EA bails with 'Skate 2'

When Electronic Arts (EA) title, Skate premiered for both Xbox 360 and PS3 gaming consoles in 2007, it had radically changed the face of skateboarding video games with its innovative controls along with the rich, smooth, textural atmosphere bringing a greater feeling of realism from the board to players' hands.

Fast forward to nearly two years from that, with the highly anticipated sequel, but clumsy release of Skate 2.

Since Skate's conception, it has received overwhelming critical acclaim, despite features still to be improved as well as added.

A fundamental improvement addressed from the original game included patchwork for the stale and stiff "bailing" physics. Players now have the option of controlling how and even when their character can separate themselves from their skateboard. While in midair, players have the option of simply jumping away from their board and toggle the analog controls to which they can contort and sprawl in almost any way they can imagine for a more intense, brutal or even hilarious fall.

The option of the player's character getting off their skateboard is now available, while also giving them the freedom to move around obstacles and even grab objects such as rails and ramps to move them where ever players see fit. Though this was the proposed biggest improvement, it ultimately proved to be the worst.

Moving around ambulatory objects seemed too unrealistic due to the awkward movement of characters, making them somewhat superhuman, giving them the ability to move things like huge ramps with ease.

The graphics seemed to be a little off as well. IGN had criticized Skate 2's graphics for not being sharp enough, but that seems almost completely opposite. The game's graphic design of the renovated city of San Vanelona appeared to be too sharp and too grainy.

The controls are more or less the same with the addition of several new tricks and variations of older ones, mostly hand/grab implemented. The hand/grab alternatives allow new flip, grab and grind moves. The new tricks are a nice feature, but not enough to save the game's travesty in its entirety.

Character creation is downgraded from the original Skate. Players have very limited creative possibilities with facial and body structure. The facial presets are awful and even after fiddling with contrast, they become eventually indistinguishable and pretty much the same face anyway.

Camera and playback angles are also very weak. In the original, angles were limited, but it was quite simple to move between different screen shot perspectives. Whereas in this sequel, the camera and playback work can seem just way too confusing, leaving it a struggle to find the right shot to play back a selected time frame of a recorded skate session.

Overall, this was a terrible game. I had high hopes and was very disappointed. I didn't even feel the storyline of this game is worth going over because of its poor construction. Skate 2 reminded me too much about the flaws of the (almost) long forgotten Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise and actually about how much I missed those games. I guess that can be one of the only positives added to the short list, though ironic.


Rating: 2/5