Well, I got the privilege of playing the new Tony Hawk Proving Ground. I was quite excited to try the game out since the last one I had played was American Wasteland. I raced home, put the disk into my Xbox 360 and got ready to do some serious skating.
First Impression
At first the game looked quite impressive; graphics are as usual pretty good. Got to customize my skater, the normal stuff. Once I started playing I very quickly became quite disappointed. I am not sure about everyone else but this game kind of felt like an add-on for the last Tony Hawk I was playing. The game play is still pretty good but there does not seem to be any major differences, sure you can make your own rigs, do some fancy “bullet time†tricks in the air but other than that it did not seem all that different to me.
What is it?
The gist of the story is you are a “New talent†trying to get discovered. You have the option to skate around and try and attract sponsors, pros by doing challenges, making your own challenges and basically just skating around. I did a few of the tutorials and must say got a little frustrated with some of the controls, might just be a once off thing cause once you get the hang of it, it does get a little easier. The first few “missions†take you through the tutorial telling you how to create your own rigs, have videos taken of your cool tricks and photos for sponsors.
A nice touch that was added to the game is when you meet a Pro within the game you get to watch some real life footage of them in action.
In the end
To me the game did not seem different enough from the others, sure you can make your own rigs, do tricks in slightly difference ways. I think they need to slow down and stop releasing Tony Hawks every couple of months. As you getplaying the one game the next one is already available on pre-release, or that is what it feels like.
Here is what I thought of the game:
Graphics: 8/10
Playability: 8/10
Originality: 4/10
Overall: 6/10
Conclusion
Will I keep playing: Unlikely as there is not enough of a difference from the previous releases. Maybe I will wait till Tony Hawk 15 comes out and try it again. I would say if you have not played Tony Hawk before, or if the last one you played was Tony Hawk 3, go out and get it, otherwise wait till the next one.
Last Updated: November 22, 2007
koldFU5iON
November 22, 2007 at 10:34
you forgot to mention the video editing suite that’s got to stand for something!
Lupus
November 22, 2007 at 12:11
Wait aren’t all of these pretty much Expansions for Tony Hawk games? I mean how much fun can skating be for the 9th time?
hilt_ctn
November 22, 2007 at 13:16
Some franchises just wont die…
Milesh Bhana ZA
November 22, 2007 at 13:17
i must admit, I really enjoyed Project 8. It also didn’t add much but i think the leap to a new engine with all the minor additions still made it feel fresh. Also, i didn’t play American Wasteland, which helped.
Tony Hawk is like Need for Speed, a new one comes out every year, and to enjoy the franchise, the best thing you could possibly do is skip a few releases.
Naturally this argument falls flat when you start comparing TH to skate which is apparently far superior (haven’t played yet, but getting it soon)
Lupus
November 22, 2007 at 13:21
The point is why is there a market for this? I mean skateboarding in real life is barely fun, now you get to play it on the consol too yippee kay yah.
doobiwan
November 22, 2007 at 14:52
I think the core issue with TH, is that, yes it’s always been good and never outdone, the formula’s been fun, but then skate’s show everyone a new way to play and it’s like eating McDonalds your whole life and suddenly having a Lamb Vindy – who the heck wants to go back.
Milesh Bhana ZA
November 22, 2007 at 15:16
hmm…. lamb vindaloo.
@Lupus… different strokes dude. I don’t see the point of stealth games, because i find them annoying, oh look someone saw you… mission failed. But MGS and Splinter Cell are both pretty big and popular franchises.
Stunt-based games have been popular since good ol’ Stunts on the PC. So yeah, it’s really not surprising there’s a market for it.
Why “The Sims” is such a big hit is completely beyond me!
Vincent Maher
November 23, 2007 at 11:55
Dude, play EA Skate, you will never look back.
Boswald
November 23, 2007 at 11:57
Hopefully I get the chance to review that one. Lots of people say it rocks
Abev
November 23, 2007 at 16:40
Skate really does rock, especially if you have ever stood on a real board in your life. The only thing with skate is the difficulty, it is seemingly impossible to pull off the same trick twice in a row.
Gazza ZA
December 18, 2007 at 21:24
Yeah finaly someone has noticed that since THPS 2 all neversoft have been doing is adding gimmicks to the same game, over and over and over, i mean this like THPS 9 now im sure its around 9 if we count stuff like downhill jam ect. Anyways this series was dead to me ages ago, what I want is Skate 2.