Tony Hawk's Underground marked a new era for the world-class skating franchise by Activision and Neversoft. In the Pro Skater series, the focas point was always about playing as the pros. THUG, on the other hand, made you (and your created skater) the star of the show -- which was a refreshing twist. The sequel gives the real-life skate heroes more of the spotlight once again, but doesn't leave your alter-ego in the dark whatsoever.
THUG 2 proclaims that it's two games in one. The first is the Story mode, which was an intricate part of the first Underground. Last time, you were trying to get credibility, earn a spot on a team, and gain some fame. In the sequel, you're part of a rivalry between skate legend Tony Hawk, and Jackass TV star Bam Margera. Not only will you play as a created character, but you can switch on the fly between members of your team. If you played through THUG 1, you'll recall forming a team near the end of Story mode. This time, you won't have to wait nearly as long.
The other half of this double feature is a return to the classic career style. Go through each level, and complete goals from a laundry list. This is for people who could give a rat's rear end about story and just want to skate. It's likely that these challenges will be totally separate from those in Story mode, meaning you're damn sure going to want to play both modes all the way through. Whether these are timed runs like in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 - 3 is unknown at this time.
Every Neversoft skate game brings about new mechanics. Last year, skate gamers learned the joys of jumping off your board and either running around on foot, or getting behind the wheel of a different vehicle. This year, there is a bunch of new stuff. First off, you'll be able to throw things while on your board. These projectiles add a shooter-style dynamic that has only been explored in multiplayer in previous Tony Hawk titles, but looks to be a part of the single-player modes.
Decorating your surrounds is important in THUG 2, and this can be accomplished in two ways: slapping your sticker on a surface, or tagging a wall with your own customized graffiti. The sticker placing looks like an extention of the wall kick move, but tagging is a whole different aspect altogether, which is a mystery so far.
Adding to the skate mechanics is slow motion. This has been a cheat in almost every Tony Hawk title, but it's a regular gameplay technique here. Slowing time will allow you advanced warning to react to the environment and make sure you stick your tricks. You'd be surprised how much easier it is to rack up huge combos when everything moves at a snail's pace.
Story mode has the tagline, World Destruction Tour. From what we've seen, that's a very applicable title. Some of the coolest parts about this series are scripted events that warp and modify a level -- dating back to the earthquake in the LA level of THPS 3. These appear to be used a lot more often in THUG 2, meaning a stage will probably look very different once your done with it, from how it looked when you busted your first trick.
It looks like Neversoft is getting even more outrageous in these games, which have been starting to resemble Jackass more and more in the last few incarnations. In fact, Bam's dad and favorite victim on Jackass and Viva La Bam even makes an appearance as one of the 20 playable characters. However, it's a great idea to throw serious skaters a bone at the same time with the classic mode. If you thought Tony Hawk's Underground was everything a skate fan could ask for, you haven't seen anything yet.
