Going Underground
Tony Hawk's Underground may be the fifth game in the series, but it does an excellent job of trying to bring new features and play modes to the table. The free roaming career mode has now been replaced by a story mode, which incorporates most of the elements of the old career mode but adds a narrative. Neversoft have added a whole bunch of new skaters, new videos and new tricks, as well as the new create-a-goal, create-a-trick and create-a-deck modes. You can do new things such as getting off your board and walking around on foot as well as being able to drive a car.
The new story mode requires the player to create a new skater, customize their appearance and gear, and then go about becoming a pro skater. The problem here is that you're broke, you've got no sponsor, and you're stuck in New Jersey. You'll have to take your custom skater around the city and perform tasks for various people, which could include something as simple as getting a high score, or something more complex like doing tricks off a set line before the time limit runs out. Anyone who's played a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game before will know what to expect from these goals. Neversoft have added difficulty settings to the game to adjust the level of skill required to complete a certain goal, effectively making the game more accessible to those new to the series. As you progress through the game, you gain sponsorships, which then give you access to new gear. You also get to compete in contests and record skate videos, though these events are more or less presented as ordinary goals, with a cutscene before to differentiate them. The main problem with the story mode is that it is relatively linear in its approach, despite trying to give off the feeling that it isn't. Certain events and twists in the plot may also have some players rolling their eyes, wondering what the writer was thinking.
Tony Hawk's Underground offers players the opportunity to get off their board and walk around on foot for the first time. Walking around levels feels quite bizarre, due to some odd control decisions, thus limiting your will to go on foot, but it aids in your ability to discover new spots to skate in, as well as letting you set up some pretty mean tricks. With further fine tuning, the on foot action could be a true blessing. Strangely enough, there are also several points in the game where you are required to commandeer different sorts of cars. Car driving serves no real purpose other than the occasional goal, giving it the feeling of an unnecessary gimmick. It must also be pointed out that the cars featured in the game have absurd handling, which may cause excessive groaning when a goal featuring a car comes up. Hopefully this feature will be excluded from the next game.
There is a real customization theme present throughout Tony Hawk's Underground that extends past that of previous games in the series. You're forced to create your own skater for the career mode, but the options go deeper than that. Being able to create your own skate park has been an option since the second game, but Tony Hawk's Underground grants you the ability to place your own goals around your created park, as well as the existing levels. These custom goals can include anything from a certain skating line to laying out the letters S-K-A-T-E around a level. As you progress through the story mode, your character will be able to earn slots for created tricks. The create-a-trick mode allows you to do just that - create a new special move for your character. Finally, you can also create your own designs to place on your deck.
The core gameplay elements haven't really changed at all - though that's not necessarily a bad thing. Tony Hawk's Underground retains all of the major trick additions from its predecessors - the manual, revert and spine transfer, but doesn't add anything along those lines. Veterans of the previous games in the series won't have any problems racking up the big scores quickly, thus making the game seem quite easy (to them, anyway), but it may take some time for them to discover the best places to assemble their best combos, given the sheer size of the levels.
Due to the change in single player structure, Tony Hawk's Underground isn't likely to last you as long as the other games in the series, unless you're one of those crazy fans that has to complete every last little thing in the game - in which case, there's plenty for you to do. Completing the game on each difficulty, finding all of the bonus tapes, unlocking the bonus stages and finding all of the gaps are just a few of the things you are required to do for 100% completion. Playstation 2 owners will be happy to know that Tony Hawk's Underground supports online play and the ability to get your face into the game. Unfortunately, there are no major online options for either the Gamecube or Xbox versions of the games, though the Xbox version could be played over Xbox connect due to its ability to be played over System Link.
Broken bones
Not a lot has changed in Tony Hawk's presentation over the years and Underground is no exception. The characters have received a bump in the polygon count and some better facial features, and the environments are a little bigger and better textured, but other than that, it's pretty much the same as the fourth game in the series. The game is faced paced and retains its fluid framerate. Animations for the off the board action and the general flow during the driving sequences are both questionable. The game has support for 60 Hz and widescreen modes, provided your TV can handle these.
The soundtrack in Tony Hawk's Underground follows in the footsteps of its predecessors by providing great variety in its songs. The soundtrack is comprised mostly of hip-hop, punk and rock music, and the menu now allows you to turn off a particular genre you don't like on top of the ability to turn off selected songs. The Xbox version supports custom soundtracks, but you can't mix and match with the default soundtrack which is disappointing. Voice acting in the game is provided by the various pros in the game, and although some dialog is quite cheesy, it gets the job done. Tony Hawk's Underground also supports Dolby Pro Logic II.
Don't Bail
Tony Hawk's Underground brings some surprisingly fresh elements to the rapidly aging series, and puts of the inevitable feeling of boredom and repetition that the series will suffer off for another year. All of the new elements are good on paper, but some are quite flawed in execution. We recommend it for fans of the series and people who've not been fortunate enough to play a Tony Hawk game to date, but casual fans of the series may want to keep this one to a rental or a budget purchase later down the line.
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