Written by Jeff Buckland, 11/5/2002
Played on:
PS2
I know some people have got to be thinking, "How can they keep releasing these games every year? Why do people keep buying the newest one?" Well, Neversoft keeps finding new ways to add to the Tony Hawk games in order to keep them fun. It won't last forever, of course, but at least for this iteration, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 delivers a great experience even for those who have played the previous three games to death.
The most notable change in THPS4 is the revamped single player mode. You won't be constantly fighting a two-minute timer this time around, and if you want to beat all of the game's tons of goals, you won't have to repeat it with every skater. Instead, beating a goal with any skater beats it for all of them, although you'll find that some of the skater-specific missions are devilishly hard. Level sizes are also much larger than before, which really increases the game's replayability.
THPS4's controls are pretty much unchanged from last year's game, which is definitely a good thing. You can use the D-pad or the analog stick to control your skater, which just depends on your preference. A good amount of the PS2's dual shock pad is used, which means that players who have never played a Tony Hawk game will have to spend a while learning all the moves you can do. It can be taught one thing at a time, though; the control scheme strikes an excellent balance between user friendliness and giving you the ability to do some advanced moves.
Just about all of the moves a Tony Hawk veteran would expect are here, as well as a few extra tricks. Spine transfers allow you to pop over an adjacent half-pipe in front of you, as well as allowing you to correct an imminent bail. Skitching onto the backs of vehicles is also here, and is specifically used for a couple of the game's goals.
Neversoft also showed that they know what the players are doing by redoing the flatland trick system. It's much harder to abuse combos by throwing a ton of easy, extra flatland tricks in at the end of a combo, as it takes time to switch between flatland moves. More tricks are also available at any one time, as double-tapping buttons for many of the standard moves will tweak it or do a different trick altogether.
This is probably the hardest category for THPS4 to make an improvement in, as previous games in the series have progressively gotten better when compared to the competition. Buildings are a bit more detailed here, and all the stages are large, sprawling, and mostly outdoors. There are also a ton of new animations for the skaters, which makes them look even more lifelike than before.
The absolutely biggest change in the graphics, though, is the size of the levels. The single-player game still runs at a solid 50 to 60 frames per second almost all of the time, and yet the levels are generally much larger than the ones in THPS3. Online and 2-player modes do show a few frame rate dips, but that's kind of expected with all the stuff going on. While the Tony Hawk games were never known for great special effects, it's the whole thing put together that really made it look great. THPS4 doesn't disappoint here, as the new levels have lots of little details and interesting level designs to get you hooked.
The wide range of themes for THPS4's levels will keep you coming back to play; they're all very unique, and are loaded with cool things to see and check out. The skaters themselves look as good as ever, although seeing them close up isn't exactly flattering. It seems to me that with the improved game engine Neversoft has, they used the additional power to make bigger levels rather than more detailed skaters. I think they made the right choice, if that is a sacrifice they considered.
This is the first Tony Hawk game that completely removes the two-minute timer. Instead, you're allowed to freely skate around levels and start a specific goal whenever you feel like it. This exact gameplay model was used in Aggressive Inline, Z-Axis' recent rollerblading game in the Tony Hawk style. While playing that game, I wondered if the upcoming THPS4 could step up and match AI's huge levels and freestyle gameplay. Well, they've done that and more.
A good number of the goals in THPS4 are pretty difficult to complete; it's almost assured that you will give up on at least a few during the first few levels. You'll come back to them later and will probably have an easier time of getting through them, though. THPS4 has an absolute boatload of goals to complete - there are 190 in total, not including the new Pro Challenges. Speaking of those, the Pro Challenges are specific for each skater, and focus on that real-life skater's specialties. Some of them are insanely difficult, and will take you quite a while to get through.
It would be safe to say that Neversoft will eventually run out of ideas for levels in their Tony Hawk games, although they've so far managed to keep them fresh and entertaining every time. THPS4's levels include a college campus, San Fransisco near the docks, a shipyard, Alcatraz, the Kona skate park, London's streets, a zoo, a carnival, and more. All the levels are large and well-done, with a ton of goals peppered throughout them.
In THPS4, they completely scrapped the idea of specific competition levels, which were in all of the previous games. This time around, each level will have a goal or two that converts a section of the map into a competition area, complete with added halfpipes, funboxes, and more. Then it's just like the previous games' competitions, and when you're done, all the competition gear gets put away to leave the level like it was before.
This system makes the levels more dynamic, and turns some of the flatter areas into perfect skate-fests (well, at least temporarily). It would have been nice if there were more changes to the levels during the competitions, though, and maybe some actual barriers to stop you from skating outside the competition area. The way it is now, you only have a limited area to skate in, and they give you no indicator of what is out of bounds or not. The only way to find out is through trial and error.
