Here is a review by The IB, This game is on Tony Hawk Underground 2. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 was released for the PlayStation 2 on October 5th, 2004, and is the 2nd game in the Underground / Wasteland trilogy, this game has introduce a new element in skateboarding, like new and returning levels, newer features, newer experience, and even a newer game mode introduced. So, I think this game has brought a whole lot of interesting changes in the entire Tony Hawk series, although this isn’t my top game, but this has been up there though, why I say that, let’s look at this interesting review.

Graphics..

For the graphics, we don’t really seen a whole lot of changes than we seen in Underground 1 but the returning levels are the ones that has seen a huge upgrades from their respected games (THPS 1, 2, & 3). I have played those levels in those games and I have played those levels in Tony Hawk Underground 2, and it has dramatically changed from both games. As for the animation I think they are also a huge improvement from Underground 1, instead of a sharp, low frame per second, but in this game, we have seen it dramatically change to the better with more frames for the animation especially with the vehicle animation. As for the skaters themselves, they all look a lot more realistic than ever before, but it still needs to look a little more realistic, but meh. But other than all the good stuff with the graphics, I think they are a couple of places in the graphics I still think would still needed improved like a few buggy graphics, but they wasn’t upgrades for a game, so this is the best you got really, but I still think the graphics are still alright.

For the graphics, I will give it a 9 out of 10, I think with the graphics are a little bit better than in THUG 1 as for the animation, but for the other graphics, I think they could needed a tiny bit of fixing though, but I don’t think it’s too bad to be game breaking.

---------------

Sound/Music..

For the sound effects it gives a lot more interesting effects added especially when it comes to the destruction sound effects when you cause those destructions in 6 of those levels, and it’s not just about the destruction you cause that makes. The typical skating sounds also applies into this game, it has a little bit of an improvement from the last game when you skate around on the ground, like make it sound a little more clearer. As for the background noises if you happen to turn the music off, you will hear a lot of interesting noises with the background, like the cities of Boston, Barcelona, Berlin, and New Orleans, a beach sounds of Australia, and the country side of Skatopia. So the sounds are outstanding.

As for the Music in the game, although it doesn’t have a big playlist than we have seen in THUG 1, but it still has a more decent list with songs fit really well with Underground 2, especially when it comes to the Destruction Tour, this game has more of an rock theme to it with the music (just like how Underground 1 favorite Hip-Hop and American Wasteland favorite Punk). This game here has also added a few songs to my music playlist, so you can say that this song has a decent playlist.

For both the sound effects and the music, I have to give it a perfect 10 out of 10, the reason I gave it a 10, it’s the best sounds and the best music that the Tony Hawk series has offered so far (but they all upgrade to better and better effects and better and better music), so that’s why this gets a “10”.

---------------

Addiction Level..

For the Addiction Level in this game, to tell you the truth, if you compare to Pro Skater 2 and Underground 1 which both are my 2 favorite games in the entire series, but for this game, it’s not too addicting to me unlike the other two, but it is still addicting though. But it is addictive to a couple of Tony Hawk gamers out there, because after all, it’s got the most levels than any other Tony Hawk game with a total of 15 level, so if you want to play a bunch of levels with half of the levels are new levels and half of them are returning levels from the past Tony Hawk games (mostly from Pro Skater 1, 2, & 3), and with these many levels, you bound to get a lot of gamers to this game to relive in some of the levels they played in the past Pro Skater games, plus all the other modes that the player experience with. But like said in Underground 1, the only way you can really play this game is play it on the PlayStation 2 because as of this moment, you can’t buy it from the PlayStation Store anytime soon, so if your PS2 dies on you, you really can’t play this game which makes it a downer for me because I want to play this game. This does tell you on how addictive this game can be.

For the Addiction Level, I will give this game a 9 out of 10, I personally think it could be a little more addicting if some of the levels have like the same playing field like we seen in the last game (Underground 1), but it might just be me though, it’s still a good game though, that’s why this gets a “9” though.

---------------

The Storyline..

The story takes place before the events of Tony Hawk Underground’s storyline; you were skating around in your hometown (which has the same location as New Jersey in THUG 1) minding your own business and all of a sudden, a mysterious black van shows up and you end up crashing into the black van and all of a sudden, two masked men kidnapped you and takes you to an abandoned warehouse (the same warehouse from Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1) and the same 2 masked men torture you and a bunch of other skaters, but after a few torture moves, the two masked men reveal themselves as Tony Hawk and Bam Margera, and after both of them have explain on why you at the warehouse in the first place, they all have a meeting about having a “World Destruction Tour” where two teams (Team Hawk vs. Team Bam) travel in 6 locations and score as much points as you can to move on (it has a set amount of points to reach depending on the difficulty), and once you gain the amount of points you need to move on, you just talk to Tony Hawk (or Phil Margera in Berlin) and once you do, each end of the level will show a cutscene related to the Destruction Tour such as team members being eliminated to switching teams (and back). And you got an annoying guy named Nigel Beaverhausen, who will help you out paying for any damages both teams has caused only if he allows to film the Destruction Tour, and they have a deal made, but what turns out, he only got a footage of Phil Margera in the bathroom, and after in disbelieve, Bam ended up pulling Nigel’s pants down and Nigel is in embarrassment that he got pranked. After that, the credits play with multiple stories in the news.

