Doominatorx6
543,985
TA Score for this game: 3,850
Posted on 02 July 10 at 16:07 |
This review has 19 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
The Tony Hawk games have always been of high quality and enjoyment. Though the series peaked in 2001 with Pro Skater 3, the quality has remained consistent. Sure, Underground 1, 2, and 3 (3 AKA American Wasteland) were a little stupid (Wheel of loogies, anyone??), but they were still fun to play. Project 8, the first "true" next gen game in the series, was mind-blowing, but the followup: Proving Ground, was "meh" at best.
The newest installment: "Ride," tries to innovate with a unique controller, but bails harder then Proving Ground could ever hope... to fail.
First off, it's important to note it's not the same development team doing this as the rest of the games. Neversoft, the original team, decided they were too busy pumping out 8 Guitar Heroes every year, thus they abandoned the series that put them on the map, and shafted development to Robomodo: a team I'm sure no one knew existed.
But now for the actual game... and this is going to be ugly, but we'll leave the controls out for a bit.
Visually, it's a mess. It took me a while to find something to compare to, but it looks like a wimpy version of Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (that was a Wii launch game), with horrid load times. The levels aren't exactly "open ended" and just look awful. The soundtrack is of good audio quality, but the actual track-list is passable.
But now lets talk about the controller. First off, I like it. It's very durable and able to withstand a beating, and looks nice enough to boot. The sensors are strategically located on every side of the compass (North, South, East, and West sides) and, in theory, work as advertised. My only complaint with the board itself it that is slides around like a mother effer on my floor, which happens to be carpet. Playing this on a flat surface has got to be an absolute nightmare.
Now for the actual game. It's a disaster. I haven't gotten very far in this game, but the levels are far from unique in design. Each stage has 3 challenges (tricking for score, racing for time, and challenges that require certain tricks at certain points), but its sabotaged by the bad control. You do get three control schemes: Noob, Horrid, and Ungodly (yes, I did substitute those names, if only because they are more accurate).
Noob difficulty puts you on a defined path, so you only have to worry about jumping and pulling off tricks. The higher two require you to steer on your own, by tilting the board left and right. It's wildly inconsistent and will more often than not have you going into a wall. Grabs and Flip tricks are done by rotating the board in certain ways, but it's barely responsive. Maybe it's because there's a lot of crap in my room that throws off the sensors, but come on. Actually bending down to "grab" the sensors just makes you look like a jackass and most of the time it doesn't work.
If they marketed this as a "party game," it was likely for the intoxicated, and even they would probably resort to destroying the board. Good thing it's durable as hell.
I did annihilate the game sure, but the half pipe challenges are actually enjoyable, if only because you don't have to rely on steering as much. Just go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. When it works, it's actually a hell of a lot of fun. Too bad it works about 5% of the time.
I can't really comment on the achievements, simply because I don't have that many. You pretty much can't play on "noob" difficulty to get a good chunk of them, but most of them will just take time. And patience, LOTS of patience. Your sanity will be tested.
This game was marketed at $119.99 upon release. I remember seeing stacks of this game at the local video store, and NOBODY WAS BUYING THEM. I bought it for 50$ (store closing sale, go figure), and I've heard it went as low as 30$ in some places. Remember Rock Revolution, the pile of vomit that sold for about that much on release? That went down to $25. They really must be the brothers of peripheral crap.
It sold horribly, performed horribly, yet old Tony Hawk still defends it.
Dude, the idea was a good one, but everyone has to admit they failed at some point. Every played a little game called Turning Point: Fall of Liberty? Maybe you should, and see just how expectations and dreams can be crushed.
I wanted to give this game a chance. Maybe it's because I've been a fan of the series for so long, maybe it's because I hate EA's Skate games with a passion (realism my balls), or maybe it's because new technology interests me. Either way, it bombed and it bombed royally. There are stories of a follow-up, and although expectations are either low or non-existent, there is still hope.
But probably not. |