Review By: jenksy | Posted: 21/10/2007
Final Word:
A game with a lot of potential but a few flaws that are significant to hold it back from greatness.
The game differs from Tony Hawk in its spirit as well as control system. Most of the game is open from the start. If you want you can just cruise round finding areas to skate and just enjoy yourself. In fact if you just cruise around you will see other skaters, follow them and you may just find a sweet place to trick. There are of course some area to unlock such as the X-Games and a mega skate park along with some other basic skate parks.
The career element of the game follows your skater from an amateur (who has just had a collision with a vehicle) through to an X-Games finalist. This is done by progression through two different magazines. You are given a number of challenges for each magazine, complete enough of these challenges and you will be invited to partake in a photo shoot where your photo will end up in the relevant magazine. As you progress you will get closer to the front of the magazine with the ultimate goal being a spot on the front page. Challenges take several forms, some are basic photo shoots where you are required to do a specific challenge in a specific area, such as ‘grind the rail and score 500 points’. Jams require you to beat your opponents in a skating competition with the highest cumulative score, Best tricks pits you against opponents to score the best single trick, SKATE is a copycat game, death races are a race to the finish line and there are also videos. Videos have a list of criteria such as points, number of grinds and number of grabs, but can be carried out anywhere in the game. Part of the skill with these challenges is finding the right spot to attempt them.
In addition to the magazines there are also pro challenges, these are difficult challenges that unlock videos, clothing and sponsors. Sponsors are important as they provide additional cash, Sponsorship is available for board, trucks, shoes and wheels. If you complete a challenge whilst sporting your sponsors gear you will get additional cash.
Graphically the game is quite impressive. The city has a real feeling of a living city, areas are detailed and well thought out. Character models show a lot of detail and there is a massive range of clothing available to try out.
The game has all the sounds you would expect and not just the sounds of the board and the ambience. Finally EA seem to have put together a decent soundtrack for a game. Rather than sticking to one genre there is a full range of tracks available for you to listen to.
The game has a full video editor. This allows you to record your finest moments and then choose various camera angles and effects to put together a video clip. These clips can then be uploaded to a website and rated by your friends. In fact they can also be converted from the website and moved to your mobile device to show off to anyone is interested.
Whilst I have praised the game so far there are some points that I am unhappy with. Firstly the trick book is very poorly put together. It doesn’t explain a lot of the tricks very well at all. One task called ‘Technical Benchmark’ requires you to perform two specific grinds on one bench. Unfortunately the trick book doesn’t explain how to do the trick, in fact if you follow the trick book you will do a completely different trick. Staying on the subject of tricks there is a distinct absence of flatland tricks and stalls.
The career element of the game follows your skater from an amateur (who has just had a collision with a vehicle) through to an X-Games finalist. This is done by progression through two different magazines. You are given a number of challenges for each magazine, complete enough of these challenges and you will be invited to partake in a photo shoot where your photo will end up in the relevant magazine. As you progress you will get closer to the front of the magazine with the ultimate goal being a spot on the front page. Challenges take several forms, some are basic photo shoots where you are required to do a specific challenge in a specific area, such as ‘grind the rail and score 500 points’. Jams require you to beat your opponents in a skating competition with the highest cumulative score, Best tricks pits you against opponents to score the best single trick, SKATE is a copycat game, death races are a race to the finish line and there are also videos. Videos have a list of criteria such as points, number of grinds and number of grabs, but can be carried out anywhere in the game. Part of the skill with these challenges is finding the right spot to attempt them.
Graphically the game is quite impressive. The city has a real feeling of a living city, areas are detailed and well thought out. Character models show a lot of detail and there is a massive range of clothing available to try out.
The game has all the sounds you would expect and not just the sounds of the board and the ambience. Finally EA seem to have put together a decent soundtrack for a game. Rather than sticking to one genre there is a full range of tracks available for you to listen to.
Whilst I have praised the game so far there are some points that I am unhappy with. Firstly the trick book is very poorly put together. It doesn’t explain a lot of the tricks very well at all. One task called ‘Technical Benchmark’ requires you to perform two specific grinds on one bench. Unfortunately the trick book doesn’t explain how to do the trick, in fact if you follow the trick book you will do a completely different trick. Staying on the subject of tricks there is a distinct absence of flatland tricks and stalls.
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