The digital equivalent of meth amphetamines.
But little did I know how immersed I'd become in the Career mode. This game is the digital equivalent of meth amphetmines. It overloads your brain, jolts you with energy, causes you to lose sleep and is horribly, horribly addictive.
This high addiction level may lead to insanity as the inability to put down your controller is also complicated by an incredibly hard, spirit-crushing difficulty level.
But first, the pros.
The best part about the game is the Hall of Meat feature, which alleviates stress, is downright funny and, a warning to all the empathetic, the most painful feature in any game ever made. Nothing is more fun than launching your skater into the dam boardless or down a flight of stairs upside down (grab and do a bs roll stopping in mid rotation). This feature alone is worth the price of admission.
The graphics on this game are beautiful and EA went out of it's way to make everything gorgeous. You're created skater looks just as good as the pros and the backgrounds and settings are jaw dropping.
The soundtrack is awesome. From the first few moments of Ghost Town by The Specials to the outro of one of the Clashes best songs, Death or Glory, I was amazed how perfect the music was for the mood. I would hear The Specials when I was gliding between challenges, and Dragonforce and Motorhead when I was in heated competitions and races.
And my last bit of gushing is about races and the sense of speed the game gives you. The races are easily the most fun and most intense parts of the game, because, after all, nothing says fun like going 50 mph down an 80 degree hill.
The physics and and flick controls fall into the medium category. While both are incredibly realistic, they are cruel mistresses.
When you're told simply to grind or gap, life is sweet. Flick controls seem really inventive and fun as you boardslide along benches or do crazy aerials. When you're asked to do more specific tricks, such as doing a manual to jump to manual or a tailslide to a gap to a noseslide, you almost long for the simplicity of the good ol' Tony Hawk days, when triangle was grind and you didn't have to angle your grinds, just push a direction pad button.
The physics as just as annoying in parts. As soon as you're admiring dropping from building you're screaming at the game for causing your knees to give as you bailed coming into the quarter pipe below for a safe landing. The obtaining and maintaining of speed becomes a constant issue in most challenges and the most minor instances of clipping often lead to you being flung from your board to an excruciating bail.
The sloppiest parts of the game are the moving of objects and walking. Both are sluggish and seem thrown on last minute. While making your own spots is fun as hell, rotating the pieces for an hour is most certainly not. You know the walking is bad when, the first time you get off your board, you realise it's impossible to turn unless you're moving forward at the same time and walking up stairs is the biggest pain in the ass.
The two most frustrating things about the game are the pedestrians and the Own the Spot challenges, which both work together to make your life a living hell. Pedestrians are plentiful in the game and always show up infront of you just as you're about to attempt a challenge or goal. They dodge, but you've already turned to avoid them, lost speed, lost the proper angle and you either get a dreadful score or you bail and fail.
Own the Challenge is still the king in eye-gouging, soul-rending frustration. First the game gives you a simple goal score which you need to beat. Then it gives you a near impossible score to beat. Once you've beaten that, there seems to be a perpetual string of "Beat your own score" challenges that prevents you from ever owning the spot. This coupled with pedestrians leads to bouts of bottomless rage and inner torment.
The services sections are neat but neither add, nor detract from the game. You can play the entire game using only Sammy's drainage service, not resorting the the use of Mike or Big Black. It's merely just there if you want it.
But despite the nuisances, the games is great on the whole, and will leave you craving more and more.