Skate 2 Review
Skate 2 is the skateboard game sequel from Electronic Arts. You are a fresh out of jail skater who gets to go back to San Vanelona, the city has been rebuilt and security is tight in areas. You'll be performing tricks, competing against other pros, causing yourself great amounts of pain, and reclaiming the city for skaters.
Graphically this game is what you'd expect from a 360 game. The city has several different areas with very different themes so that you can capture your tricks with all types of backdrops. Most of the people walking around and the cars that are driving around are pretty generic. I wasn't all that impressed with the character customization for the game, there was some but not enough, in my mind, for a game on the 360.
The music in the game I did enjoy, a lot of tracks from artists, some I've heard of others I haven't, but they all fit in for the game. The voice-overs that I got to hear over and over again because I messed a trick drove me nuts. It was interesting to hear some of the actual skaters' voices in the game.
The controls, for me, is the reason why I gave up on most of the game, besides trying to cause extreme amounts of pain to my character. I never felt like I had quite enough control to make the skater do what I wanted him to do. Also evening though utilizing the right analog to do the tricks is an interesting idea, it felt clunky, and left me wishing that I could go back to just doing button mashing.
This is more about real skater tricks, and having a less arcadey feel to it. I really enjoyed the size of the city, but I also felt completely lost in it. I tried all the different challenges but found that I was much better suited to trying to find creative ways to greatly injure my character. If you are looking for a skateboarding sim this might be the game for you. If you're looking for a game in which you can cause large amounts of pain, this may or may not be for you. This game gets a 6.9 out of 10.
