Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Posted December 20, 2005
Anyone who hasn't lived in a cave the past 6 years knows Tony Hawk is the best skateboarding video game in existence. It started out with addictively fun gameplay and advanced graphics on the Playstation, evolved into a sophisticated beauty on the Dreamcast, and then from there became legendary. Tony Hawk 4 is the last version of the game involving non-plot related tasks such as grabbing the letters S-K-A-T-E. With Tony Hawk Underground (THUG) it became more of an adventure/skate game with plots and missions. THUG2 pushed it even further with a jackass oriented plot. Now the latest in the series, Tony Hawk America's Wasteland, this plot oriented tradition continues, albeit a tad tamer than the outrageous THUG2. America's Wasteland succeeds as a wonderful iteration of the Tony Hawk series and probably the best version to date.
You play a hayseed that just fell off the turnip truck and ended up in Los Angeles, the skateboarding Mecca of the world. You aren't just any ordinary hayseed, however, you possess some excellent, yet unrefined, skateboarding skills. In LA, you meet a large-chested skater girl who shows you around, introduces you to the locals and gets you started with the game. Eventually she cuts you loose and you have to fend for yourself by talking to various people who teach you new skateboarding skills, everything from the Natas Spin to doing a front flip in the air. The plot of the game soon reveals itself: You must help the buxom young lass from the start of the game and her friends steal various "cool" parts and pieces for their skateboarding ranch called "America's Wasteland". Eventually you have the ultimate skateboarding park with enough blood, sweat, and grand larceny.
Gameplay:
I'm an old school Tony Hawk fan. I'm used to the Tony Hawk 1-4 style and never really migrated over to THUG. The new style is refreshingly enjoyable. The game engine is a lot like Grand Theft Auto, in that you are put in an open world and you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. Getting off your skateboard and going by foot is the key to making this happen.
The key differences between GTA include the following:
There are no consequences for negative actions such as skateboarding on police cars
The world is a lot smaller than GTA, but you can seamlessly travel to different cities and areas by going through narrow sections that allow the game engine to load the other parts – so no "loading" is to be found
The engine here is a lot more solid graphically and flexible in terms of controlling the character with lots of more advanced platforming elements found here than in GTA (e.g., you can climb up walls, hang from rails, do just about anything and best of all you don't die from falling off buildings).
One thing that did bug me is saving your progress. Instead of automatically saving the game to whatever profile you signed in the game, it brings you through the tedious steps of identifying your save file, then prompting you to overwrite your save file or not. Since there are tons of tiny little tasks that are constantly being done, you have to save a lot and each time it brings you out of the game and is just intrusive. In the future, they need to have some sort of auto save feature that is found in most games today.
In terms of the skateboarding gameplay, it's solid as per usual. They have added a few tricks since Tony Hawk 4, but luckily the game unfolds in such a way that you can learn all of theses new tricks with ease. Once you get all of these skills down you can really do some amazing linked combos. This makes for a great starting point game for anyone who hasn't played the series in the while and needs a refresher course or anyone completely new to Tony Hawk in general.
One thing I found to be both odd and unintentionally hilarious is the old homeless man you have to visit to make money. You will find this old coot in various backstreets and alleyways and when you visit him, he tells you he will give you some money in exchange for favors such as doing a nose grind for 20 seconds. He then thanks you for the fulfilling his favor and gives you $20 or so. There's no real story or reason on why this older gentleman wants to pay you for performing in front of him and strangely I never enjoyed seeking him out to gratify him. I got this weird vibe from the whole thing and it kinda freaked me out.
One thing I think in terms of the skateboarding gameplay is this series could use a small shot in the arm. It's probably heresy to Tony Hawk fans, but I believe the gameplay would greatly improve if they slowed down the speed of the skateboarding to something more realistic. The speed works well when you are on a half-pipe, but street skating can be choppy and overly difficult since you are moving as if you just took a bottle of Nodoze. This could be fixed by implementing a variable speed control that would allow you to pull ollies off without having to hold down the accelerate button ("A"). Let's say tapping "B" button would allow you to go slow/smooth, medium, and fast, and the game will continue to keep you at that speed without having to hold it down. Then when you want to change speeds, just tap "B" again to switch. I dream of the day when I could smoothly skate down the sidewalk like Rodney Mullen pulling off tricks you can't imagine. But I digress…. Also make the plots less cheesy and bring in actual skateboarders as themselves instead of all these fictional characters. More old school skaters would be great too. What about a video game adaptation of "The Search For Animal Chin" featuring the original Bones Brigade? That'd be great.
