This game isn't the greatest skateboarding game ever made. The idea of doing tricks with a joystick instead of just buttons was a refreshing new mechanic in the first Skate. Unfortunantly Skate 2 doesn't bring anything so revolutionary to the table; it's basically the same game, but with the possibility to get off your board and pull things around.
What's good about the game is the skating. And it is so good that you'll want to come back for more when you're not playing. You will probably also find it entertaining to find new heights to fall off of, so you can see your emotionless character break bones. The career mode gives you a bunch of challenges and events to beat, effectivly turning the skating into a skating game. Right?
The challenges are where the game fails for me. It seems like Blackbox has built their city and then made challenges to fit the city, instead of making a place to fit a certain challenge. Some of these events are really badly designed and forces you to restart them over and over; which in turn vividly points out the flaws of the game.
Pedestrians, guards and other skaters are the only people in the city and there are plenty of cars running around. You'd think that this would serve to make the city streets feel alive, but I found myself annoyed of them most of the time. The people are mindless zombies basically. This becomes very obvious when you need to repeat a challenge for twenty minutes (it happens). People will walk around and be in your way which makes you restart even more times, and notice the same people coming back as if none of them has a place to be.
The best thing about Skate 2 is just skating around, not caring about anything else...
The most annoying thing about Skate 2 is that it might leave you in anger more often than in joy. Some of the challenges got me so frustrated that I rage quit, which is something I never thought I'd do.
If the people and cars would dissappear during challenges, I'd be psyched! If the level design was dictated by the challenges, I would've been psyched! If they stripped down this game to its core and only left in skateboarding and a bunch of skate parks and sweet locations, I could just play the demo of Skate instead, but on the other hand it is still the best virtual skateboarding experience I have had.
