Review: Tony Hawk's Project 8 (PS3)

The Tony Hawk’s series has enjoyed more ups and downs than most high profile franchises of late. It represents the most important series that Activision publish on an almost annual basis, but the need to churn out instalments has often resulted in little invention or progress being evident. After Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland many felt the good ship required more than an annual upgrade, rather a full refit was required.

A great deal rests on Tony Hawk’s Project 8 and Gamestyle is pleased to see a restoration of the core strengths of the series. The playability factor has returned and when a Tony Hawk release is on form, it’s almost impossible to put down the controller and walk away. Project 8 has the appeal and the “one more trick" playability stamped all over it, and we’re very pleased.

So what is the Project 8? Well, Tony Hawk is in town and trying recruit an elite team of skaters, known amazingly as the Project 8 team. Like so many releases you start at the bottom of the rankings and have to work your way up the chart. While this dynamic normally irritates the hell out of Gamestyle, here it’s not so daunting, repetitive or unexciting. This success is down to the fact that while it represents the major goal as a player, you can skate and explore on your terms. Often ignoring challenges or setting records, which propel you up the chart. This lack of infringement is refreshing, as before you know it you have risen a few places whilst having fun, and not performing repetitive tasks.

To aid you on your quest for a team place there are various well-known skateboarders other than Tony Hawk. The names don’t mean much here at Gamestyle “football" Towers, we appreciate their input, abilities and setting some serious challenges. The difficulty of Project 8 is also well pitched, with many tasks offering three levels of achievement and only completing the first is an option. Therefore all levels of ability are catered for and also on offer are training and free form modes to improve outside of the career mode.

The start up movie, which sees slow motion skaters performing tricks, sets the standard extremely high. Neversoft have put together a striking release, with all the clarity that 720p allows. For a start any need for loading between areas is removed, yes at times there may be a slight judder but apart from that you’re left to explore and perform tricks. This is how it should be, and the areas as they are unlocked are of a decent (rather than impressive) size, but make up for this deficiency by being perfectly formed. The characters are well detailed and complete with fluid animation. There are plenty of opportunities allowed by the environments to perform various types of tricks and plenty of secrets to discover. Several areas are inspired from previous levels in the series, so the sense of discovery is excised, however you can start performing almost straight away.

The opening moments of Project 8 are perfectly aligned with Kasabian’s Club Foot, with the game proceeding to offer a wide range of artists to accompany your skating career. Being set in a nameless sun drenched American piece of suburbia, you’d expect a predominantly pop-punk offering (note its not real punk) and it does not disappoint. Bad Religion, Supersuckers and the Ramones are present, but Project 8 tries to break away from the generic soundtrack we’ve come to expect from such a release. Pleasingly Sonic Youth, Wolfmother, NIN, Mogwai and Joy Division amongst others are all included.

The only real technical issue (ignoring the occasional refresh blip) Gamestyle has encountered whilst playing Project 8 is saving, however this is only a minor issue in what is an impressive release. You can save whenever you want, and the game will prompt you at some stages, but one badly timed crashed game caused us an evening of grief. Yet like all addicts, come the morning, we were back on the board.

Shamefully there is no online support, although the developer would attribute this to the lack of information from Sony regarding the capabilities of its new platform. Whatever the reason you’re left with a benign two-player mode that lacks the sparkle of utilising your broadband connection. At least the possibilities of the Sixaxis controller were taken onboard. It is best to play with the control settings beforehand, as the tilt function can be used for direction, tricks and balancing. For Gamestyle it was a fun diversion, as nothing beats the old fashioned way of controlling your skateboarder, especially when one mistake can abruptly end a massive score.

Tony Hawk’s Project 8 is easily one of the most enjoyable and addictive experiences to date for the PlayStation 3. And it will be difficult to dislodge until the next release in the series, which hopefully will ship with online support.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Jason Julier