Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 - Just Bad Games

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is a skateboarding game developed by robomoto disruptive games and published by Activision for the Playstation 3 and 4 as well as the Xbox 360 and Xbox One in 2015. while the game's title indicates that it's the fifth entry in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series it's numerically way way further in the franchise's catalog this series is massive and a franchise doesn't get this many releases unless it's pretty popular but popularity doesn't mean that every game with this guy's name is gold heck who is this Tony Hawk fella anyway well Mr Hawk is a legendary professional skateboard person he mastered the act of riding a wood Plank with wheels nailed under it what that man can do on a half pipe it's art Tony Hawk is a legend both for performing and inventing complicated moves that Inspire generations of extreme sports enthusiasts that Hawk could fly it's no wonder that a series sporting his name soared to home consoles Tony Hawks Pro Skater or purpose for short the game that started it all released to the PlayStation in 1999 and was developed by neversoft a company that would be entwined with the series for years to come like other sports games this title included other professionals from the same competitive activity ah isn't that sweet Tony bought his friends to play was the best the first game in the skateboarding genre No in fact there were other extreme sports and skateboarding games before it but many of these games tended to be uh how can we put this politely boring basic fit pretty much but the pro skater franchise pilot went and did something pretty amazing hey over here listen to this it made skateboarding fun what a novel idea look we're not gonna say skateboarding isn't fun because well however around this time for the general population skateboarding was mostly seen either as a method of Transport or as a fun little Pastime for rebellious youths but of course events did exist that showcased this activity as a legit sport like the X Games other video games that came before thepis utilize skateboarding as well like skate or die or Back to the Future on the NES anyone uh remember that fun game but really for a long time it seemed like developers couldn't quite land the Fancy Pants trick that was creating a skateboarding game where the skateboarding felt fun that is until it exploded in popularity with the release of the very first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on the very first Sony PlayStation the thought this one on the piss one something about the game got skateboarding in a way that no other game had captured before the Layman could argue that Mr Hawk's professional skateboarder interactive video experiences utilization of a full three-dimensional graphics engine combined with the robust physics system and Mr Hawk's name blazoned on the cover set the series up for Success immediately and those are all very important things don't get us wrong but for the general public they didn't know who this guy was so what the heck did neversoft pull off that was so dang good what made this game so fun to play three words Point combo system coin combos were something you could find in plenty of other games long before this one but really not many sports titles utilize them usually you'd get fairly simple scoring systems like with your baseballs your basketballs your footballs your um that badminton Balls swing enemies team score points and those points are simple pre-baked amounts these numbers arrive and they aren't really augmented after they're initially game in Focus though your score can snowball as you perform well moves you pull off later can effectively build and modify previously earned points points are calculated based on the complexity and proficiency of tricks and linking said tricks together in a combo could make the final score massive in that fight for the longest chain possible to multiply your score unmatched and addictive very few games get scoring like this so right it got even better with the sequels which introduced manuals and other combination abilities soon you could link combos through about an entire stage we're talking near endless unbroken connectivity with rail grinds jumps and board flips all in service of a massive collected score which multiplied as you pushed your boarding to the limits this generated a hunger for top points so addicting you'd never want to stop but you'd have to eventually because the game had a timer but for that added cherry on top if the timer on the level ran out while performing a combo the time would extend until you finish said combo or more likely fell flat on your face the Tony Hawk series grew with variations in expansions on its gameplay formula but could any game with Hawkman skater persons Pro name carry the same appeal would the series continuously hold its tantalizingly addictive core gameplay it's about time we found out by jumping on our skateboards and 360 kick flipping our way into Tony Hawks Pro Skater 5. we're gonna begin this adventure by powering up our physical disk copy on Xbox One for some strange reason the digital download version was delisted but that won't stop us from playing the game let's start the first level foreign to host has been lost returning to the main menu well friends this game made use of what was once considered a fancy state-of-the-art connection system a persistent online game space that is you always need to be online to play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. wait the back of the box doesn't say that and besides right now we are online yeah we are but their servers