I don't play sports games, as a rule I find them insufferably boring. But ever since my PS2-toting friend introduced me to the original THPS way back when I've been hooked. I guess skateboarding is more single-player friendly than hockey and basketball. Thankfully they port to PC amazingly well, in fact I find them easier on a keyboard than on a game pad. But then I haven't owned a console since my NES and Super NES days, so I'm a little rusty there (analogue sticks?! R1 L1?! COLOURED BUTTONS?! LOL just kidding, but really those sticks still mess me up).

But back to the point...THUG 2 is great, a faithful addition to the franchise. I admit I did not spend a lot of time on THPS 4, having never gotten around to buying my own copy, and I missed THUG 1 completely, so I can't really comment on the evolution since THPS 3 and I may refer to something as "new" which was actually in the last two games...its new to me anyways.

So...

The story mode is cool, a refreshing break from the old high score/S-K-A-T-E/etc of the old games, but I'm still glad to have the classic mode that I fell in love with as part of the package, and the same old gap list too - there's something immensly satisfying about finding those gaps! The ability to increase your stats through usage (story mode only) rather than stat coins is so much better as well.

I really like having my own custom character to play as an integral part of the story, and having other characters with their own unique goals per level, including a pro skater of your choice. This is far preferable to playing the same game 20 times with different skaters a la THPS (not that I minded really, but this is a definite improvement). That there is actually a "story" is kind of neat too. You can't say much for the plot, but at least it ties the package together nicely instead of being just a bunch of levels with increasingly high scores to beat.

The levels are fun, lots of great lines and jumps and all kinds of nifty little hidden places and gaps (yay gaps!!!). There are some neat characters with interesting vehicles to drive other than skateboards. The goals are fun, there is the usual collection of "find 5 of this" and "combo this that and the other thing" as well as some more unique goals that produce cool, map-altering results. The story mode is fairly short, but there seems to be a lot of unlockable maps judging by the gap list (where locked maps are represented as ?????, and there are a lot of ?????). More on replay value later.

The controls are slightly different from my last go at a Tony Hawk game. They are less simplistic and so a little harder to master, but once I got the hang of them I was flying at my old insane tricks again. I still find myself accidently jumping off my board and walking though, which is really frustrating sometimes. I haven't decided how I feel about this walking around and climbing business. It seems reasonable to be able to exist off your skateboard, and being able to go to otherwise inaccessible places is awesome...but all this jumping off by accident is a real pain! I suppose I am still not entirelly accustomed to the new controls yet, I've only had the game for 4 days!

The replay value of the games in this series has always been fantastic, and this installment is no different. There are 3 difficulty levels for story mode, and 2 for classic mode, a free skate mode, 2- and multi-player modes with 13 games to chose from, as well as unlockable levels and characters, videos, the gap list, and the ability to create your own parks, characters, tricks, graffiti tags, and goals. You create your own custom character to play as an integral part of the story mode and to use in classic mode as well. You use this character for every difficulty setting in both classic and story mode, although stats do not carry over. The goals are mostly the same throughout, however higher scores must be reached for scored goals. As I mentioned other characters can be found and played within each level, with their own unique goals. I'm not sure what happens to the unlocked characters - I've just unlocked my first set through completing the easy story mode and stopped to write this review - probably they can be selected as the pro skater on each level.

The sound track is the usual mix of punk, rock, hip hop, and the like. Lots of great tracks, I think this is my favorite so far.

The only negative thing I have to say about this game is that graphics aren't all that great. They aren't terrible really, but they sure aren't the crisp, detailed eye candy that can be found in higher profile games. Granted this game is neither high-profile nor very expensive, and I suppose detailed environments aren't really necessary to this game the way they are necessary to the FPS and RPGs that I usually play. And I guess the game was meant for consoles mostly, and TVs don't support the high resolutions that monitors do. And I guess you fly around the levels so fast you'd miss a lot of it. But still...wouldn't it be sweet if you could go flying off a wicked jump and see a beautiful landscape below you?!?!?! Ahhh I'm spoiled...hahaha.

Buy this game!