Those of you who played THUG will be interested to know that there
are a few new tricks for you to pull off. The Natas Spin can be used to spin on
top of points such as fire hydrants. The Sticker Plant allows you to jump up a
wall and slap a sticker on it, reversing direction in the process. This can be
useful when you begin to run out of real estate while pulling off combos. The
Freak Out isn’t really a trick per se; it’s more of a crash recovery option.
After you wipe out a Freak Out meter will appear on the screen. If you can push
the button fast enough you’ll pump up the meter and cause your skater to have a
meltdown. This will also award you with some points and preserve your current
point total so that it will not be zeroed out after your wreck. There’s also a
new addition in the form of focus mode. String together enough combos without
wiping out and you’ll fill your Special meter. When Special is full a quick
click of a button initiates focus-mode, which is a slow motion mode that makes
it easier to pull off tricks – think of bullet time or The Matrix and you’ll get
the idea.
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| Ah, the joys of tagging... |
There are other game modes available in addition to the story mode. Classic
mode will invoke memories of older Tony Hawk games in those who played them. You
have two minutes to pull off as many tricks as you can as you go for a high
score. Other goals include grabbing all the letters of the work “skate” which
have been scattered around the level, finding the secret tape, and discovering
all of the secret gap jumps. There’s also a free skate mode that will allow you
to skate around and explore any of the parks and cities that you’ve unlocked in
the game’s story and free skate modes. If you get tired of playing solo, THUG2
also supports multiplayer online play. Up to eight players can compete in games
such as score challenge, trick attack, and capture the flag. If you played THUG,
then you’ll see two new multiplayer games, scavenger hunt and elimiskate. In
scavenger hunt each player drops five coins in the level and then players
compete to grab the most total coins. In elimiskate the player with the lowest
point total is eliminated after each set time interval until only one remains.
The online mode can be a lot of fun and is a great way to show off the tricks
you mastered against live human competition.
Other features in THUG2 include editors that allow you to create custom
skaters and levels. The custom skater feature will even allow you to import a
picture to use for the face of your skater, allowing you to put yourself into
the game if you want. The level creator lets you design your own levels, even
allowing you to create quests and challenges as in the game’s story mode. As an
added bonus these levels can be shared among gamers online, effectively giving
the game a huge library of levels to play.
The graphics in the game are serviceable – not gorgeous but not bad either –
but then who plays a skateboarding game to look at the scenery? The music is a
treat as the game’s developers have done an excellent job of collecting a wide
range of music that somehow all works together for some great skate music. When
was the last time you played a game with Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash on the
soundtrack? And if a song bothers you, you can switch it off so that it won’t
come up during play.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
88%. Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 demonstrates once again why the Tony
Hawk games are the top dog in skating.
System Requirements: Pentium III 800; 256 MB RAM;
32 MB
Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM; 2.5 GB Hard Drive
Space; Mouse.
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