Skate 2

Rating T

Score: 8.0/10

The first Skate was both praised and attacked for its style of gameplay. This sequel promises to reinvent the series in a good way, but does it? This game is only available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

The story takes placed five years after the original Skate. You’re just getting out of prison and you want to build your reputation. The easiest way to do this is to impress other skaters with your skating skills, or promote your name in a few other different ways, like in races or magazines.

The city you once knew has been through a lot since Skate and is now in ruins. Some of your favorite skate spots are now completely destroyed, or just altered. Some are exactly the same.

Your buddy films you constantly, which serves a few important purposes. This first is so that whenever you complete an amazing trick, he can film it, and broadcast it over the city. Your camera angle is your buddy’s camera. He chooses a dramatic angle, while still allowing you to see what’s ahead. As previously stated, he’s constantly filming. Anytime you do a trick, or a few tricks, he records them. Afterwards, you can pause the game, alter the film, add different angles, and delete some stuff, then post online. This means any insane tricks you accomplish can be broadcast for bragging rights.

A new feature in Skate 2 is the ability to get of your board and run around. This is poorly done, but for what it is, it works. Running, jumping and getting back on your board feels unresponsive at best. Its only value is that it allows you to move objects. This time around, small objects like dumpsters and ramps can be moved, rotated, and placed anywhere you want. This is easy, but not terribly useful. There’s plenty of potential for creative gamers to spend an amount of time making a perfect course for doing tricks.

Objectives range from races, to SKATE, to photograph opportunities. Races are pretty boring, and can get rather easy, so long as you don’t get run over by glitchy characters. SKATE is simply performing a trick. Since you do tricks with the analog stick and there are thousands of different tricks for each analog movement, you could screw up a trick by being five degrees off. For Photograph Objectives, you do a trick in front of a guy with a camera…easy enough, right? Wrong. The game has some problems identifying you doing the correct tricks sometimes. This can prevent you from advancing. Also, you can completely screw up a trick, and the photographer takes some pictures, and accepts them.

Online is well designed. You can race, compete for the best tricks, or just skate around with a few buddies. As previously stated, you can also upload videos of ourself either being a trick god or a complete failure. While it’s not robust, it works superbly.

Skate 2 is not a game for everyone, but it’s for anyone who likes Skating and/or bragging rights. An amazing trick can come very easily thanks to great controls on your board. Off is a different story completely. All in all, you’ll probably enjoy the unique sense of skating this game brings.