are not they were shut down Years Ago by Activision I don't get it what the heck are we supposed to do then the game keeps trying to connect to a server that is no longer serving that does seem to be a problem now don't it I guess the folks at Activision didn't consider this when they published the game probably leading to this being digitally delisted so if you want to play or at least look at this main menu you need a physical copy of the game well that's a bummer but I have a theory let me try this unplugging the internet plug the internet you animal you can't be serious oh but I am Adam I am okay let's do a fresh reinstall of the game off the disc and oh look the game works now what how could unplugging the ethernet cord possibly make this thing work well as far as I can tell the game has an always active online check when anyone starts the game and attempts to play the game will attempt to handshake with a server to go online because there is no longer an active server the game gets stuck in a kind of handshake Loop so wait they made a single player game with online features that you can't play single player offline that's right as long as the console is aware of an active internet connection it will never go into the game because it's always trying to find a server pull the plug on the internet lifeline and Bam we can experience single player good gravy that is stupidly complex and it's not like the game was even that old when its servers went dark it was shut down just a couple years after release right and keep in mind the publisher isn't some tiny games group with little funding to keep the lights on it's Activision one of the largest video game companies on the planet heck they could have released an update to make the game work without an internet handshake they just didn't yikes did they ditch the servers to hide the game that was wrought into existence that's what we're here to find out we're offline let's explore the first stage okay and go oh wait did did you see that texture pop in looks like the level isn't finished loading woof right likely a way to avoid long load screens but it isn't exactly working if the game looks like Play-Doh well if we wait long enough it'll probably catch up throw up the clock we'll wait for all assets to load in real time so uh you did any good restaurants lately actually yeah I ever heard a Shake Shack no what are they a milkshake shop well yeah but they're known for their burgers they're known for their burgers that's right so why don't they call themselves Burger Shack because they do serve milkshakes as well are they known for their milkshakes no why would they call themselves Shake Shack if they're known for their burger who the heck am I supposed to know I'm just telling you they make a good burger and wait is this thing even finished loading yet hold up just a second and done holy Indie front flip why did it take forever to finish hey I'm not a developer or a software engineer or a programmer but I can guarantee you this is proof positive that this game is poorly optimized for the hardware it's running on but even after it's uh done loading how does it control I can give you a detailed Moment by moment breakdown of just how bad the game controls or I can show you this that's how the game handles so unreliable physics and bad gameplay huh exactly what every skateboarding fan wants they've also introduced a new feature where you drop and slam to the ground in this crazy unrealistic way it's very easy to trigger it accidentally and interrupt long combo chains instantly turn in your border into a heavy sack of rocks now that's inventive hey uh where's all the stuff stuff you know like things dotted around the game world this Warehouse looks super empty doesn't it hmm now that you mention it yeah this level does look surprisingly sparse a big Bland cleared out Warehouse in the very first Tony Hawk title you start off in a warehouse as well the first thing you do is smash through a window it's like the game's screaming hey this is skateboarding pushed to the extreme you're in for a fun adrenaline-fueled explosive ride here though tumbleweeds you start alone zero momentum in an empty Warehouse I mean sure you can still perform tricks on the few interactive parts of the stage but we should remind you about that whole gameplay thing again National Hustler smashing you this doesn't feel like a new direction for the series this feels older than the original game and that was released a decade and a half before this one all the levels can't be like this can they great question let's check [Music] [Music] foreign I can't believe it every single level is not much more than a blank template they're all big Open Spaces that offer the player shockingly little to interact with even levels that should be interesting like this one with a Sci-Fi theme while they don't incorporate any interesting ideas sure things look a little spaced out I guess but what exactly should I want to do here I'm not inspired to skate around that's for sure you might think we're being pretty critical here but hey a numbered release in a treasured series will at least be held to the standard of the games that came before it and look those older games have so much more going for them interactive elements Galore cool level components and secrets that made you want to stylishly hurl your border into every nook and cranny exploration was interesting and fun or often than not you were rewarded for experimenting in those spaces sick Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for example the Los Angeles California Stage you can trigger an earthquake this changes the layout of the stage providing new trick opportunities is it realistic