Anyway… Basically if you've played this series before you know what to expect, very little has changed and a few new moves have been thrown in. This is, for the most part, a good thing, as the saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I'm not sure if parents will appreciate the fact that thievery and vandalism are the primary methods for acquiring stuff for the skate park, but I guess it's better than paying for sex from hookers, and then murdering those hookers with a chainsaws to get your money back like in GTA.
Graphics:
The graphics are very clean, sharp, bright and overall excellent. The high resolution makes it a dream to play on my HDTV, especially when you have to use the map to get to various places. They made strong use of the anti-aliasing hardware found on the 360 which makes the game look simple beautiful.
Allow me a few minor gripes though… Clipping, a trademark of all 3D games, especially those such as GTA, is found here. It's not overly abundant, but it is noticeable at times, especially when you get on foot, climb up walls, and bump into things. Some of the scenery, such as the bushes, looks very 2Dish in a 3D world. When you get close to a round bush, it looks split into four flat 2D parts instead of rendered as a sphere. This is leftover from earlier Tony Hawk games and probably due to the fact this game was built for the last generation consoles and upgraded for the 360 after-the-fact. My last gripe is the lighting can be glitchy at times. You'll be in a certain area and the outside is changing from night to day and the lighting can get weird. It goes away pretty quick and doesn't effect gameplay but it sticks out and looks buggy when it happens.
Overall the graphics are eye pleasing despite the minor gripes. This will most likely be the last Tony Hawk game built from the ground up on last generation's consoles, so I expect a major upgrade next time around. However this time around you'll get an amazing visual experience that we can only hope GTA for PS4 will look like (except with a much larger world of course).
Audio:
Tony Hawk has always been known for its cutting edge soundtrack and this version is no exception. There is always a good tune in the background as you skate around the city. A lot of it is more underground and indie bands but you'll also hear from the likes of Greenday.
The sounds found in the game are nondescript. The voice acting is just adequate, it's not overboard, but the stupid lingo they throw at you sounds pretty cheesy for the most part. I guess if you are 12 you'll probably enjoy how they talk, but most adults will find it pretty funny. The 5.1 audio is also nondescript and they don't take advantage of the vast sound field. At times you'll hear things around you but for the most part the rears are pretty quiet.
Conclusion:
Tony Hawk America's Wasteland is another excellent chapter in this wonderful series. I strongly recommend it, especially to any fans of the series. If you aren't a fan of the series, it's a great time to start playing since the plot is essentially one giant tutorial for learning skills and tricks versus Tony Hawk 1-4 where they threw you into the fire. It will also be more accessible to a general audience with the ability to get off of your skateboard and get to hard-to-reach areas with ease. Highly Recommended.
You play a hayseed that just fell off the turnip truck and ended up in Los Angeles, the skateboarding Mecca of the world. You aren't just any ordinary hayseed, however, you possess some excellent, yet unrefined, skateboarding skills. In LA, you meet a large-chested skater girl who shows you around, introduces you to the locals and gets you started with the game. Eventually she cuts you loose and you have to fend for yourself by talking to various people who teach you new skateboarding skills, everything from the Natas Spin to doing a front flip in the air. The plot of the game soon reveals itself: You must help the buxom young lass from the start of the game and her friends steal various "cool" parts and pieces for their skateboarding ranch called "America's Wasteland". Eventually you have the ultimate skateboarding park with enough blood, sweat, and grand larceny.
Gameplay:
I'm an old school Tony Hawk fan. I'm used to the Tony Hawk 1-4 style and never really migrated over to THUG. The new style is refreshingly enjoyable. The game engine is a lot like Grand Theft Auto, in that you are put in an open world and you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. Getting off your skateboard and going by foot is the key to making this happen.
The key differences between GTA include the following:
One thing that did bug me is saving your progress. Instead of automatically saving the game to whatever profile you signed in the game, it brings you through the tedious steps of identifying your save file, then prompting you to overwrite your save file or not. Since there are tons of tiny little tasks that are constantly being done, you have to save a lot and each time it brings you out of the game and is just intrusive. In the future, they need to have some sort of auto save feature that is found in most games today.
