying throngs of onlookers, requiring full use of an area to satisfy everyone. These are sort of expanded versions of the trick-anywhere stokens system. The game's currency is doled out by just busting tricks in front of the locals. Score enough points and they'll throw more cash your way, which you then make use of in the Skate Shops, which are stocked with a retarded amount of shoes and decks, mainly because you'll be seeing a lot of them during Nail The Trick moves.
If I do have one gripe about this whole "you are the up-and-comer" system is that there aren't nearly enough templates for your skater. There's more in place than the laughable number of options in the PS2 version, but it's still not a ground-up sort of system. I'm sure this was to keep the characters as detailed as the 3D scanned (and entirely motion captured) pros and characters in the world, but I never really found someone that looked or dressed like me. There's also no Create-A-Park option anymore, replaced by smaller-scale challenges where you can move set pieces around to complete goals.
The loss of some of the more personalized or creative parts of the game hurt all the more because there's no online play. The one-two hit of having both stripped out means that the game world, while huge, almost feels like it's missing little touches that made it all your own. Create-A-Park would have been tough to do in a pre-assembled world rather than a series of obvious levels (and some classic ones like The School have been updated, yet still feel familiar, so they're welcome additions).
To balance it all out, Neversoft happily embraced the SIXAXIS' motion sensing aspects. You can turn on and off grinds, balance and steering (including reverts), as well as setting the sensitivity for things. Though I never got good enough at it that I felt comfortable using all three, balancing using the controller ended up being something I sort of did naturally, and it really did help. Clearly they're onto something here, though I don't know if purists will ever embrace it.
