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Tony Hawk’s ninth entry is as strong as ever. With three career paths, rigger editor, video editor and new gameplay modes, Proving Ground has a lot to like. The appropriately titled Proving Ground—in light of EA’s Skate, the game’s first real competition in years—shows that Tony Hawk has emerged stronger than it ever was. Just when you think that the series is getting stale or that Neversoft ran out of ideas, the developer proves you wrong.
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground lets you choose from three different career options. The first and likely to be the most popular, lets you build your own empire complete with your own merchandise, shoes, and legions of fans. If that doesn’t appeal to you, then you can choose to become a hardcore skater simply focused on nailing the best tricks when they want or a rigger, who focuses on tweaking the environment to pull off insane stunts. The game begins by letting you design your character by changing clothes, faces, decks, etc. Interestingly, the game lets you change your character’s look very easily from the game’s menu after initially designing them. The game has specific goals depending on your career path, but also includes camera goals such as photo goals (execute a specific trick and get it on camera) and film challenges (pull of a series of tricks and get them on camera).
One of Proving Ground’s big innovations is the video editor. The game tracks the last 30 seconds of your gameplay and lets you go into the video editor whenever you want. The video editor is fairly robust, allowing you to add custom music, lenses and numerous filters to make the best video you possibly can. Once you’re done with the video, you can upload it online and share it with your friends. When you start the game you’ll have access to a select few rigging items. Another is the rigger feature. You can always stop the game and add structures to the game’s maps that you need to pull off your move. The environment really is your canvas and the rigger feature makes it easy to do so.
In terms of gameplay, Proving Ground adds Nail the Manual, Nail the Grab, and Aggro Kick. The first two complement the Nail the Trick feature found in last year’s game. Both are extremely easy to use. In Nail the Manual, you hold the right trigger, and then you can balance your board as you did before finally landing your board. In Nail the Grab, you hold the left trigger and you can do flip your board or do hand transfers. The agro kick lets you hit the shoulder button when you’re about to land to get momentum. If you time it properly, you’ll get a nice boot which lets you continue pulling off insane combos or simply check into a pedestrian.
The game’s multiplayer mode has been expanded over the past year. The game lets you free skate in a lobby while the host sets up the game type. Most of the modes are similar to those last year but Nail the Trick has been included in multiplayer, which makes for some more interesting matches in the game’s multiplayer mode.
Graphically, the game uses the same engine as last year’s Project 8. The character models look better this year thanks to improved attention to detail such as wrinkles on clothes. The motion capture has also been improved; making all of the moves (even the crazy ones) look realistic and authentic. As with recent Tony Hawk games, the world in Proving Ground is completing streaming. There is plenty of variety, allowing you skate in a number of different locations. The lighting effects are as solid, as ever.
The audio component is also very strong. The varied soundtrack includes nearly 60 songs from artists ranging from Nirvana to The Rolling Stones. There is plenty to like in the game for everyone, all of which fits into the Tony Hawk world. The game lets you create custom soundtracks from the game’s included songs, which is pretty cool since you can automatically skip songs you don’t like. The sound effects are as solid as ever, meaning that you’ll hear skating sound different depending on the surface that you’re skating on and all of the bone-crushing bails. The voice acting from the pros is solid, too, and adds authenticity to the game.
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground is easily the best Tony Hawk game to date. Everything from the varied career mode, new gameplay features and video editor come together in a great, cohesive package. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 17, 2007
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