Before I get to the actual review, I just want to say that personally this is my favorite Tony Hawk game. With my second fav being Tony Hawk's Underground and my 3rd being Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3.
I will be reviewing the PS3 version. Now the story of the game isnt anything that we haven't already seen. You start out as an average everyday skater (that you get to customize) and your mission is to improve as a skater and get to the top of the skater line along with all the professional skaters in the game that help you out, give you tips and teach you new moves. This game is similar in design and gameplay to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, Underground, and Underground 2, where you get to free skate around and take on goals whenever you feel like it in order to advance the story further.
When you start out you will first customize your skater, and learn the basics on how to play the game before you start roaming around and doing goals as you please.... In terms of graphics; they're still pretty good in my opinion despite the fact that this game came out early in the PS3's life-time. Anyway's back to the gameplay... As you go through the game, you'll find many professional skaters around, and of course, goals that you have to beat. There are 3 types of goals you can beat in the game that determine your skating style and something else later in the game that i won't spoil. Theres: Career, Hardcore and Rigger, all with their own custom challenges to beat.
Most of the goals in the game have different ways you can beat them that will determine your rank on that challenge, The ranks are:
Am: This is the easiest rank to get in a challenge, it requires you to do something fairly simple and super easy. This rank is cake to get.
Pro: This is the medium rank you can get, this rank obviously requires you to do a slightly harder task.
Sick: This is the hardest rank to get in the game, If you really want to get this rank, you better be ready to give 100% because these ranks don't f**k around. Almost all of the sick challenges in the game will make you want to pull all your hair out of your head and scream at the TV. Even with full stats the challenges will still kick your a**! I wish you luck!
Also keep in mind that you only have to get an Am ranking on a challenge, a Pro or Sick rank is optional. There are also Street Challenges which are the challenges that you will randomly find all over the world. These challenges are required for getting 100% in the game and can also give you some extra cash and skill points if you happen to need any.
This Tony Hawk game also introduces some new elements such as being able to take pictures of your tricks that you perform, and placing objects such as rails, and ramps wherever you choose to.
Now even though I said that this Tony Hawks game is my favorite, I'm not going to just give it a 10/10. The 2 complaints I have about this game is that The Over-world is kinda small. Don't get me wrong, Its big but for a PS3 game and the ONLY world that you play in, its pretty small. Granted, the city does have some killer spots to skate in that can get you some huge combos, but its still not enough for me personally. My other complaint is that most of the challenges in the game are way too hard...well at least for the Pro and Sick challenges. I think the difficulty line between Pro and Sick in this game is way too far apart. For example theres a challenge in this game that requires you to get a certain amount of points in a 2:00 run (just like Tony Hawk 1-4) and look at the score difference:
Am: 80,000
Pro: 125,000
Sick: 800,000
Now if you haven't been able to tell, The difference between Pro and Sick is Waaaay too far apart! I know that the Sick challenges aren't supposed to be a walk in the park or anything but I personally think that the developers went way too far with most of the sick challenges.
So my final score for this game is an 8/10.