Buck's Skate 2 Review

Lather, rinse, repeat, and then pull your hair out. This was a feeling I had many times while playing Skate 2. The Skate franchise has been built on extreme realism. Meaning, if you can’t do it in real life, you can’t do it in Skate. This is one of the games biggest strengths. It’s also one of the weaknesses in that the game can be very unforgiving. This is very much how my experience was with the game, some positive points and some negative ones.

Having never played the original Skate, I had little knowledge of what to expect from Electronic Arts new game. What I did know was that this series, unlike Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (a more arcade style game)was developed to be very realistic. The very first thing I noticed was just how large and vibrant the world is that developer Black Box created, filling it with pedestrians and vehicles was one of those things. Approaching an intersection and having to time one of my runs around when the cars would leave the intersection was very impressive.

Graphically,Skate 2 is on par with most open world games like Grand Theft Auto 4 or Saints Row 2. As for the non-existent storyline, your character is released from jail and must skate his/her way to glory. Along the way, you run into every professional skater that you can think of, Eric Koston, Colin McKay, and Rob Dyrdek just to name a few. The multiplayer portion of the game is more or less an extension of the contests from the single player campaign which is fun in its own way.

Skate 2’s control scheme makes the barrier of entry is extremely high. Though Skate 2’s tutorial section may not be obligatory, it definitely forces you into completing it lest you want to frustrate yourself for a couple of hours like I did. Even after the tutorials give you an understanding of how the physics work, the game is still very unforgiving, almost to the point of extreme anger. Most of the controls are mapped to the right analog stick, and because of this, there were instances when I wanted to complete one trick only to do another. For example, I only wanted to Ollie so I could grind a rail. I ended up doing a Kickflip, did not get enough air, subsequently hit the rail, and bailed. Repeat this process about 20 times in a row and you’ll know my pain.

Ultimately, unless you’re a fan of the genre or an actual skater, your time and money might be better spent on something else. Skate 2 is not a game that anyone can just pick up and play. It will take time to learn how to complete tasks, and learn different tricks unless you have played the first game. If you are willing to learn the controls then you might have a great time. Black Box and EA have made a very deep, realistic game but at the expense of playability. That’s not to say that this game is horrendous, just frustrating. In the end, I would say to rent this game before buying it.
Final Grade: C+/B-