Absolutely revolutionary for this genre. The makers of Tony Hawk should be ashamed.
After purchasing the game, I can not rave about it enough. I had absolutely no idea how immense the world was that you can skate in. It's basically a world the size of GTA: Vice City than you can freely skate. This completely blew me away. No "levels"... completely open. Like grinding stairs and rails, skate i the downtown area... like benches, curbs, and pools, you stay in the burbs.
While the character customization is a tad weak (in terms of creating the look of your skater), the idea of sponsorships is great. The selection of items is not too bad either, no matter what your style is.
I found the initial learning curve to be on the steeper side for things like timing, but after 2-3 hours, things just "click", making the game a lot less frustrating and even more enjoyable.
The storyline so far is not so bad, but nothing to write home about either. Small touches like pedestrians changing what they say based on how you're progressing in the game is a nice touch. At first they all hate you, but get in a couple magazines and you'll start hearing people say "hey, aren't you that guy i saw in the magazine" or even giving you praise on tricks you perform near them.
Overall, I was blindsided by this game and how revolutionary it is for the genre. The makers of Tony Hawk should be ashamed for spoon-feeding us the game tired model of how to lay a skating game for so long. I think this was my favorite game of 2007 hands-down, and I'm a 30 year-old Tiger Woods freak. Ha!
PROS:
- Unbelievable world to skate in. Massive, open, never boring.
- Solid graphics.
- Robust music selection (and full ability to turn tracks on and off).
- Most realistic skating game to date.
- Awesome real-world sponsor clothing and deck/wheel/truck options.
CONS:
- Limited initial character design.
- Pedestrians are annoying (even though it does make it more realistic).