The series would spawn several sequels and spin-offs with BMX bikes, snowboards, and even surf boards. The overall problem, however, was Activision treated this series like it did with Guitar Hero, Spider-Man, and Call of Duty, and release game after game, eventually beating a dead horse, releasing mediocre products and tapping the money well for all it was worth. Obviously, Call of Duty is getting its act together, Guitar Hero is getting a new entry after a hiatus, and now we have Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. After all the attempts at the Tony Hawk series with games like Project 8 (good), Proving Ground (not so good), Ride and Shred (terrible), and so on, we are finally getting what is touted as a return to the Pro Skater greatness.
Just HOW great is this supposed return of the skateboard king? Well....uh...just read on...here is what I think of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5.
(For the purposes of this review, let it be known I played the Xbox One version of the game)
From the very beginning I knew to keep my expectations low, as the Activision splash screen's audio would cut out every couple seconds."Nevermind" I thought, "just a simple bug that a quick patch can fix later on, no big deal.". Little did I know, this would set the tone for the experience I was about to have.
After finally getting to the main menu, I am greeted with a couple options here, "Create-a-Park", "Customize Skater", the obligatory "Options" and "Credits", and only one "Play" option. So...there is only one real game mode and it's "Play"....ok.
After hitting "Play", you have the option of THPS5 levels, your created levels, or community made levels. After choosing a map to play on, you enter into basically an online freeskate lobby. By "enter", I mean you wake up in a fuzzy haze while the power of the Unreal Engine loads those textures in. I'm used to Unreal games having texture pop-in but, whew, this has SERIOUS pop-in.
Now I am in the lobby, free to skate wherever I want to with a bunch of other people who are warping around the level. No time limit, no restrictions outside of the level geometry...alright...so when does the game begin? Turns out there are missions inside every level that I need to complete to earn stars and progress to the next level, which I found out by accident. I did get stars for spelling S-K-A-T-E, collecting the VHS tape and so on, but those stars didn't seem to count...ok. (Also, just be warned that I will be using a lot of ellipses in this review).
These missions run from getting a high score in a certain amount of time, to racking up a long distance grind, to knocking objects around, and *gulp* running through rings (Superman 64 flashbacks). You are given 1-3 stars depending on how well you complete these tasks, and you need 15 stars to unlock the next level. These missions are boring as hell though. In one level I was tasked to do flip tricks into targets to set off fireworks...cause, you know, skateboarding. These missions are also repeated in every level, so not only are they boring, they are also repetitive. Yay!
So why do these missions, aside from opening other levels? I asked myself that question too. Apparently, doing these missions also gives you XP so you can level up and unlock stat points for your skater. You also unlock cards. I also had to find out what these cards did by accident as I was scrolling through menus. They unlock different parts you can use to customize your skater. Notice I said "customize", not "create", more on that later. The cards also unlock emblems which...I still don't know what they are for. Also, worth noting, the stat points you acquire do not carry over to other skaters, so you have to do all this with whichever skater you want to level up. This recipe calls for repetitiveness with a dash of redundancy.
So, leveling up your skater and gaining XP sounds kind of cool, and it is...kinda. My biggest problem with the system is that I can't actually upgrade or change my character in the level, I have to back out of the lobby, and go into a second and third menu to change anything. This is super annoying and time consuming. Also, there is no "Create-A-Skater", all you are doing is changing the appearance of the current skaters. Sure, you can change the heads and bodies to look nothing like the actual skater, but it's still that skater in name and moveset...which is weird.
While fumbling with hitting random buttons again, I found the multiplayer option. There are a number of modes in the multiplayer, including King of the Hill, Score Attack, a combo contest, and so on. When you select a mode, the game loads into a separate instance and waits for others to join your room. I tried a couple matches and ended up being in a game by myself each time, as in the match just starts with one person...wonderful.
So what's the point of the online freeskate lobby? Another great question that I asked myself. I still don't have the answer. You can initiate challenges to riders in the lobby but that's really the extent as far as I know. Again, I am trying to figure it out on my own since the game doesn't tell you what's going on at ANY point. I actually do not know why the game is structured this way. You can forget about the online lobby and just start a private match instead, but you still have to open menus and do challenges and it just a pain in the ass.
On the technical front, the game looks...ok. It's going for a Borderlands-style cel shading that looks weird. Some of the lighting is ok, but even after the texture pops in, it looks so-so. Performance-wise: yikes. There are flashes of brilliance when it runs at 60 frames per second, but more often than not it dips hard. Whenever you crash and break something, it dips, when first loading in, it dips, when I'm in the middle of grinding a rail, it dips, you see a pattern? Very inconsistent.
I dabbled in the "Create-A-Park" feature, just to give it a look. The tools are there to create a basic skate-park and the system seems easy enough to use. There weren't too many created parks for me to try out when I played but I assume the right person will come along and make something cool.
One very important aspect of the Tony Hawk games is the soundtrack. I have found this soundtrack to be pretty good. Fans of the series will find tracks to really get into here...
...but that's assuming the fan still wants to play this game at all.
This is a bad game, and it makes me sad, given how much I have adored certain parts of this series. The structure is bad and mind-boggling, it doesn't look great, it plays sloppy, and overall, (I hate using the "B" word, but it fits this game) this game feels broken. I try to play bad games to find redeeming qualities, and I really don't want to play any more of this game.
Developer Robomodo tried to appeal to gamers like me who loved this series early in its lifespan. With Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, it seems as if they didn't know what kind of game they were making. This game is not worthy of the Pro Skater name, and not worthy of being on my hard drive. Which hurts me to say.
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