Great. If you know what you're in for.
Actually, I ought to flat out tell you - you’re a skater who’s gone to Hollywood to get away from the crap you’ve been getting at home. You father hates your skateboarding, you’ve got issues with your girlfriend and life just generally sucks except for the one important aspect of it - the skating. It doesn’t get much better when you actually arrive at Hollywood - you’re mugged by some locals and left with only your skateboard. Thankfully, a nice bystander by the name of Mindy helps you up and gets you in the know-how of Hollywood. That’s a fine and dandy way to start the game, but it’s vital to remember that this actually isn’t you - you’re playing as some no-name skater already created by the developers.
POW! Bam Margera somehow just stretched his fist out of THUG2 and smacked you right in the face. Not a terribly good start.
Unless you already knew what you were getting into. There are tons who will play THAW, and most can be placed into one of two groups - they know little about the game and/or have high hopes for it, or they know a lot about the game and/or aren’t expecting much out of the experience. I can easily state that the second group have the advantage in THAW’s case.
THAW puts you into the shoes of a nobody and asks you to become somebody. Sound familiar? You’ll be able to draw connections between THAW’s plot and THUG’s rather easily, as the general premise remains the same until about half way into the game. Skate, impress the locals, move on to the next area, rinse and repeat. That’s where some of the audience may be lost - if you were of the first group, you’ll likely expect all of the following: great and original story, much improved skating mechanics, smooth level transitions with no load times, and something that’s different. Contrary to what you want, you’ll get none of that. The story is hardly great or original (the basic concept has been done to death before in other media forms such as film not relating to skateboarding), the mechanics are basically the same as the last game’s (save for some pretty sweet, I do admit, new tricks) the load times are simply fused with your actual gameplay and is done in transition ‘tunnels’ (which chops up the gameplay like a samurai warrior) and the only thing different you’ll find in the story mode is that you now no longer play as yourself, but some other skater geek. It’s easy to imagine you group one guys will be bummed.
But if you walked in already aware of this, then there’s nothing for you to lose and only things to gain. If you despised the story mode of THUG (worry not, skaters - this is NOT a THUG2 repeat a good 90% of the time) then you already know that classic mode exists. You’re also aware of the high-score mode and free skate. Plus, online gameplay. You’re ready to accept what’s been given to you. You can’t be disappointed because you know exactly what’s coming.
But then again, Bam manages to smack you - the classic mode is much shorter than THUG2’s. Any experienced Tony Hawk player will clear the classic mode in less than an hour. It’s not difficult, and the fact that it’s made up of all the old levels from Tony Hawk games (by which I do NOT mean ‘all’ of them) makes it that much easier. People who didn’t geek out on the PSP will have the upper hand when it hits the classic mode, though, as half the levels will be fresh experiences (all the exclusive PSP THUG2 Remix levels are here in ship-shape form, glorious as ever on a bigger screen and oddly better than THAW’s original ‘areas’ in most cases).
It’s good fun for the time it lasts, nonetheless. The classic mode itself is basically you (yes, you, as in your created skater, if you wish) skating against the clock (which is consistently two minutes long) trying to complete as many of the goals presented to you as possible. You may be asked to perform a certain trick over a certain obstacle, or get a certain high score. It plays the exact same way Tony Hawk’s Pro Skaters 1 - 3 did.
The skateboarding mechanics themselves also work great - if you’re a Tony veteran, you have the basics nailed down. If you’re a total beginner, then it’ll take some time for you to grasp how the game works, what with combos and so many various tricks. You string together tricks by performing one trick and somehow connecting it to another trick. You can connect it by doing a manual (where you balance on your front or back wheels of the skateboard), or with the newly introduced Bert Slides, where you drop to the ground and spin around with your hands to guide you, Dogtown style. Thankfully you have an entire mode built with the purpose of teaching you how to play, from step one (moving around) to the final step (mastery of the game). That mode is called the story mode. Veterans I’m sure will be confused when they play the story mode only to get an over-extended tutorial with a story thrown in, but hey. The more you know, the better prepared you’ll be to take it in, the less let down you’ll be when you actually play.
THAW’s big gimmick that’s advertised way too much is it’s ability to transition between levels (or ‘areas’, if you wish to call them that) without loading. This is false immediately just as it’s stated as everything requires loading (most obvious when you’re actually starting the story mode), but in actual gameplay THAW does it’s very best to hide it’s loading times (and mostly fails). Rather than having one huge city to explore and skate through without the need of ever slowing down to flying to different areas, etc you’re given individual areas and ‘transition tunnels’ that connect them. These tunnels are long, dull runs that have a couple rails thrown in here and there, and also holds all the weight of the load times. As you skate through these tunnels, your skating will be notably slower and more choppy - that’s because the game’s loading. You just don’t realize it because you’re still doing your combo (or at least that’s what the developer’s wanted). That’s another thing - because skating through the tunnels gets choppy, the idea of skating from one end of LA to the other in one combo is ridiculous. I don’t doubt it being possible, but I can’t imagine how one would balancing his grinds or manuals through the tunnels near the end, as the choppy ways of the tunnels could all too easily screw up the balance meter when it’s at it’s most vulnerable and force you to fail. That being the game’s fault, not you own, meaning for once your swearing at the game is actually justified.
