Microsoft
(360) Tony Hawk's Project 8
By Euric Fuselier
Nov 30, 2006, 6 :37 am

The Tony Hawk machine rolls on. The skateboard franchise has had its ups and downs over the years, but with its newest installment the series has just begun to hit its stride.

A call has gone out, Tony Hawk is putting together a team of the top 8 skateboarders. Unfortunately for you, you’re starting off low. Very low - number 200, to be precise. You’ll have to impressive crowds, other pros, and complete trials to work your way up the ladder. In a world more inviting, seamless, and less linear than American Wasteland, you will be able to make your way throughout the city, free from a horrible story filled with painfully unfunny dialogue and faux hipness.

As you make your way along you will notice large icons indicating where a trial is, either via a person in need or an area object (grind here to here). There might be a wall that needs to be tagged, a rail to grind, a videographer to impress, or posters than need to be put up. Each task has three levels of difficulty (AM, Pro, and Sick), and each can be played as often as you would like; and, wisely, there is now a feature that allows you to play the previously attempted task from wherever you are, saving you from having to backtrack or search for the person who needs your assistance. Not every task is straightforward, some trials are over-the-top in nature, including one in which the ragdoll physics engine is put in good use, requiring your flailing body to crash through a certain amount of objects. The varied goals all lead up to demonstrations for professionals, including some that require you to keep the attention of onlookers. There are also portions that allow you to move objects to create your own obstacle course, allowing you easier access to spots or to just mess around.

Along the way you will meet the random characters giving out the tasks, along with the professionals and Jason Lee, filmed in comedic bits or in performance runs to introduce themselves or the upcoming task. I find the culture itself grating, so the music and attitude of many of the professionals were Mute Button Required moments, Jason Lee manages to best his Scientologist ways and go beyond his mediocrity in many segments that are actually decent. In terms of ‘In Your Face, Society!’ Project 8 is pretty low, with these bits being the biggest offenders, and that is something I greatly appreciate – there’s enough of it for the fans, but not too much to drive others away.

Your character will slowly increase in skill over time. As you do certain maneuvers, those skill points will automatically be tallied into your character’s repertoire – a more natural feeling than the previous forced RPG-lite elements. I really enjoyed this feature as it gave my character a more personal feeling. At the same time, the character creator took a bit of a hit. Yes, there are a variety of clothes, boards, and other accessories to choose from, but the options for the character models themselves (hair, eyes, and whatnot) to choose from are fairly limited and not nearly as robust as expected, nor as in previous installments. I didn’t mind this so much, but it is an add element to scale back, especially when the natural progression element was implemented so well.

What I did find frustrating was that a handful of problems from the previous installments have continued to find their way into the series. The addition of the ability to jump off of walls meant that ends of alleys or slots of empty space between surrounded buildings could be easily traversed, either to perform a move there or to rebound out of and continue on, yet the camera still has problems keeping up with these movements. The city has a number of these spots, and they aren’t always possible to avoid. There is also the weird jerking animations when a hard surface is ridden into. I know riding into a hard surface isn’t the optimal solution, but mainly when slowing down to turn around or talk to someone, hitting an object causes your skater to jerk back and forth. Experienced players will also find the varied difficulty hard to resist, opting to continue the game by beating the easiest of the challenges – while that may require some steadfastness on the part of some, others who aren’t terribly good, like myself, will certainly appreciate it.

The game does open up too much too soon. There are some portions of the city that become unlocked as you progress, but the unlocks go all out. Many moves are gained through play and purchased in shops, so the lack of focus opens up a bunch of possibilities for you to run into constant challenges that you won’t be able to meet. I would rather have the cityscape how it is now than more restricted though, but it could’ve certainly been done more elegantly.

One addition that I wasn’t particularly good at, though by my lack of ability more so than a problem with the game, is the ability to “nail the trick.” After launching off a surface, you can enter into a slow-motion portion where the character’s legs are controlled in conjunction with the right and left analogue sticks. There is a brief interim during these moments when the board will be kicked and flipped, allowing you to perform moves that, if landed, really impress. I had problems pulling these off, and they will definitely task even the most experienced fan with their touchy controls, but the addition is a plus.

Online play also makes a return as well. Live is supported for up to 8 players and there is a leader board. The modes are largely the same – outscoring or doing the most impressive trick – and can be played in ranked or unranked matches.

Overall: 8/10

The handful of nags I have about Tony Hawk’s Project 8 are pretty minute in comparison to just how refreshing I found it. The previous installments were really beginning to wear down the franchise, and I wasn’t looking forward to playing yet another game where I had to hear ridiculous “jokes” as “Hey, KenSUCKY!” while trying to impress obnoxious characters in confined areas – and thankfully I didn’t get that. The new approach may lack finesse, but it’s a great first step in the right direction.