Tony Hawk's American Wasteland Member Review for the PS2

Lemmie start by saying that I love the THPS games. And American Wasteland brings so much more to the table than I thought it would. Intigrating a bike into a skating game was kinda risky and didnt effect the game as much as i would have wanted it to be, good or bad. First off, the combo system for the bike is kinda weak. You of course have the simple tricks and can bust some pretty sick flatland but there is only 4 air tricks, yes ONLY 4. Grinding is also a more enjoyable part of biking but it dosent make up for the weak air tricks. On the board you have 16 air tricks. Balance switches when grinding to rack up points and balance switch with manuals to.

A nother thing that sorta hurt the game in my view was how stupid the story mode was. It wasent that the story wasent stupid. Trying to bring a dying skate park back to life is awsome but the stuff you have to do to get it is repeditive and frustrating. Wall plant that, grind that, pivot that, Its the same thing over and over and OVER again. It hurt the flow of a typicall Tony Hawk game.

Next, its classic mode. Genius, to bring back, recreate, and play classic Tony Hawk levels was a superb move on the game makers part. The recrated levels have more detail and more depth without giving up the classic feel. Sometimes it gets annouying trying to finish all the missions but you have alittle fun doing it.

One thing that did catch my eye at first was that the game was so polished. The Graphics Improved Incredibly since the first Underground. The character models are more crisp and soft, no harsh edges and polygonal looking hands.

I thought this was an ok game untill i looked on the box and read, "No Load Times". At that moment my whole view for the game shifted. To be able to create such a fast world with such detail without loading must be a wonder in gaming, Untill i started playing and realized, WTF, The biggests levels on the game where the classic levels. I may be exaggerating but these things were SMALL. My biggest thing was when you finished the skate park and half the stuff you collected wasent there. It being in decent size and haveing tons of stuff to play with and all your hard work for half of it.

Overall, this game was pretty good. Graphics and no load times saved the game from the dreaded C though. They should stick with the idea of skating and biking in one and they might have somthing.

This is a try before you buy game, just because it might not appeal to some people. so i will leave this game with a solid B.