Although it's an improvement over THUG2, it's by no means a must buy.
Although I haven't beaten or got really too far into the career mode it seems decent. The usual find the person, talk to them to get a mission, and you complete it. What differs in this game, is that instead of the usual 3 difficulty modes, they are now incorporated into one mode. For every mission, there are 3 levels, for example, one mission requires you to retrieve golf balls the person hits to various places around the level with a time limit. If you get 3, you get the Amateur level, 5, pro level, and 7, sick level. So although for some missions it works, others are too easy or too hard. The goal of the game is to become one of the to 8 skaters. you start at 200. After you complete a mission, you'll move up a few places. I haven't gotten to the top 8, so I can't tell you what happens there yet
Another mode included is called "Classic". 10 levels from previous games. although I enjoyed this, it feels thrown into the game at the last second, you can beat it really fast, and the goals aren't very well thought out. One of the levels is Alcatraz from THPS4, and you have to smash 5 trash cans. All 5 trash cans are in the same area you start out in though, so it's really easy. Customizing your Character isn't very deep either, 3 type of characters and 3 variations.
Finally, the game has one fatal flaw, it can become way to easy. Remember reverting and manualing? Now it's very, very simple because it only takes tapping one button. Sometimes I don't even mean to revert and it pops up with the little timer saying I still have a few seconds to find a rail or ramp to further my already ridiculous combo score.
A very deep soundtrack, plenty of different types of songs and a very large number of tracks, no complaints there Graphics are the same as THUG2
So my final thoughts are simple, if you love Tony Hawk, this won't disappoint, if you already have THUG2, or just not big into the Tony Hawk series, I'd say skip it. Keep in mind I haven't beaten Career mode yet.