Electronic Arts and Black Box came together last year to surprise gamers and the competition with skate.  Sporting a new control scheme and a low to the ground camera, skate, resonated a sense of down to earth skateboard realism that had long been lacking in the genre.  Now a year later, Skate 2 has hit the streets and has picked up a few new tricks to impress the faithful.

Skate 2 takes place several years after the first skate, and after the events that occurred in Skate It, the in-transition title that came out on the Wii.  You skater is released from prison, and meets up with his ever faithful cameraman to try and rise back to the top of the skateboard world.  While it sounds simple, the rebuilt city of San Vanelona has become very anti-skater, putting up skate stops, employing security, and the general populace dropping derogatory remarks about you at every turn.

Hitting tricks in Skate 2 is a lot smoother this time around, due to either familiar controls or just polish from Black Box.  Using the right stick to pop most of your tricks, along with the triggers for grabs and spins, and the occasional bumper to pull off some cool inverts, the tricks come fast and furious this time around.  There was never any struggle to pull off anything but  the most difficult challenges, while playing, which less to less frustration and much more enjoyment while playing.

While there is a main storyline that has you challenging pros around the city, you really have full reign to do what you would like, and a lot more activities to occupy your time.  There are photo shoots, spectacular death races, where you speed down a defined course as fast as possible, and of course, Hall of Meat challenges, where you just try to wreck as much damage to your own body as possible.  I never had a dull moment while playing Skate 2, because there was never a lack of something to do.  I am 15 hours into the game, and I still have so much to do in the city, giving the player a lot of value for his dollar.

Graphically, Skate 2 is crisp and sharp, but not all that colorful.  The skaters have a fair amount of detail, and the clothing choices are top notch.  Little things like your clothing getting dirty after a number of falls, or scrapes and bruises on your body after you have fallen a few times really stood out very nicely.  Yes it is a small detail, but it adds to the street-level feel that Skate 2 has defined for itself.  The biggest issue, graphically, is that Skate 2 has nothing that really stands out in the way of visuals.  You don’t see anything that pops out at you, but the game does look nice. 

The game world is also a fully loaded world, in the sense that you never have any loading times while transitioning from one location to another in the world.  About the only time you will see a loading screen is when you first load up a session of Skate 2, or when entering a challenge.

When you do tire of playing in the single player mode, there are a host of multiplayer options that can be found online.  The favorite that I have found so far is the Freeskate mode, which works similar to Burnout Paradise’s Freeburn mode.  You can have up to eight skaters in a room and then the host sets up challenges for the group to accomplish.   Most of the challenges I came across had to do with the players trying to score a certain amount of points as a group, so one has to wonder if these will end up being the main set of challenges that people will want to setup.

Skate 2 added a new feature that is huge, but is implemented rather awkwardly, which is the ability to jump off your board and walk around.  Nothing bugged people more than coming to the bottom of a long run, only to have to turn around and find a way back up to the top, especially when the way you came down included jumping over stairs.  Now you can jump off the board and walk around, and even move items around to create your own skate courses.  While it sounds great, it is implemented very poorly.  Once you are off the skateboard, you person seems to walk as if you are using a clipping cheat, as you person turns around like they are still on a board.   Movement also seemed a bit stiff, and you never seem to be going in the right direction.  The same can be said for moving obstacles around the world.  You grab an item, but moving it to the precise location needed requires the precision hand of a surgeon, as the controls are so touchy.  Having the ability to get off of the skateboard is good, but not if it means I am still mobility challenged due to wonky controls.

Also, there are some minor glitches like my skater has occasionally become trapped inside of objects, or clipped through a lot of scenery.  Also, beyond the new challenges, Skate 2 feels like more of a remixed version of the first game.  It is not a bad thing, but some might be looking for the next revision of the game, and will walk away from the game, feeling like more could have been done to create a more unique experience.

Even with these few faults and glitches, Skate 2 is the new champion at the top of the skateboard genre.  Smoother controls and a bevy of challenges await those that delve into the story mode, while those that seek a greater challenge will find multiplayer arenas ready to fulfill that need.  However, the game still feels a few weeks ahead of schedule, and could have used a bit more polish.  Skate 2 gets 4 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.