Skate 2.
Skate 2 delivers it's unique style as somewhat of a oxymoron. As the complexity of the control scheme is delivered in simple presentation - with the right analogue stick controls the skaters body and the left controlling the skaters foot movements on the board. While this intuitive step in the genre, the small hiccups that hold Skate 2 back from reaching it's full potential.
But what the game does right, it what makes it already a cut above it's competition. It loosely follows a story in career, but expect that to take a back-seat after the first hour of gameplay. The story follows up from the ending of the original Skate, you've now served your time in prison but you quickly realise New San Vanelona is not the place it once was. The city has cleaned up all the local skaters and now you have the Mongocorp security team to deal with. They are ridding the city of disorderly conduct, and placing anti-skate caps around the city to prevent skaters from "shreddin' a sick line". So you take it upon yourself to make a name for yourself and reclaim the city. Which includes downhill death-races, trick competitions, going head to head with the pro skaters and the completion of a photoshoot wouldn't hurt, either. All of these are pretty straight forward to do, although the game's quality takes a nose dive when it tells you exactly which tricks perform and exactly how to do them. It's not that the tricks are difficult to perform, it has a trick book with over 100 unique tricks, the problem lays between the slight difference in execution between each trick. To control which trick you do by flicking the analogue stick down to crouch then flick it upward to perform a Ollie then depending on which direction or rotation you go next, a different trick will be performed. With this, a slight degree difference in direction could mean failure in a challenge. With over 10 tricks all assigned very similar motions, precision is crucial.
This means the retry button quickly becomes that annoying aunt that you loathe. You will quickly find yourself building frustration as the game is very tedious with it's challenge difficulty. There will be that one challenge you just can't complete, you keep bailing, doing the wrong trick or a pesky pedestrian got in the way - which will no doubt cause many foul words to escape your lips and a disturbance call logged by the local police, but when you tell them you were playing Skate, they will understand.
If you aren't new to the series you will remember from the previous installation; getting to the challenge was a whole new challenge in itself. But rest assured, this time around you are a 'skater evolved'. Getting off your board becomes very efficient as all your challenges are spread across the vast world of San Van. Also with the addition of more rails, stairs and ramps, getting off your board to get to the inaccessible areas cut's down a lot of unnecessary work. Although the walking mechanics feel clumsy and unpolished, the ability to walk took the game to new heights – and the rooftops!
Taking your foot off the board also helps the exploration of the city, a lot of places and challenges are in very environmentally unique areas. You will find yourself taking up challenges in the middle of a forest, in a sanitary sewer and in the cliff tops. But this isn't the only bonus it provides. Another welcome addition to the franchise is the ability to get off your board and drag and move props around and create your own skate spots. Line up a launch ramp and a rail and your good to go, but this is only as good as the imagination of the user. The game does make use of this feature, but briefly. You will mostly find yourself doing it of your own free will. It can serve a great addition to the game, but in practice it seems there is a major flaw. It appears the objects have no real life weight, meaning everything is extremely light. Which makes sense as a random skater can just grab the size of a quarter pipe and drag it uphill. But, you realise it's not a even balance when you spend time aligning ramps to perfect your skate-able spot only to ride up the ramp and have it move several yards. Although there is a feature to restore all items at the push of a button, it just seems like added work.
From a graphical stand point, Skate 2 is definitely up there with the best of them. If you take time out to skate around the different environments around San Van it will quickly hit you just how much detail has gone into the variations and textures of the city. The forests have a cool feel of them as you are sheltered over by a canapé of tree's and leaves, leaving you out of the suns rays with the slits of light that have managed to shine through the tree's overhead. Then on the opposite site of the spectrum you have the busy city central with everything you'd expect, from speeding cars, sounds and sights of wheels hitting rails and the hustle and bustle of an alive community. Similarly a lot of this goes hand in hand with the impressive sound quality. The realism of the sound effects from the skateboard is well noted. Every variation of wheel motion provides it's own sound and feel. Depending on your personal taste, the in-game soundtrack may, or may not appeal to you. It seem the soundtrack targets more hardcore skaters rather than the casual crowd of the sport featuring such bands as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motorhead, The Clash and Public Enemy.
Skate 2 is also got a thriving online community which greatly adds to the experience. When skating around the city you will be alerted of your friends score on a certain spot with an option to go head-to-head with their score. Another great new feature is to download and rate the created spots of your friends, and from skaters around the world. Once again a old friend returns in the form of the "Skate reel". If you are unsure as to what this is, basically, the camera view in Skate is from the perspective of a cameraman who is skating behind you constantly. In Skate reel, when you skate a good line, you can instantly pause the game, edit the video of your line and upload it to the community to rate and adore. Though, the best addition to the Skates revamped online system is the new Burnout Paradise-style co-op challenges; which consist of a team of 2-4 working together towards a common goal which can range from accumulating scores to simultaneously gapping a water fountain. Overall the online is worth checking out with some friends as you can get together and have a chuckle over each others character models.
When it comes to customisation, it's vital in this stage of gaming. While Skate has a lot of customisation for your characters style and personality. It doesn't deliver so much in the facial appearance. There wasn't that many face models to choose from, with none of them looking natural, either. It's not often you see your characters face, but it would still be nice to base his looks on your devilish good looks. Skate also takes it's interactivity to new leaps and bounds as you can now create personal skater graphics on the computer then download them straight to your game in what seemed to be a quick and painless operation.
When it comes down to it, Skate 2 is the best skateboard game on the market at the moment. At times it can have you in tears of rage then leave you in a orgasm of satisfaction. It's just a shame there are ties that keeps Skate 2 from reaching it's full potential, from the frustrating challenge to the clumsy walking controls. But, what Skate 2 does right, is fantastic. From it's slick presentation, unique controls, it has a lot too offer. Once it gets it's small bugs under wraps it can be a fitting alternative for when you suffer one of those monster bails in real life. Oh the irony.