For fans of the Tony Hawk series, this is yet another amazing game that manages to top the previous ones.
Although the fundamental gameplay hasn't changed too much since THPS3, there is one major change to the career mode: the elimination of the two-minute goal system. But don't fret! I was worried about this shift to an open-eneded environment, but fear not, because this change is for the better.
The levels you skate in are littered with pedestrians and other bystanders; many of them will give you goals. These goals are the same ones you've been playing for the past few years, and most of them have 2 or 3 minute time limits, just like THPS3. So you'll be collecting SKATE letters, racking up giant combos, and collecting five random objects before time runs out.
The environments you'll be playing in this time around are much larger than the ones from Tony Hawk 4. Also, the levels feel much more open; many of the maps in Tony Hawk 3 were closed-in environments, whereas this time around, the areas are surrounded by invisible walls that just reset you if you skate into them and stray away from the level.
One great thing about the elimination of the 2:00 goals system is that it's essentially a combination of Free Skate and Career Mode. So if you want to just mess around and do tricks and stuff, you can still stay in the Career Mode, and then jump into a goal whenever you want to.
There have been several new things added to the trick system. One of these is the Spine Transfer, which allows you to transition from one ramp in a spine to another (a spine is a set of ramps sitting back-to-back). Also, you can now branch your manuals and grinds. Basically, while in a manual or grind trick, by tapping two face buttons in succession, you can change your trick.
Some might argue this cheapens the combo system, because you can sit around mashing buttons in a manual and rack up tens of thousands of points, but branching tricks throws off your balance, so if you're not careful you'll lose your combo.
You can also now tweak grab and flip tricks by double-tapping the button. So the Judo replaces the Madonna grab if you double tap the grab button.
These are all great changes to the trick system; I wouldn't call it anything as revolutionary as, say, the Revert, but Spine Transfers are very useful.
As usual, you can play as a wide range of pro skaters, like Geoff Rowley, Bam Margera, and Tony Hawk himself. And of course, the custom skater editors and level editors are still there, and they're still just as good as the ones from THPS3.
Graphically, THPS4 is a step up from THPS3, especially in terms of textures and level designs. However, when the camera zooms in on people asigning you goals, their faces are hideous. They also all use the same canned animation when you finish a goal, that you'll learn to grow sick of.
The soundtrack is your standard mix of rock music, punk, and R&B, and like the previous game, there's a lot of great stuff in here. I personally like the soundtrack to THPS3 more, but you can go into the Sound menu and turn off any tracks you don't want to hear. The sound effects are still good as well, even if many of them are recycled from the previous game.
Like I said before, if the transition to an open-ended goal system worries you, it shouldn't. Ultimately it allows for a longer game that you could spend many, many hours playing. For fans of the Tony Hawk series, this is yet another amazing game that manages to top the previous ones.