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Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Get your board and get
on the road in one of the most free roaming Hawk games to hit the market
yet. Once again the franchise has you playing as Joe Everybody who has a
chance to make it in the skate world.
The title this time is fairly story driven for a Tony
game with what appears to be an emphasis on character development that
was actually good in making you feel like a part of the gang that you
are skating with. There are appearances by Hawk himself at competitions
along with other skaters that fans out there will recognise.
The controls are pretty easy to pick up and you will
find that the game makes the assumption that you have not played before,
which as a fan of the series, I found it annoying that I could not
automatically do some simple tricks that I knew that would have allowed
me to rack up points involving manuals and the like.
One thing that gamers will notice is that the title
doesn’t load as such when there is a new level, you can still skate and
move around however the transition areas such as a bus or tunnel are
very very boring and you can hear the disc getting accessed in the
machine. The area is not as open as you would be led to believe either
initially with very small areas opening to make a much larger area.
This can be deceiving however and make sure that you
are really taking notice of what is out there. With the ability to get
off the board, you just might find yourself able to climb up on things
you would not have thought possible.
Skating aside and there is a ton of it for you to
enjoy, gamers can then take to the streets on take on the cool BMX side
of the game, that’s right BMX! These are more of a side mission rather
than a valid concern, however the BMX portion should be more than enough
for fans of the genre.
I loved this game and it’s one that finds it’s way
back into my PS2 at least once a week despite all the games that I am
lucky enough to play. This is a solid gameplay experience and I really
think that Neversoft are really hitting it on the head with the return
to the game of the unknown skater (you).
Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland is old
school Tony with a ton of new twists to make it a great return to the
series that we all knew and loved. Well Done!
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