For the storyline, I will give this game an 7 out of 10, I think the storyline seems pretty alright, although there are a few holes in the storyline, but those holes are quite small though, although this is the 2nd ever storyline in the Tony Hawk series, some think that the story is a little better than Underground 1, but I think it’s the otherway around, but that’s my opinion. That’s why I gave the storyline a “7”.

---------------

Depth..

This to my opinion, it has the most content than any other Tony Hawk game past or future games and it also happens to have the most levels in any Tony Hawk game in history with 15 different levels (8 new levels and 7 returning levels as well). It has so many levels, the game is split in half with 6 of the new levels plus 1 of the returning levels be featured in the World Destruction Tour which falls under “Story Mode” and a brand new mode to bring all the classic goals from Pro Skater 3 with a few extra goals added into the mix from the other 3 Pro Skater games which will use 14 of the 15 levels (all but the bonus Pro Skater level), so, no matter on what Mode you select, you will be able to unlock numerous levels, gain multiple items, and a bunch of other things, in the classic mode, you can only have to do 6 of the levels to complete the entire Classic mode. It isn’t all the skating modes, but the Customizing modes, it brings the same 5 customizing modes (create-a-skater, create-a-park, create-a-trick, and create-a-goal, create-a-deck) but also it has introduce a new customizing mode called “create-a-graffiti” where you can make your own mark to spray on the walls (or other things). So, this game has a whole lot of things in the game, 2 game modes, 6 customizing modes, 15 levels, this is why Underground 2 has more stuff in a Tony Hawk game than any other games in the series.

For the Depth, I will give this a perfect 10 out of 10, with 15 big levels to play in, plus all of the customizing you can do, I feel like this is the greatest game in the Tony Hawk series when it comes to the Depth, this is why it has to have a perfect “10” score.

---------------

Difficulty / Gameplay..

The Difficulty of the game is still hard, but I think to my opinion, this might be the easiest Tony Hawk game as of this game, even in both game modes, it doesn’t really take as long to get a 100% completion in this game unlike the past Tony Hawk games, especially Underground 1. Just like I mentioned in the Storyline, to complete a level in Story Mode you need to get a certain amount of point and it mostly depends on the difficulty you select will determine on how many points you need to get in order to move onto the next level.

As for the gameplay, it really different than the gameplay in Underground 1, but they have been a few add into the game and a few minor upgrades with the controls. Some of the new things added into the game is when you wreck, you can show an amount of frustration you want to show by rapidly tapping triangle and depending on how much you tap will depend on how much frustration you show, and it will give you a big boost in your next combo run, which is a great feature added into the series (and American Wasteland also has the feature).

For the Difficulty and the Gameplay, I will give this a 7 out of 10, with all the task you have to do in the Story Mode to gain amount of points, it doesn’t seem too tough to get, even on hard. As for the controls, they run as smoothly as Underground 1 with a few upgrades. So it’s not so bad though.

---------------

Overall..

Overall, this game is a pretty alright game none the less, yes, to my knowledge, this game has added a whole lot of new material that we have never really seen in a Tony Hawk game before like new modes, new customize mode, and a whole lot of updates to all the create-a-mode, this game has seen it all with the amount of upgrades from the past game. As for the graphics though, I think to my personal view, they really aren’t that bad to my knowledge, still needs a few improvements, but all and all, I still think they are a little bit of an upgrade when it does come to the graphic parts of the game, and I got to say the same with the sound effects, I also think the sound effects are also a little bit of an improvement in the game as well with better quality with the effects and the background sounds, I think having the environment fit in with the location is a nice fit for that location, which does give it a little bit of a theme about that particular location. As for the music, this game mostly focus on the rock part and I do like the rock genre and that is why I like this game, well, mostly with the music because the music of this game is so great, and some got me interested into listing to them for a good long time. As for the storyline, sure, it might seem a little stale and I could of think they could have done a little better (which I think they did with the next game which I will get to in a future review), but hey, I don’t care too much about the story though. So, all and all, this game is alright, it does got a lot of improvements, but not anything major though.

For my final thoughts on this game, this is a pretty alright game, not the best in the series to my point of view, but still pretty decent for you to try. I think mostly the amount of detail is the one that really takes the cake with this game with the amount of levels you can play in. So, to my point of view, I would still tell you that this is the game to try out on your own, not the best in the series, but something that is worth checking out.

For the final score, I will give it an 8.7 out of 10, why I gave it an 8.7. Well, it does have a lot of stuff in it, don’t get me wrong, I think mostly the storyline and a couple of other things kind of bombed this game, but not really by a whole lot though, I think a lot could be done though, but still, I do like to play this game on a couple of occasions, mostly if I feel like playing a game with a lot of levels, that my friends on why I gave it an “8.7”

Anyways, that is all for this review.