In terms of the skateboarding gameplay, it's solid as per usual. They have added a few tricks since Tony Hawk 4, but luckily the game unfolds in such a way that you can learn all of theses new tricks with ease. Once you get all of these skills down you can really do some amazing linked combos. This makes for a great starting point game for anyone who hasn't played the series in the while and needs a refresher course or anyone completely new to Tony Hawk in general.
One thing I found to be both odd and unintentionally hilarious is the old homeless man you have to visit to make money. You will find this old coot in various backstreets and alleyways and when you visit him, he tells you he will give you some money in exchange for favors such as doing a nose grind for 20 seconds. He then thanks you for the fulfilling his favor and gives you $20 or so. There's no real story or reason on why this older gentleman wants to pay you for performing in front of him and strangely I never enjoyed seeking him out to gratify him. I got this weird vibe from the whole thing and it kinda freaked me out.
One thing I think in terms of the skateboarding gameplay is this series could use a small shot in the arm. It's probably heresy to Tony Hawk fans, but I believe the gameplay would greatly improve if they slowed down the speed of the skateboarding to something more realistic. The speed works well when you are on a half-pipe, but street skating can be choppy and overly difficult since you are moving as if you just took a bottle of Nodoze. This could be fixed by implementing a variable speed control that would allow you to pull ollies off without having to hold down the accelerate button ("A"). Let's say tapping "B" button would allow you to go slow/smooth, medium, and fast, and the game will continue to keep you at that speed without having to hold it down. Then when you want to change speeds, just tap "B" again to switch. I dream of the day when I could smoothly skate down the sidewalk like Rodney Mullen pulling off tricks you can't imagine. But I digress…. Also make the plots less cheesy and bring in actual skateboarders as themselves instead of all these fictional characters. More old school skaters would be great too. What about a video game adaptation of "The Search For Animal Chin" featuring the original Bones Brigade? That'd be great.
Anyway… Basically if you've played this series before you know what to expect, very little has changed and a few new moves have been thrown in. This is, for the most part, a good thing, as the saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I'm not sure if parents will appreciate the fact that thievery and vandalism are the primary methods for acquiring stuff for the skate park, but I guess it's better than paying for sex from hookers, and then murdering those hookers with a chainsaws to get your money back like in GTA.
Graphics:
The graphics are very clean, sharp, bright and overall excellent. The high resolution makes it a dream to play on my HDTV, especially when you have to use the map to get to various places. They made strong use of the anti-aliasing hardware found on the 360 which makes the game look simple beautiful.
Allow me a few minor gripes though… Clipping, a trademark of all 3D games, especially those such as GTA, is found here. It's not overly abundant, but it is noticeable at times, especially when you get on foot, climb up walls, and bump into things. Some of the scenery, such as the bushes, looks very 2Dish in a 3D world. When you get close to a round bush, it looks split into four flat 2D parts instead of rendered as a sphere. This is leftover from earlier Tony Hawk games and probably due to the fact this game was built for the last generation consoles and upgraded for the 360 after-the-fact. My last gripe is the lighting can be glitchy at times. You'll be in a certain area and the outside is changing from night to day and the lighting can get weird. It goes away pretty quick and doesn't effect gameplay but it sticks out and looks buggy when it happens.
Overall the graphics are eye pleasing despite the minor gripes. This will most likely be the last Tony Hawk game built from the ground up on last generation's consoles, so I expect a major upgrade next time around. However this time around you'll get an amazing visual experience that we can only hope GTA for PS4 will look like (except with a much larger world of course).
Audio:
Tony Hawk has always been known for its cutting edge soundtrack and this version is no exception. There is always a good tune in the background as you skate around the city. A lot of it is more underground and indie bands but you'll also hear from the likes of Greenday.
The sounds found in the game are nondescript. The voice acting is just adequate, it's not overboard, but the stupid lingo they throw at you sounds pretty cheesy for the most part. I guess if you are 12 you'll probably enjoy how they talk, but most adults will find it pretty funny. The 5.1 audio is also nondescript and they don't take advantage of the vast sound field. At times you'll hear things around you but for the most part the rears are pretty quiet.
Conclusion:
Tony Hawk America's Wasteland is another excellent chapter in this wonderful series. I strongly recommend it, especially to any fans of the series. If you aren't a fan of the series, it's a great time to start playing since the plot is essentially one giant tutorial for learning skills and tricks versus Tony Hawk 1-4 where they threw you into the fire. It will also be more accessible to a general audience with the ability to get off of your skateboard and get to hard-to-reach areas with ease. Highly Recommended.