Though, if you already knew all that, then you have nothing to be let down about and you can enjoy the story mode for what it does present that doesn’t suck - moderately fun skating goals to keep you interested and a mediocre story that one-ups THUG2’s and sits idle beside THUG’s. You’ll get the sponsor challenges and the funny (not THUG2-piece-of-crap-Jackass/Bam Margera ‘funny’, mind you) dialogue to keep you going. You get a mode that lasts four or five times longer than classic mode does, and beefs up a character you can be proud of as the game comes to it’s rather quick conclusion.
The story mode isn’t what it’s chalked up to be, but it delivers. If you’re not expecting high-caliber greatness delivered to you in a convenient package then you’ll easily be able to enjoy it. Plus, you then get all the levels unlocked for use in the online mode (which - you guessed it! - will hold most of your game time if you have a broadband connection (sorry, cavemen - err, dial-up’ers). The next mode you complete is classic, and then you’re basically done the game’s single player expeditions. If it sounds short, you’re unfamiliar with Tony Hawk games meaning you should not be starting here with this game - a much better choice would be Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4.
Online THAW is multiplayer fun for the whole community. Playing against each other in modes such as Trick Attack (try and get the highest score!), Combo Mambo (Nail the largest combo!) and Graffiti (combo on the most objects!) never gets dull, and keeps you at the controller. Granted, you may or may not find the online mode to be a wasteland - not many players on at times, loads of ‘em at others. Depends on your timing (both of the day and of the year), though that’s something you can’t fault the game for. There is a two player split-screen multiplayer that’s available for the users that are without any Internet connection, and though vastly insuperior, it’s definitely holds its own and can be great fun.
Modes of Tony Hawk yore return: Create-A-Skater, Create-A-Trick, Create-A-Park, Create-A-Tag and the return of Create-A-Deck (which went oddly absent in THUG2). Create-A-Skater allows you to customize your very own skateboarder from the bottom up, and this round has some very ‘80s influenced additions (namely the hair-doos). Create-A-Trick has returned now with the ability to create your own grind tricks and manuals! But before you wet yourself with anticipation, understand that you’re stuck with the air trick animations for these just as with the air trick creation - no grind animations. Plus, you can’t control loops, so if you create a grind that’s a 180 Kickflip into a BS 50-50, rather than staying solitary in the 50-50 it just keeps repeating the 180 Kickflip over and over. These additions feel like they were just thrown in without much thought, which is disappointing. But again, the more you know, the less you’ll have to be disappointed about.
Create-A-Tag and Create-A-Deck allow you to design your own graffiti tags and your own skateboard decks respectively. It’s moderate fun that gets old quick and is pretty pointless. Other features include a mediocre (and short) documentary on the making of THAW (though only included if you picked up the collector’s edition). Not much else in terms of your game customizations.
The tunes you listen to as you skate are actually well put together this round. If you dig punk music, you’re given Bad Religion, Circle Jerks, and Black Flag among others. If you’re more of a rock/metal person, then you get Venom, and The Doors. Or, if you’re the type who likes rap, then you’re given another fixing from Del the Funky Homosapien. There’s a little something for everyone here - even you techno guys and disco peoples (though sadly nothing for the industrial crowd; THUG2 had Ministry). If you can’t stand certain songs, then you also have the option to turn any track you wish off. The only thing about the sound that’s rather bad is the repeat of ‘Sonic Reducer’ - a song that was also in THUG2. It’s a good song, granted, but to have it repeated in another Hawk game has both never been done before and shouldn’t have been done. The Xbox version also has the ability to put in your own custom soundtracks - a feature you might want to keep in mind when deciding which copy to purchase.
THAW succeeds where it’s most important to do so - when it tries to be fun. Skateboarding and performing combos has limitless fun, the new environments will keep you busy for skating, and the online mode still triumphs over the others as a mode for some good competition. If you’re without online, you will not be able to get quite the same amount of greatness out of this title as others. That isn’t to say you should not get this game - extreme sports games are infinitely playable as you always have yourself to better, and bettering yourself is very apparent through gameplay. You also now are prepared to take in all of the game’s disappointments you’d have had to discover on your own otherwise, which means you can accept THAW for what it is. And that’s what’s required of you when you play - know what it’s not, accept what it is. Through that you can have such a good time you’ll forgive the bad parts as too much fun is taking place. THAW is a disappointment, but it triumphs nonetheless, and it isn’t nearly the disaster THUG2 was. It’s a must have in anyone’s collection, though waiting out for a price drop or buying it now totally depends on one’s own priorities regarding the acceptance of what the game is. If you can dig it, dive in and treat yourself. If you can’t, do it anyway and wear off that disappointment. Just do it a little more down the line. Either way, you’ll end up smacking Bam back and tearing him to pieces as THAW is easily less of a disappointment than THUG2. Consider the fact that THUG2 was accepted pretty well, and then look at THAW. Pow!