no but it sure as heck is fun other Tony Hawk games have vehicles riding around bystanders roaming the streets and layers of visual components to help make their world feel busy interesting and worth exploring as the series continued and evolved so did the levels can you blame us for feeling like the newest numbered Pro Skater releases totally lackluster why the heck wouldn't they try to add more Flash and Flair to the game's opening level well that's because they kind of didn't design it what do you mean ladies and gentlemen the warehouse level in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 called the barracks is actually based on a real-life skatepark in Los Angeles it's like looking into a mirror these places are identical this place is probably great for real skateboarding and it's cool that the developers wanted to tip their hats to this actual skate space but for a Tony Hawk game making a close replica of a real location skatepark or not isn't a good idea right if you're going to use real locales you need to either choose spaces brimming with interesting interactive elements or push them beyond their tame limitations Eric's aside the other stages in this game feel inspired by levels from previous Tony Hawk entries some like this rooftop level are far more obvious than others but do they try to incorporate or iterate on any of the elements that were fun and unique and no they lose all the Polish and attention to detail the previous levels contained surely there must be some modification to the gameplay to make these levels at least play a little different somehow oh sure in some stages you get super powers really like what you can make your skateboarder really really big does that do anything interesting they're just big now that's the Giant on an oversized skateboard nothing really changes they do have other power-ups though most of them mess with the physics to make everything feel floaty or give you multiple jumps in a row um multiple jumps to go really high up in the air like a Hawkman right that must be used to find hidden areas in the stage I mean it's an obvious use of an ability like this to go out of the bounds of normal play you would think that but no if you go somewhere the game doesn't want you to go even clearly marked areas that look like a place you could get to the game just throws you back to the main play area I even design this place here if you didn't want us to go there what's the point are there any secret spaces to be found at all surprisingly yes finally something's going right with this game for once well behold your praise before you hear how this works first very rarely you may find hidden areas in some stages like here in the mega Parks level you need to use that instant drop ability we mentioned earlier uh the the one that has you torpedo towards the ground like an extra heavy sack of sand that's the one instant drop on this spot here to break through the ground and transport to a Secret Sewer section and once you've instant dropped on it it doesn't change visually at all you just instantly flash into the sewer and heck you can just use the built-in Mission select menu to instantly go there anyway removing all the fun of exploration in its totality for every single stage in the entire game removing the fun of exploration in a Tony Hawk game that's a heck of a burn additional elements that are supposed to be exciting or enjoyable like this fire Trail in the stage triggered by grinding a rail over a bonfire seem more like a surface level gimmick okay and as for the bonfire pits themselves you can just sorta be inside them holy crap sir are you the legendary Tony Hawk no I'm a fire log let's face it the prime entertainment factor in this yawn Fest is one thing glitches [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh so many glitches when you get your fill of Jank Chuckles the question still lingers why do levels in this game feel so uninteresting compared to other games in the series there were reports that the development of this game was a purposely rushed hot mess but where its levels meant to be constructed differently no I think the levels in this game are actually very purposely designed they're all created with one key component in mind Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is a multiplayer game first and foremost remember that constant online connection we had to bypass the feature that made us feel like a bomb defusal team how could I forget right well that constant connection was crappily baked in because this game is supposed to feature drop-in drop out multiplayer and if your game spaces feature an open door to other players at any given time well those levels are going to need limitations pick a level like the hangar from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. if you grind on the helicopter blade in it the helicopter activates and lifts up out of the stage opening a door and revealing new skate opportunities a classic most players get that helicopter moment through natural exploration it's a not too well hidden event that naturally pushes the player to engage their curiosity in other sections and levels and that was in the very first level of the second game well that can't happen in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 because a player joining a level at any given time means the flash in the pan moments are easily missed and if that event unlocks something important or triggers an achievement it would make for a messy multiplayer experience so you're saying these flavorless stages are designed Bland because of the game's Relentless commitment to always on multiplayer yep well it's a shame they turned the servers off huh it is but as we've