Publisher: Activision
Developer: Activision
Platform: GC, PS2, Xbox, PC, GBA
Category: Action, Sports
Teen For: Blood, Crude Humor, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence

This game was not played to completion. But, I do know all things in the game that would be considered offensive. And, I have played it long enough to know the basic idea of the game. Any other information that would be useful for this review, was found out by careful researching on the internet.

Graphics:

The graphics in this game are no doubt, the best in the series. Stunning cut-scenes will blow you away with their extremely tight look. The face visuals are astounding! Just looking at one of the skater?s face makes you want to say, "Wow! That really looks like the real skater!" All of the animations are smooth looking. Even when you fall down, it looks, incredibly realistic. And, after you skate for a while, if you look at your board, you?ll see that its scratched up. Problems here include collision problems, and over the top blood. Also the cars don't have that much detail into them.

Sound:

The sound is also another great aspect in the game. Starting with music, not only does the soundtrack have modern rock, they have older rock. This includes bands like The Ramones. The sound the wheels make on the ground sounds like it does in real life, and the grinding sounds awesome too! Voice-overs from the real skaters is a nice treat. The problem here is the noises your skater makes when he smashes something over his head are really cheesy.

Game play:

The Game play is so awesome! New features here are:

Tagging

One of the newest features to this game is the tagging. Yes, you heard me, tagging. Tagging is mainly used for missions, like, cover up all the splat graffiti. But, you can tag anything, and it doesn\'t have to be on a mission. This is very fun. Not to mention, unlimited spray cans. Though, after a while, it gets old.

Create Your own Graffiti

You can also create your own tags, instead of using the ones they already have. You can add over 10 layers of graffiti on your tag. There is around 20 logos, which means, you can make your tag, outrageously colorful, and noticeable. Though, for me, this feature didn?t work. But, I don\'t know anyone else who had the same trouble.

Destroy The Level

The most creative thing about this game is the fact, to advance in the level; you must destroy the level. This can be achieved by doing things like firing cannons to knock down a building, to take you to the next level, or something like that. You also get bonuses for destroying small things like glass, or fire hydrants, or something like that.

20+ Skaters

Every year, Activision comes out with a new Tony Hawk game. And every year, there is a few more skaters. This year, there are a lot of new skaters. Some of these include Wee Man, Phil Margera, Paulie, Steve-O (star of MTv\'s Jacka** and Wildboyz), and Jesse James of Monster Garage fame.

All New Boards

The new boards are a very nice addition to T.H.U.G 2. One of my personal favorite boards was the Metallica Some Kind of Monster Skateboard. Each pro skater has a set of skaters from their sponsor, and boards of themselves. They can also buy new boards. One problem here is that they don?t have real. I would have liked to see some real wheels in this game, such as Spitfire or Illuminum.

New Create A Skater Interface

The new Create a Skater interface is cool. It has tons of options, from choosing his/her hair style, to choosing whether they are a midget or not .One problem here is that they held back on some choices I noticed were cool in the original T.H.U.G. But, nothing anyone will miss too bad.

New Game play Modes

The new Game play modes are really good this time around. Classic mode brings back good memories..

Classic Mode:

Two minute challenges like in the days of the original THPS. You collect the skate letters, try to jump over gaps, and complete various other tasks from the original Tony Hawk games.

Story Mode:

In story mode, you go through the normal story mode, without time limits.

Online Mode:

Online is my favorite. Play against other players in tag, Free Skate, Graffiti, and a few new modes. Problem here is, if you are playing on pc, crashes during online sometimes. And I?m pretty sure Xbox didn?t support online play for this game. So, most likely, Xbox gamers are out of luck for this game.

Slow Mo

Ok, get this. Slow Motion. Seriously. Fill up you special meter, and go into focus mode. This is really useful for goals where you have to get a big combo, because it slows down your time, and you can do more tricks. This is cool, but has been done in a million other games.

Freak Out Meter

The Freak Out Meter, ah, yes, love it. After you crash, a meter will appear on your screen. When it appears, you rapidly press a button, which makes the meter go up. Once the meter stops moving, depending on where it stopped, your skater will destroy his board in some way. Throwing it, stomping on it, smashing over his/her head. If you did a trick before crashing, instead of losing your points, you keep them, and, the freak out meter will multiply your points.

Story:

The story starts as this. Your skater, along with others, has been selected to go on tour, called the World Destruction Tour. Two teams, led by Bam Margera and Tony Hawk, go around the world, destroying things and doing missions for points. Whichever team at the end of the game has the most points, wins. Whoever loses pays for the whole trip! This isn?t too bad for a sports game, but its not very satisfying.

Appropriateness:

Up to about now, you have probably been thinking, ?Man, this game is sweet!? Allow me to correct you. First off, the language is awful. Even the kid in the wheelchair curses. Words such as a**, b****, a******, and d*** immediately come to mind. The list goes on. Using the freak out meter will normally get people to start cursing, but they bleep out some of the really bad ones. There are also lots of scantily clad women in this game. At the beach, you will see a lot of women in bikinis. The logo for the World Destruction Tour is a women with large breasts. The tagging is another thing wrong with this game. Though it is fun in the game, it promotes vandalism. There are also several pubs. You will find Jesse James the Outlaw in a pub. You will also find little alcohol references sprinkled around the game. The violence isn?t too bad. There is an unnecessary amount of blood, but it\'s nothing you have not seen in other Tony Hawk games. The whole point of the game is to destroy things for fun. Throwing tomatoes at people, tagging things, knocking down buildings, things of that nature. Again, this promotes vandalism. It also promotes bad stewardship. Overall this game is a good game. Its offensive content is too much for me to be more interested in it then a rental. I can?t really recommend this game to skateboarders, because it makes a mockery of skateboarding (seriously, I?m a skater and I?ve never heard of anyone knocking down buildings while skating). If you think skateboarding is cool, and want to be punk, this is the game for you. Other than that, can?t say this game is worth buying.