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Wasteland cleans up the series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: October 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Seven years ago, skateboarding became a game genre with Pro Skater. Every year after that, new additions and refined gameplay kept me playing all four Pro Skaters and both Undergrounds. In all of those years, nothing has impressed me more than Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. Somehow Neversoft has done it; they've made the perfect skating game.

I'll skip telling the story, since it's basically the same "get respect" crap that was in the Underground games, and also because the gameplay has been refined to the point of perfection. Neversoft saw it coming--they've outdone themselves and done everything to skateboarding that they could. So other than a few interesting additions to the skateboarding formula (like board stalls, bert slides, and parkour), and the ability to ride and trick on BMX bikes, the coolest addition is the free-sprawling recreation of Los Angeles that serves as the world of THAW. The city is divided into sections, which takes away from some of the huge feel, but I still felt overwhelmed at first by the size of the world. This world is so much fun to skate in that I basically neglected the fact that the story mode goals are terribly easy and repetitive, but serve their purpose in unlocking huge portions of an even larger world.

The controls are spot-on, the combos are still fun, and that's what keeps me coming back to this series. As a note to Neversoft, I don't care about epic storylines and I'm happy with the removal of Bam Margera from the story in general. I'm pleased, as a fan of this series, that I finally have a Hawk game that has the moves, the good controls, and the levels (well, the level) that can keep me playing for another year or two until another boarding game rolls up.

Disappointing, tired, old looking game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I really wanted to like THAW. I'd played THUG et al and enjoyed them for what they were, but I really expected American Wasteland to step up to the plate and add something to the TH games.

After all, the TV ads hinted at a GTA3 style of gameplay - lots of exploring across the entire west coast with the freedom to go where you want and no loading times. I had visions of jumping from skyscrapers, skating for hours down streets, going where I want - when I want. After a few minutes play though, the reality sinks in. There's no freedom, no massive free-flowing levels, just the same enclosed levels you've played many times before. Level load times are replaced by dull, pointless empty interior corridors and tunnels which serve NO purpose - no plot advances, scores or interaction happen in them. You simply plod through to the next small claustrophobic enclosed level.

Gameplay things fair little better. In story mode you usually have to perform 3 or 4 tricks to 'advance' things a little. This soon proves massively tedious as should you fail anyone of the tricks at any time during the 'mission', you will have to start again. So you listen to the bad acting, watch the awful lipsyncing and terrible out-of-place body movements. Sure you can skip each sentence, but you have to endure the animations - over and over and over again until you manage to perform the exact sequence of button presses the game is expecting from you, sometimes within a 5 second time limit or less. As a player you only do it to open up new levels, not because it's fun. Frustration rapidly overtakes ANY enjoyment gleaned playing the silly challenges in story mode.

And so you turn to classic mode for relief. Except in classic mode the level loading is back! Yup, no tunnels for you. Loading screen, percentage bar and all are here. So what the heck is the point of it all? Let me repeat that - you CANNOT freely travel in classic mode. Sigh.

Another unforgivable new addition to the TH series are the outrageous bugs found in this game - my character has fallen through the floor, got stuck behind a wall and the game has even crashed out completely. You'll be seeing the save screen often.

So it's pretty poor and simply not worth your money - especially if you own one of the previous games. Oh, there's a redundant addition of bmx riding (which you can't do in classic mode, and is utterly useless in story mode) too. But that doesn't save Tony Hawk's American Wasteland from being a buggy, unfinished, crude-looking game.

Funer then underground and underground 2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: November 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Ok i just rented this game and beat it it a day and a ahlf. although its easy its incredibly fun to play. everything is great about this game its definitly the best of the series. O and don't complain bout it being easy if u havent noticed you can beat all the tony hawk thug games in about 5 hours

more like Tony Hawk's American Crappyland

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

By far the WORST Tony Hawk game ever. The emphasize of the game is not even on scating, but on destruction. The whole point of the game is to break something, usually a large absolute junk, and then use this junk to build a crappy skatepark.
Here are some MAJOR flaws:

-Way too easy: I beat the game on the hardest difficulty in one day.

-Glitchy: as I tried to actually explore the cities, my character would often be "sucked" onto and land on the vertical faces of buildings, after which I would promptly fall and lose any points I had accumulated in my combo.

-GTAish: this game has taken a severe turn towards a GTA style of gameplay, even with a crappy bike that is very hard to control. You now have to traverse entire levels to go to stores and shops to buy new clothes and hairstyles. There is also a new day and night cycle. While this style works beautifully in GTA, it is most definitely not suited for a Tony Hawk game.

-Classic Mode: In my opinion the levels chosen for classic mode were very poor. Not only were they too dark, but I felt that there were not enough skate-lines in them.

-Story Mode: The story mode now has a day and night cycle, with creates problems during the night because it becomes to dark. Also the large cities have some of the worste skate-lines in Tony Hawk history.