The goals you're given in THPS4 are also pretty fun to complete, with the game's other skaters challenging you to get a high score (which are timed events), do a specific move on a specific part of a level, or to just get all the letters/items - either in a single combo, or within a specified time. As you get to later levels, you're going to find that THPS4 is much harder to beat than the previous games, as some of the goals are very tough to finish. As opposed to the previous games, beating 100% of the game is going to be difficult, rather than tedious. You only ever have to beat any single goal one time, but just trying to get it that one time can be really difficult.
Tony Hawk 3 completely removed the money system found in the second game in the series, forcing you to pick up stat points and new decks directly in the levels. In THPS4, the triumphant return of a money system is back, and now it's a bit more balanced. This time, you gain stat points from completing goals, and new special trick slots open up for finishing specific goals centered around special tricks.
Cash icons are strewn about the maps again like THPS2, allowing you to unlock a couple of levels as well as buy cheat codes, new custom clothing, and extra gear for your skaters. This system is probably the best yet, combining goal-based rewards with the money icons (some of which are pretty difficult to get). The only thing I would have liked here is a variance in dollar amounts; as it is, all the cash icons are worth the same $100, no matter how hard they are to get.
Neversoft also added mini-games to THPS4, which are completely new to the Tony Hawk series. These allow you to play a very dumbed down version of tennis, baseball, etc., and you can gain some cash (good for unlocking stuff) by winning at these games. It's not exactly a major new feature, but the mini-games are fun to play around with.
Once you beat the game's normal goals and complete any of the Pro Challenges, new "pro" goals will pop up around the levels - these will really test your skills. Some of them are relatively easy, while others will really challenge your patience with the game. Even then, the game isn't really frustrating, because you know it can be done - it just takes lots of trying.
And that comes to another area where the developers obviously thought of the player's frustration. The game allows you to hit the Start button and instantly retry your last attempted goal from its own starting point. It's perfect for those goals that require precision timing and execution from the beginning, and you can restart very quickly with less frustration. You'll get to spend more time trying to actually finish the goal like this.
The custom skatepark option is still here, allowing you to build your own mini-park to play with. I kind of expected a larger area to be able to build in, considering the larger normal levels, but the building area is about the same size as in previous games.
The Create-a-skater mode is also back with even more features. There are more clothes and tattoos to customize your character with than before, and you can now scale several different body parts that you couldn't before. On top of all that, there are several interesting secret skaters to unlock, some of which will be a pleasant surprise for those who unlocked THPS3's secret characters.
My biggest problem with the game's single player mode is that it's really hard; many casual players won't be able to beat 90 total goals in order to open up the Pro challenges, and even if they do, those challenges are really hard to finish. If you were frustrated at the difficulty of previous Tony Hawk games, I'd suggest you steer clear of this one. But if you absolutely must play it anyway, and you're the controller-breaking type, buy an extra Dual Shock pad or two. You're going to need them.
Since THPS3 had online play long before the PS2 officially supported it, you'd expect Neversoft to have made sure it works perfectly here. And I'm happy to say that they don't disappoint - Tony Hawk 4 fully supports the Sony Network adapter as well as the old way of doing it: the generic USB ethernet adapter. Online play is definitely something Neversoft considered a bigger priority than last time - the player limit has been upped from 4 to 8, new gameplay modes are in there, and custom skateparks can now be played online.
It was the Tony Hawk games that started the tradition of putting real rock & rap music into their soundtracks from well-known groups, instead of throwing together some cheap, forgettable generic rock music that was done in a few days. So far, the THPS games have had pretty good soundtracks (well, good if you actually like these types of music), and this year's lineup is pretty strong. This time around, there are 35 songs in the list, and they are from a wider range of tastes than previous games. Take a look at the track list here at Activision's site.
With the inclusion of groups like AC/DC, Iron Maiden, NWA, De La Soul, and Public Enemy, you might notice that Neversoft has picked from earlier, more well-known groups from the 80's and 90's to populate their soundtrack with. It works really well, and when combined with the newer acts, makes for a much more varied sound. There are likely still going to be at least one or two tracks you might not want to hear, and THPS4 makes it easy to find those ones and pull them out of the playlist.
As far as the sound effects go, THPS4 does at least as well as last year's game. The ambient sounds are all well done, and the people running around the streets have lots of stuff to say as you skate by them. The skate sounds are largely pulled right from previous games, but since they are about as good as you'd expect them to get, it's no disappointment. You'll also hear the real-life voices of all the skaters as they challenge you to finish goals.
I have to admit that I'm a pretty big fan of the Tony Hawk games, although I was a bit skeptical of what Neversoft could throw in this time around to keep me playing. They delivered in several areas here, with a bigger overall experience, a more personal focus on the uniqueness of each skater, a great soundtrack, and lots of replayability.
I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who has enjoyed a previous THPS game, as it is easily the biggest and best one yet. There are a ton of goals to complete, insanely hard challenges that'll keep you coming back, and the best online play yet.
