This is the Tony Hawks game that I played the most by far. I never played Underground 1 and was very impressed by the new features that this sub-series introduced. I thought it was a cool idea to be able to get off the board and walk around the world. I also thought some of the missions that required you to climb scaffolding to spray graffiti, for example, were quite innovative. Overall, the structure of the Tony Hawks series became quite formulaic and almost monotonous from game 1 to 4. Underground recognized this and developed the series in a new, interesting direction.
Another fundamental change was to completely remove the time limit for completing a level. I remember that this design decision was received very ambivalently at the time, both by players and critics. I found it very pleasant to no longer be stressed by the time limit and to be able to really take my time when solving the tasks. The mission design was adapted to reflect this change, so that you sometimes had to think for quite a long time about how to solve a task.
What really got on my nerves back then and is probably received even more negatively today is the story and the general writing of the game. At the time, the writers decided to integrate a kind of Jackass-inspired story into the game, which could also have been shown in an episode of Viva La Bam on MTV. In the game's story, 2 teams, each led by Tony Hawk and Bam Margera, compete against each in skate challenges. The more stupid and dangerous a challenge is, the more points the team gets. You can imagine what kind of humor to expect here. Stupid shit jokes are the most harmless. What's more problematic is when there are derogatory, sexist or racist-adjacent jokes, which were already unacceptable at the time.
Nevertheless, I really liked the game as a whole back then. Probably also because I didn't have the necessary sensitivity for these topics as a child and simply enjoyed playing this game time and time again with my buddy. The soundtrack was absolutely fantastic and, as I said, the gameplay was an absolute delight. As a whole, I can't really recommend the game though due to the problematic aspects of its narrative.
Another fundamental change was to completely remove the time limit for completing a level. I remember that this design decision was received very ambivalently at the time, both by players and critics. I found it very pleasant to no longer be stressed by the time limit and to be able to really take my time when solving the tasks. The mission design was adapted to reflect this change, so that you sometimes had to think for quite a long time about how to solve a task.
What really got on my nerves back then and is probably received even more negatively today is the story and the general writing of the game. At the time, the writers decided to integrate a kind of Jackass-inspired story into the game, which could also have been shown in an episode of Viva La Bam on MTV. In the game's story, 2 teams, each led by Tony Hawk and Bam Margera, compete against each in skate challenges. The more stupid and dangerous a challenge is, the more points the team gets. You can imagine what kind of humor to expect here. Stupid shit jokes are the most harmless. What's more problematic is when there are derogatory, sexist or racist-adjacent jokes, which were already unacceptable at the time.
Nevertheless, I really liked the game as a whole back then. Probably also because I didn't have the necessary sensitivity for these topics as a child and simply enjoyed playing this game time and time again with my buddy. The soundtrack was absolutely fantastic and, as I said, the gameplay was an absolute delight. As a whole, I can't really recommend the game though due to the problematic aspects of its narrative.