seen even if the servers were still kicking today the Game Wouldn't magically be more interesting to play online offline Pro Skater 5 isn't a good time but this franchise is legendary what the heck happened how did the series devolve into this well let's take a step back to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. an entry fans regularly shout the Praises of and for very good reason it refined everything the previous games accomplished and added some extra features as well absolutely there's so much to do and explore and unlock but of course with the popularity of the Tony Hawk series of games other developers and Publishers started to take notice enter the attack of the hawk clones an era that saw an army of awful knockoffs pepper the release landscape and folks if you've been watching this for a while you know we've already played one of the worst defending Pro Skater rip-offs every time we even think about Razer freestyle scooter we kind of shudder a little seems like not many people could do what neversoft could they had the Magic Touch but a commonly held belief amongst the pro skater faithful was that the series of games didn't actually get bad until after the game's original develop upper neversoft stopped working on them and Well we'd argue that's not necessarily true while we both agree neversoft's entries are probably the best in the series Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is a big old franchise with way more developers than most realize never soft usually developed the first iteration of every entry in the mainline series that's dating all the way back to the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on Playstation however sometimes third-party companies with port and develop games for other platforms for example there's a unique version of the series that arrived only on the original Xbox called Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 x this includes every level from the first two games all in one package with a bunch of additional levels this special game Blended features from Tony Hawk's second entry into the first along with other features making a better playing game overall Superior Graphics stronger gameplay for a while this was the ultimate way to play the first two games but you may be surprised to learn that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x wasn't reported and put together by never soft alone it was done in combination with Treyarch who you may know as the Call of Duty people so it's not like other developers working on the Tony Hawk series was unheard of but again neversoft always created the first version of a Mainline game and they continued to take this series of pro skater titles all the way to number four but by this point the fandom was getting a little burnt out with the same old ideas so things needed to change the PS4 Incorporated tweaked gameplay a core element of the previous games its countdown timer was nixed they did this in favor of a career mode more akin to free skate in previous games yup and these changes along with the autosave feature upon goal completion were polarizing overall the retooling made momentum in the game field dialed back for the first time in the series it seemed like neversoft was getting a little bored with the formula they created I mean skateboard tennis really so clearly the series needed to go in a bold New Direction and in a New Direction they went enter Tony Hawk's Underground the first time this series took a sharp 180 turn I turned so sharp it could be considered the beginning of the end underground is a tectonic shift not only in gameplay but also in the series overall identity it has a story mode you build a character and take them through the adventure of becoming a pro skater you can drive a car sometimes you can complete Dreadful sneaking missions it's my neighborhood I'll do it conditions where you just jump off of your skateboard and walk around a thing you can do all the time because why not who cares nothing screams Pro Skater like taking a stroll you can get off the board to get over terrain that would normally be hard or impossible to skate over regardless of how all of these elements were successfully implemented some better than others it seemed like the writing was on the wall skating alone wasn't enough with the introduction of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 neversoft heavily borrowed the theming and humor from the popular jackass television series and as more and more games came out the less they seem to stick the landing with players the series seemed like it was becoming more unfocused we're not totally knocking these games we played them and they're fun they're more of a victim of a series trying to stay relevant while struggling with oversaturation and neversoft well they never figured out how to bring the series back to its former glory never soft bailed out kick flipping the company to the development of the Guitar Hero series and assisting with Call of Duty entries you know that thing their old Pals Treyarch were working on Tony Hawk games were left rolling aimlessly for a bit having minor titles pop up that wouldn't hit the highs of pro skaters yesteryears eventually however a new company did drop in to take hold of the franchise and that company robomodo a team formed from other video game companies that as best as we can tell never had experience working on a Tony Hawk game before not really a bad thing I mean the series needed a new Direction a fresh company could take it there they formed in 2008 their first game would come out in 2009. and that game was Tony Hawk ride I think that there are certain certain ways to play the game that we could definitely