-Overall game feel: To me, this game feels rushed. It is filled with glitches, and lacks the general creativity that made the previous games such hits. The levels are very generic, and have very poor skate-lines, and unoriginal gaps, or nonexistant gaps were a gap would be perfect. It feels as though it wasn't properly playtested; any kind of exploring is pointless. There are few hidden secrets or little "pranks." The only thing I found was the "star wars kid" and his goat. This game doesn't even come close to the creative levels I have come to expect out of THPS games, it is missing that extra something that makes every game special, such as the "combo new jersey" or "jump the compter" in the most recent Tony Hawk games.

-Pointless Goals: In previous Tony Hawks there were many unlockables, which would be unlocked by delving into the game and comepleting every possible goal, but in this game there is a skatepark that you create through completing goals in story mode (the skatpark is not as good as it may sound, as the pieces are pre-placed and provide limited skate-line opportunities)There are also goals within the skatepark, but comepleting them is a hug waste of time, because they are neither fun, nor do you recieve anything special for completing them. There are also other goals that upon total completion, you get nothing.

While I have been harping on the cons, there are a few pros that I thought I should mention just to be fair.

-The create-a-trick option is much improved; you can now create a special manual (:

-There is online

-There is a co-op option when you play the Classic Mode, and I have always been a fan of anything Co-op, so I really got a kick out of this feature.

-Graphics are pretty good

Basically what I am trying to say is that do not buy this game. If you have the money, then at least rent it first. Even if your a huge THPS fan (like me) do not waste $50 dollars on this game. It may be OK for XBOX 360, but for XBOX it is a piece of crap. I will feel ashamed of myself if after reading this you still buy the game. Of all of the games I have ever bought, this one was the greatest disapointment. I waited so long for it to come out, and even contemplated buying a 360 at its inflated price of $399 just so that I could play American Wasteland with killer graphics. Boy am I gald I didn't, it would have been a waste of a lot of money. This game had so much potential, but thats the thing, it is just potential, and Tonhy Hawk's American Wasteland definitely did not even come CLOSE to its potential.

the best game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 10
Date: November 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I got tony hawk's american wasteland the day it came out and it was awesome once I got home I played it for 6 hours striaght then I whent outside and started to skateboard I have a real board its baker skate co. uhmm whell anywhey its awesome!!!! seeya

"American Wasteland" not for beginners

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: December 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

American Wasteland gives a new meaning to the phrase "extreme sports." Firstly, the game is not about skateboarding, rather, the skateboarding is a mere part of it. The 3 main themes of American Wasteland are:
*Street life
*Violence
*Destruction.
If there were an avant-garde category for video games, American Wasteland could easily be defined as such. However, this game is not recommended for fans of Mario Bros, as the language, blood, and overall 16-year-old content may be too intense for those under or over the age of 13. For old-time fans, back again are Bam Margera, Tony Hawk, and all your favorite Masters of Destruction.

hard but fun!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: January 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

DON'T listen to anything those other guys are saying! everything they said is not true. this game is ten times better than any of the pro skater games. and blows both thug games out of the water. the graphics are awesome, the story was hard (not beatable in 5 hours like they say) and extremely fun. the classic mode is the bomb. all the new create-a modes are sweet!!! the bmx bike is pretty hard to get used to but when you learn the basics it gets pretty fun. I love that they got rid of the loading screens and made one humongous level. well anyways this game is worth well over 50$ A++++++

WORST GAME EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 15
Date: November 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Do not by this game it stinks. 5 reasons why this game sucks

1.the grafics on the pepoles faces are so bad. Those picturse are not how it really looks.
2.The bmx is almost imposable to controle
3.when it is night time you cant see at all
4.You cant be your own charter that you make you have to pick from limitid ones in the begining of the game
5.the goals are so unrealistc

Tony Hawk Online

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Tony Hawk American Wasteland is another good addition to the Tony Hawk collection. Story Mode is way less cheesy as the THUG story mode and the plot is more interesting. I've enjoyed all the Tony Hawk games except for THUG 2. Live has revolutionized the Tony Hawk games now that all Tony Hawk fans can compete online. You can also just chill with other people while you skate as well.

I would recommend getting this Tony Hawk game if you want to compete on Live.

Not too bad

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: January 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

1. Just like Tony Hawk Underground 2...
2. With less character customisation...
3. Board graphcis customisation
4. And trick customisation.
5. BMX bikes rulez....
6. But where are all the other tricks? Off-axis 360 flip? Nothing superman? No hander? Suicide No hander? Turndown?
7. Not-too-shabby voice acting
8. You spend abt 5-15hrs making a messy skatepark? Huh? Can't we have a blend of BMX and skateboard stuff and be done with it? Why put some trash in the park?
9. Classic mode is quite good
10. But lack of old THPS, THUG levels.
11. I rather have load times than skate through tunnels.
12. More skate competitions and bike competitions!!!!!

Note: It only gained 4 stars because of the criticism above.

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