Definitely in my top 5 PS2 games. One of the best skateboarding games. One great game!
The story of this game is great, I loved it. It's about you, some kid from New Jersey who becomes a pro with his friend Eric Sparrow. It has betrayal and a few twists on the way, which is what makes it great.
The missions in the game are fun and varied, I still have fun playing them now, when I have EA Skate and a PS3. Problem is, the majority of them don't tie in to the story at all... but they're still fun, never the less.
Eric Sparrow has possibly the most annoying voice of all time. (Yo Ja-Ja Binks, I respect what your doin, I'll let you finish, but Eric Sparrow has one of the most annoying voices OF ALL TIME!)
Instead of the Pro Skater leveling up style, this time you level up by completing challenges by doing tricks. Whatever type of tricks they were, you level up with the type. For example; if I did an axle stall (which is a lip trick) for say... 3 seconds, my lip trick skill would level up. When your skills level up, you get better at the skill. There are pros skating around in pretty much all the levels, they give you a challenge of doing a special trick, if you do, you get a new special trick slot, where you can put your own, or another special trick into. These special tricks you put in are just more tricks you can use to get points.
Making your own tricks is pointless and time consuming, and when you finish making them, you wonder why you just did that because it looks terrible and all the pre-set tricks look way better.
Customization (apart from the trick making thing) is really good. You can make your character look virtually like anything you want, and make your own deck look virtually like anything you want, which is cool.
The extra vehicles are fun to use, although they feel like the developers just through them in there. They're clunky to drive sometimes but it is a nice addition.
Getting off your board is revolutionary. It adds to the atmosphere of the game and makes you feel like you can do anything you want.
The controls are responsive, and usually (once you know how) it does the trick you want it to do, although sometimes it screws up. It's a bit annoying, but nothing big.
The graphics are good, with good character models and better animations. Sometimes they can appear grainy, which is a little weird, although nothing big. The framerate is very smooth too, which is nice.
Overall Tony Hawks Underground (THUG) is a great game, I highly recommend it and it is extremely addictive. I would pay $100 for this but I got it in a 2 for $30 deal at The Games Wizard (which is now called GAME... bit weird) which was a great deal. If you don't have this game you will love it, even if you have EA's Skate or Skate 2, this game is still just as good.
Review by minimme on Saturday, 10th October 2009.