improve on in a sequel and uh well shortly after with Tony Hawk shred this game makes use of plastic skateboard peripherals which when you think about it is weird because neversoft went off and did the plastic peripheral thing with Guitar Hero but as for these games they're well typically either of these games would be what we would cover today but alas is a video for another day all you need to know is that these two games were massive failures now you would assume this would lead to the developers losing the Tony Hawk license but miraculously that did not happen we don't know how or why but robomoto was then given the green light to make an actual old-school Pro Skater game one inspired by the original pre-underground releases so inspired that it's called Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD this was a total reworking of the first two Tony Seahawks Pro Skater games which wasn't even the first time this happened don't forget Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x was released on Xbox and kind of did the same thing but what Robo Moto decided to do with their HD application was make these classic games totally busted maybe Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is a slightly better game than the two dumb plastic skateboard titles but not by much the physics and controls feel strangely off and the game is loaded with glitches they even locked away levels characters and abilities behind paid DLC you never gate abilities in a freaking remaster no excuses and with that release robomoto lost the battered and beaten Tony Hawk name that's right after three terrible games Robo Moto proved they couldn't quite no what they've still got to make another one oh right right uh Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 but how after everything we just mentioned were they still able to make another game I don't know but robomoto shocked the world when they claimed that their next game would be the fifth entry in the Pro Skater series something neversoft themselves didn't want to do and from what we've experienced this game is a nightmare are we missing something did they at least try to update the game let me check oh oh oh what there uh was a day one patch and a second patch after that a day one patch so what have we been playing the launch disc version of the game that according to what I'm seeing here wasn't released in a really great playable State what why did we play pro skater 5 unpatched for so long well we unplugged the internet and did a fresh install the game straight from the disc remember to get it to work did the updates at least fix the server handshake issue oh no does the game work any better now some minor glitches and issues are resolved maybe but the game as a whole is pretty much the same the levels are still as Bland as tap water and all that terrible feeling gameplay looks the same huge day one patches for physically released games that's never a good thing the moment the servers that patched those titles are turned off those games are a little more than glorified coasters well the patches did add something special was that three new levels three new levels they're any better than the levels we've seen of course not oh good good can we at least say this game tried anything new anything unique to the hardware available at the time well the game makes use of physics-based objects okay right that's something if you don't know what we're talking about it's this 3D objects that fall and bump around sometimes realistically sometimes not and the best way to show that off in a drained swimming pool bumping objects outside of the pool for points for its time this is more of a Showcase of the processing power that these consoles had since this wasn't something you could easily do on the older platforms that the Tony Hawk series originated from but that in mind it doesn't add any overall enjoyment and doesn't work very well either events like these you are time to get the balls out of the pool by bumping into them however physics like this are unpredictable no two runs at this game mode are ever the same this becomes even more of a problem here when they switched up the formula now you're not knocking things out of a pool you're knocking toxic waste barrels down into a pool sounds easy right but it's not maybe if the physics weren't a mess they regularly don't work the way you want them to the ambiguity of movement and direction leave things frustratingly challenging and sometimes even when you finish the event it doesn't register that you did causing you to start all over again these physics balls show up in random spots as well like right here in the schoolyard look you can knock them into the Nets on either side and the screen will say you've scored great do you get anything for doing that nope nothing it's just balls okay uh can I ask a pretty important question of course what does any of this have to do with skateboarding balls and pools balls in a net it's not even capturing your score when you net something which is what other sports games do that's not fun it's nothing yeah fun the game suffers from a freaking fun drought after completing the whole raggedy experience unlocking and playing every level I think we've nailed exactly what's wrong in the previous Tony Hawk installments one key aspect is that you can pretty much do whatever you want the little goals are given you can achieve them at the start of the game but as a boost you increase the stats of your character well you play the game unlocking levels and achieving goals those added stats really give you a good sense of progress your border gets better the more you play but at the same time you never feel Limited in what you can do