Tony Hawk is finally back after all these years. It’s been a while since the Hawk has been in top form. THPS3 and THPS4 are hard to top, everyone knows that. Of course, you also have the stellarUnderground series and the great American Wasteland. Both games hit all the right notes and had all the right pieces to make a top shelf skating game. They had great career modes, lots of pro skaters, excellent and addicting gameplay and tons of cool levels. Never soft is no longer in the picture, but Activision is still here. They’re doing it all this time around. But the results may not be what fans of the series have come to expect.
THPS5 is not what you think. It’s not the amazing, fun and beautiful game you thought you would get. When I first heard this game was getting released, I thought it would be very similar to the old games, but new, fresh and creative. We don’t get that here folks, we just don’t. It deeply saddens me to say that THPS5 is merely a thrown-together, ugly and barebones mess. I have many complaints with this game. First of all, $60? That is one of the biggest rip-offs in the history of games. It should be about $5. One of the biggest disappointments are the visuals. It looks like a bad PS3 game. The character models are a mix between realistic and cel-shaded. The environments are very bland, open and empty. It’s all just hideous. The frame rate drops often and there are several glitches. It is just poorly developed to be quite honest. The audio isn’t any better than the visuals either. There are only a few songs and they are quickly repeated, meaning you will get sick of the music very quickly. The game is full of irregularities and inconsistencies. There are camera issues, the difficulty is uneven and the gameplay itself is very dumbed down and bland. I can go on and on about this game’s flaws, but let’s get to the point. This is not true Tony Hawk Pro Skater. There are several glitches. The levels are empty and boring, not to mention the lack of NPC’s or any other form of life is completely absent. The visuals and sound design are poor. I am just very disappointed that the developers didn’t spend more time on the game. This is a very respected series in gaming and to have the name tarnished like this is immensely sad. If you are desperate to play THPS5 for yourself , give it a rent. That is about all it’s worth anyway.