Skate 2

As the old saying goes, why fix what’s not broken? Year in and year out, every sports games publisher seem to concentrate on what new features their games have to offer this time around. What if the game was already great to start with? PES for example, was the best sports game around a few years ago. The developers however concentrated on offering new features and forgot to maintain the basic ones. PES can’t even claim the best football game title now because of that. Skate 2 is a different story though. The game plays and looks identical to the great first game in the series – Easily the best things about Skate 2 to be frank.

To start with, you have the entire city all for yourself yet again. You can go around skating pointlessly or just wander about the beautifully designed city. The first Skate was great, but still a bit of a struggle for some people that gave it a shot. The controls were innovative, yes, but needed a whole lot of training and time to get used to. This time around, for the people that played the first Skate, pulling off a move is going to be a piece of cake. The same moves you mastered and pulled off in Skate 1 can be done here as well. All you have to do now is adjust your game to absorb a handful of new moves such as the foot plant for instance.  You will spend most of your time with Skate 2 pulling off old moves eventually. So if you were upgrading to Skate 2 just to gain access to a long list of new moves, you are out of luck.

The one greatest new feature in Skate 2 is the fact that you don’t have to travel so much anymore. While the city in the first Skate was great, having to personally travel to each challenge and spot was a bit of a chore. Sure, it allowed us to explore the city more and so on. But how many times did you wish you can just beat a challenge and get moving instead of spending 20 minutes travelling to the next area? You also couldn’t help but feel lost every now and then. In Skate 2, you are given the ability to just spawn at your next challenge, so now going from one challenge to another will only take a few seconds. To make things even better, you will have numerous challenges to choose from at any given time. In the first Skate, some complained that once you failed to complete a challenge, you had a few other alternatives to choose from. Fortunately, that will not be the case in Skate 2 for sure however.

How many times have you seen a spot that looked tailored for a combo? For us, that was almost every corner in Skate. Many of those areas lacked one thing or two however. Some needed a little table in a certain place to link a set of moves for example. In Skate 2 you are going to be able to get off your skateboard and move the objects you want. This will give you the opportunity to beat a challenge in any way you see fit. You no longer have to abide by the rules set by the challenge. You see something you can change to improve your chances of pulling off a combo? Then do it! Sadly, the way your character moves the objects and walks is a bit shaky. Positioning the items and controlling them can turn out to be a pretty irritating job. But at least you can move them!

For the creative minds out there, the developers added a new spot editor in Skate 2. Here you will be able to edit any spot in the city. Once you are satisfied with the piece of art you have just created, you can then upload it for your friends to skate through it as well. One of the new online modes on hand this time is a spot browser. Here you can check out all the spots edited and uploaded by other users. Such a mode is just one reason why you will be coming back for more Skate in few months time.

The online modes in this game are simply fantastic. Once you decide to test the online waters, you will automatically start skating in the same city you play in the single player mode, only with other players running around breaking their bones. The game even comes with a set of online challenges including some very creative coop challenges for you to beat. The host in any given online game will be able to set challenges and start them, Burnout Paradise style that is – Simple, quick and defiantly a load of fun.

The first Skate looked great but still lacked that cutting edge graphics wise. Skate 2 features the exact same graphics as well, with both versions looking nearly identical really. Now the game does run a bit smoother but you might still spot a glitch or two while running around the city. The textures however are a bit of a letdown throughout the game. Overall, the city looks great but the graphics could surely be improved.

Another EA game and yet another amazing sound track. Whoever creates the track lists for EA games should certainly get a promotion. Fitting well with the free exploring gameplay, the sound track played in the background never gets old. The other sound effects on hand are actually striking as well. You will be especially impressed once you hear a different sound effect depending on what ground you are skating on.

Skate 2 is a very good game. Even if it is very similar to the first title in the series that does not take away from how good it still is. The fact that you now can travel to challenges instantly will surely attract more gamers. The innovative controls are back and the online modes are largely improved. Investing money into this sequel will depend on how much you liked the first game. If you managed to finish and enjoy Skate, then you should be out buying this game right now. If you never played Skate however, you might want to pick that up on the cheap first before plunging into Skate 2.