regardless of character stats the game feels balanced that way now yes the same stat feature does make an appearance in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 but is it balanced no in this game you can unlock all the levels in much the same way as previous entries but remember they designed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 to lean into the online angle each level is meant to be replayed again and again and again online even if you unlock every level in a single sitting you will have to grind to get the stats you need to make your character capable of achieving later goals in the game here's an example the first Bland Warehouse level we showed you there are a ton of mini games and events that you can complete with base character stats it can be difficult and challenging but with a little elbow grease you can do it [Music] the later levels though no the difficulty of challenges and events increases to such incredible Heights that there is no way you're going to be able to complete them with base level stats if you're looking for pro skater 5's one problem with a bullet it's this the bad boarding that glitches the empty stages none of that matters when core gameplay elements like this are completely dead on arrival the game puts less emphasis on player skill and more emphasis on the player grinding to acquire better stats Pro Skater games aren't supposed to be focused in this way if you're playing this game online for weeks maybe you'd level up maybe but as it stands now as an offline game that's not happening so many of these game modes are reskin takes on the exact same idea like collecting a bunch of objects in a certain time or bafflingly bizarre like shooting projectiles from your board to hit targets it feels ham-fisted and completely off brand were they tugging their collars worried about making a straightforward sequel to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 and if that was the case why call it the fifth Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game other games that successfully made use of online gameplay at the time like Call of Duty they were able to create fun gameplay Loops unlocking items and abilities that made matches challenging and rewarding having matches of players versus players well that was a lot of fun Tony Hawk's classic gameplay style though simply can't compete with that active player vs player gameplay doesn't work with this game's iconic combo scoring system sure you can play a match of who can get the best score combo online but that won't stay fun for long it provides a shallow competitive experience they can be off in the game world doing their own thing while you're nowhere near them trying to land moves and is that what competitive online game is about to remedy this the Creator stuffed generic online modes into the game like and we wish we were joking death match Deathmatch in a Tony Hawk game how remember that terrible targeting shooting gameplay mode we talked about well now you need to do that by firing at other players this is embarrassing and the only way we can show you this now is to Source old gameplay footage others recorded because this doesn't function anymore who in the world would buy Tony Hawk for death match so stupid it hurts Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is a lazy boring bad performing game it is without a doubt the lowest low point in the Beloved Tony Hawk series its broken attachment to online modes makes this the worst entry virtually unplayable it tries nothing new with its levels it delivers far less of what you expected from a number Sequel and more of things absolutely no one asked for but worry not the game is permanently offline now and can no longer hurt you it will never return can't say people should be sad about that it's easy to see how this series could have died here and for a while everyone thought it did but lucky for us we gotta refresh Tony Hawk's Pro Skater one plus two that's right folks a third attempt at combining the first two games but this time around it wasn't limited to a single platform like the Xbox and it wasn't created so badly that she winced while playing it no no this one was done very very well it's Tony Hawk Perfection an elevated playing version of The Originals that somehow feels like the sequel we didn't get this right here is a sign that Tony Hawk games still matter and can still have a future if we rewind this episode all the way to the start we mention two companies that worked on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. well that second company disruptive games they assisted with the creation of this latest title I swear someone somewhere must have learned from the mess that was five and passed on some gleaming knowledge to head developer vicarious Visions anyway hooray Tony Hawk games are fun again and they could have continued to explore this upturn in series quality if uh Activision didn't absorb the studio responsible for this entry and wipe away a rumored sequel great perfect Amy robomoto wasn't to blame maybe Activision was the one bungling these games all along well regardless of who was at fault the series has met challenges and problems so severe that nobody should be surprised when we say Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. it's just bad foreign [Music]

Channel: Rerez

Views: 423,371

Keywords: Rerez, Video, Games, Gaming, Gamers, Video Games, Video Game, Xbox, PlayStation, Tony Hawk, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, THPS, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Skateboarding, Activision, THPS5

Id: 6Dblhx8mPaE

Length: 35min 57sec (2157 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 06 2023