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Tony Hawk's Proving Ground Review
Jon Wilcox
02/11/2007
With the competition already on the half-pipe, Mr Hawk returns for another year of knee grazing and multi-million point combos...
He may have had the run of the park for nearly a decade, but with EA's stripped down skate. already kick-flipping its way onto both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Tony Hawk finally has some competition. So in this eighth incarnation of the pro skater's videogame outings, how has Neversoft and Activision pushed to maintain the franchise's status as the skateboarding brand to own?
For starters, the action relocates to the US Eastern Seaboard, with micro-versions of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington DC brought together into one single open world. Linked together by tunnels and bridges, the three areas offer very distinct differences in environment, from the run-down, almost ghetto-like Philly to the much more cosmopolitan areas of DC and Baltimore. The famous FDR and LOVE skateparks are built into Philly (locked up at first), together with the Lansdowne skatepark in Baltimore. In that respect, Proving Ground doesn't exactly push the boat out...it would have been nice to grind the White House fountain or the sanctuary of the Oval Office walls, for instance. A deep-rooted structural change to the single-player game sits right at the heart of Proving Ground however, with gamers carving out their own career path on their way to skating glory. Offering a much more meaningful experience than previous instalments, and without some of the silliness that has overshadowed it in the past (I'm looking at you Underground 2 and American Wasteland), Proving Ground is something of a valiant attempt to bring the franchise back in line with what matters: skating.
Something to prove
So long world tour, adios project rankings - once again the clue is in the title, and in Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, you've got to do just that... but that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to attain the global stardom of Mr Hawks. In fact, three types of career route are open for players to follow non-linearly, each reflecting a different type of skating habit: Career, Rigger, and the most skate-like of them all, the Hardcore. Each of the pro skaters in the game split up into their skating type, offering their own story thread from Bob Burnquist's tri-city tournament that sees the player face off against a local hotheaded skater called Eric, to a series of rigging exercises by Jeff King. All of the storylines contribute to career progression, unlocking additional abilities and rigging pieces as the game goes on.
Career skaters will for instance obtain two new expansions to Project 8 debutant 'Nail the Trick'; both 'Nail the Grab' and 'Nail the Manual' open players up to new tricks and combo potentials, and freeing what was last year's 'novelty' function into the wider gameplay. The ability is also better integrated this time around, with events setting the bar higher for advanced tricks and grabs to be pulled off whilst in mode. Hardcore skaters meanwhile get access to a series of 'Aggro' skills that include a rather aggressive - and skate.-like - timed push offs and the ability to get faster speed in manuals by pushing off passing cars and walls. Finally, the riggers unlock masses of props, pipes, and ramps that players can then use to furnish their den. In addition to that however, is the ability to throw objects into the game world, including ramps and half-pipes, at any time - essentially opening up the three districts into the biggest customisable skating arena in a videogame. But away from the new abilities, the main focus of the game is to prove yourself in the wider skating world, which is accomplished by completing the various events and storylines in the career. Rather than just get to 'Rank #1', Neversoft has built a more tangible sense of progression this time around, with players getting signed to produce signature items. After being sponsored by one of the big skating brands licensed by Activision, later steps see the character rewarded with sponsored boards and even their own team (if you can convince the skating pros to join you), making it feel like your reputation has grown.
That's not to say that the franchise has ditched its bread and butter, multi-million point, gravity-defying, button-mashing heritage. Far from it. As in past years, GPs around the country will no doubt get an influx of RSI patients, all Tony Hawk fanatics that have pushed their wrists to the limit with over-exertion. Aside from the added extras to the 'Nail the...' functions, the core controls remain as they have done since the earliest days of the franchise, with grinds, ollies, and manuals all behaving just as they should.
Snappy skating
Video editing continues to take the skating world by storm this year, with Proving Ground featuring a wide range of options for players to cut and paste saved videos, and apply visual effects. Whilst similar in style to skate.'s editing functionality, the ability is let down by allowing players to see the sometimes not-so-fluid animation in glorious slow-mo, and the skateboard cutting through the hard floor far too many times. It's this function that most feels like a novelty this time around, and given the more arcade-like gameplay of the franchise, it's questionable whether players would be drawn to Proving Ground's video editing. Taking photos are also a key part of the career, with storylines revolving around setting up camera positions, performing a trick, and pressing the button to take the shot, but these are often fiddly in enclosed spaces and a little frustrating at times.
Despite the re-structuring of the single-player game, which certainly provides a more focused career for players, Proving Ground continues to feel like it's carrying some baggage thanks to the longevity of the franchise. In contrast to EA's skate., Proving Ground sometimes feels busy, despite the best efforts of Neversoft to give it more direction. It is an improvement however, and we can only hope that the developer continues in this vein by the time the inevitable follow up launches in a speculative November 2008 release period. The 'Nail the Trick' feature has certainly been expanded upon so it avoids being labelled a recurring gimmick, with the 'Nail the Grab' and 'Nail the Manual' functions allowing many more options to players this time around. So much of Proving Ground seems to be a knee-jerk response to skate.'s stripped down 'The Joy of Skating' strategy that it's difficult to break away from the suspicion that Neversoft and Activision have been forced into making a grittier instalment this time around. That said, overall the game has managed to succeed in dragging itself out of the series' low point of two years ago, which wasn't helped by the franchise debut on Xbox 360.
Online multiplayer continues to be refined this time around, with a greater level of integration than Project 8, with access to the lobbies from anywhere in the gameworld. Multiple rounds of events can be added to create online tournaments, with a wide selection of options from highest combo to highest Nail the Trick combo...though HORSE once again seems to be missing...
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