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Tony Hawk's Underground 2 PS2 Neversoft/Activision  'THUG2' marks the sixth entry in the popular 'Tony Hawk's' franchise and is essentially the same as its predecessor, '...Underground' but kicks the quality of play and graphics up yet another notch. The story mode is in effect once again, and you play a rookie who is signed up to join Tony Hawk and Bam Margera on their 'World Destruction Tour.' This tour takes you around the world (Barcelona, Berlin, Sydney etc) where particular goals that need to be accomplished to accumulate enough points to move onto the next level, such as skating a particular line in a combo or achieving a certain gap. The Story Mode is reprehensibly short and can be completed within the space of a day but getting the game to 100% completion is a bit more of a challenge. Thankfully, to make up for this, the game also includes a 'Classic' mode which enables the player to revisit the timed run of old, completing as many goals as possible in two minutes. There are a tonne of secret characters and, of course, levels to unlock. Unfortunately, many of the secret levels are parks that were part of the original 'Pro-Skater' games, which, while being a nice piece of nostalgia, have been skated to death by the seasoned veteran and offer very little interest. In addition to the caveman move introduced in 'THUG', there are some new tricks, such as the vert wallplant and the welcome addition of tagging objects with spraypaint. The player can even customise their own tag with which to leave their mark all over the city. There are also some new multiplayer games but I personally found them lacking in innovation. One of the most exciting things about picking up a new 'Tony Hawk's...' game is finding out the list of music tracks that accompany the game and 'THUG2' is no exception. Along with the usual skate-punk and hip-hop standards, there are always some inclusions that come from right out from left-field, this time those inclusions are Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire, Frank Sinatra's That's Life and Joy Division's Warsaw, which is welcome on my speakers any day. The graphics seem a little more 'cartoony' than usual this time around, which doesn't seem out of place given the comedic aspect of the game. One problem I have, though, is the absence of females. There are no established female skaters to choose from ('Tony Hawk's Pro Skater' mainstay Elissa Steamer was unceremoniously dumped from the game) and, more suprisingly, there aren't even any female secret characters! Given the 'laddish' attitude of the game, this could almost be forgiven but it still doesn't cut it, in my eyes. I've seen some kick-ass girl skaters in my time and they deserve much more recognition. 'THUG2' is essentially more of the same from the Neversoft crew with a few tweaks here and there. Don't get me wrong, I love the game and every addition to the franchise but I just wish they'd put in a little more effort.  |
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