Skate 2 is not as revolutionary as it´s predecessor but compensates that with alot of new features. Good game!
Skate 2 is the sequel to EA`s Skate. The original was a really good game with revolutionary controls and gameplay. Going out of the box of the typical skateboarding games. Skate 2 lost this element what makes it not quite as revolutionary as it´s predesecor.
Skate 2 takes place in San Vanelona. Yes, the same city as the first game. A massive earthquake destroyed alot of the city and San Vanelona was rebuilt. And you? You have been in jail in the meantime and you are back to claim your reputation. Couldn´t they come up with a better story? Because this one is just plain stupid. Bet let´s focus one the game itself.
When you start up the game you have the chance to create a custom skater. This feature is way better than the first one. There are alot more adjustments you can make. However, the face generation is not that good because it makes your face always turn out a little bit as a monkey even if you spend a really long time to it. There are alot of clothes you can add from the start of the game to your skater. Some people may like it, some not. I didn´t because it takes away my reward to play the game long and unlock all kinds of clothes, shoes and boards like in the first game. Almost everything is available right from the start. This makes the game a little less rewarding to play it really in depth.
When you are finished creating your character you are dropped into the tutorial. This explanes the game once more for those of you who forgot or some or people who never played it. The first thing you will notice is that the graphics are alot better. The developers seem to have added alot more different colors to the game what makes for a realisticer experience.
In skate 1 I noticed that the colors were to intense Too much blue in one place etc. This has been improven significantly in Skate 2.
Another improvement is the trick motion. Flips are alot better. They are done slower compared to the original and are alot more realistic. The only feature I missed here was the style option where you could choose how your skater pulls off some tricks and the way he pushes. I really liked the difference in how to 360 flip etc. The audio in the game is pretty good. The tricks sound really cool and when you are riding on different surfaces the game recognizes this and gives alot of different and quality sounds. The voice acting is still terribly done and the music in Skate 2 is not really good. It doesn´t really add something to the game. The picking of songs if very important for a game like this and they missed it a little bit here.
After the tutorial you are free to explore the really big world of San Vanelona. You can go anywhere right from the start of the game. You can also choose wich challenges to do first so it´s not a linear gaming experience. To sum this up, its GTA on a skateboard. Wich is awesome. There are alot of things to do in the game. Even after finishing the storyline, there are alot of cool spots you find, pools you can drain and skate in and find spots that you´ve seen before in skate 1.
The singleplayer is pretty fun to play. The main challenges can be tough sometimes but overall they are pretty easy. Except for the Hall of Meat challenges. These are really, really hard to do them all. It focused more on luck than skill because there is no way you can do 4 different grabs in one bail and then even land on a bench with 60.000 points on purpose. The storyline can take you a pretty good time but it can be really boring because there are not really big rewards to get when you play the storyline.Yes, there are some really big a*s drops where you can bust a Coffin to Christ air double backflip but that´s not really the cool thing what I was looking for in the game. What I really missed in this game was a realistic skateboarding atmosphere. I skate in real life and the thing I like there is not busting that 360
flip to bluntslide but just having fun with friends and enjoying some tricks. I really missed that in Skate 2. There are alot of AI skaters in the game but they never seem to respond to the player except the occasionally "hey there!". And that Reda camera guy makes it even worse haha. That was problaby my most annoying in game voice ever.
So with the singleplayer being a little bit lone there is luckily a online multiplayer function.
And this one is really good. There are alot of things you can do online. Of course you have the ranked matches like S.K.A.T.E. and own the spot wich are really enjoying. The only thing I missed was a cool reward system except points to get Legend rank and get my golden trophy.
I wanted to have online unlockables like new clothes or something. I missed that in this game.
Besides the ranked matches you have the option to play free skate with your friends. You can skate in the whole city of San Vanelona with your friends and when your up to it, you can do alot of challenges wich are alot of fun. I really enjoyed this with my friends.
The revolutionary controls scheme is still there. With the right analogue stick you control your feet. For example, if you hold the stick down and press it up quick you do an ollie. Press it from down to left up you do a kickflip or heelflip depending on your stance.
With the left stick you control your body. When you are in the air and turn it right, you do a right turn. Press it forward or backward in the air you can do bodyflips.
The right and left bumpers control you hands. With the right bumper you control your right hand to do grabs with your right hand for example. Press them both and you do a grab with two hands. Really cool but you have to learn it. At first it can be difficult to do a kickflip but keep ollying. But you will get the hang of it soon. For me, playing skate 1 and skate 2 all the time, it´s still hard to do a varial flip and not a kickflip or 360 flip. This is the hardest part in skate 2. being precisely with the controls. But keep practicing, just like in real life!
The biggest difference from skate 1 is the ability to get off your board. I honestly believe that EA didn´t implemented this feature in skate 1 because they knew they where going to make part 2 and they need to have at least one big feature. But whatever, it´s here anyway.
With that said, the walk ability is just plain awefull. The walking motion is really bad and it looks and feels like your skater is walking on a planet with alot more gravity and facing insane winds in front of him. This function could been alot better.
Skate 2 is said to double it´s bag of tricks. It did if you mean that a boneless, boneless 180, boneless 360 and a boneless 720 are 4 tricks. I count one. And that´s a bonus. EA cheated a little bit here. Technically it´s double the bag tricks but we all know it´s not haha.
And then there is a "create a spot" function. I had alot of good expectations from this because the fun of skating is that you can skate the way you like it and where and the feature to make your own skatespots looked really promising to me. It didn´t really turn out that good on me. The range of objects you can use is limited. Only bars and tables and some miniramps. That´s it. The first two times it´s fun but after that there is nothing new to do. And when you move objects it really feels way too light. They feel to be made out of plastic so when you ride against it on accident it moves all away and you can start over. Then there is the teleport object functions or something wich I didn´t understand a thing from. Could be me though.
I rather have seen this feature be removed and have a "create a park" feature instead.
So to sum it up. This game is really good and fun to play. For people that love to skate in real life this is alot of fun and a must buy. For people who don´t know nothing about skateboarding this gane can be a let down because it´s just to hard to learn with all the controls and names of tricks. But still give it a try and hope you will love it. If you enjoyed the first Skate this is a must buy. After finishing the singleplayer there is a great online feature wich can add alot of more hours of fun for you.
Review by Arern.