Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 (PS4)

We’ve established by this point that we’re fans of the Tony Hawk games, particularly up to Underground 2. From that entry onward, however, the series would continue a downward spiral of popularity going into the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 in 2015, the same year the deal with Activision expired. We later bought the game at a steep discount just to see how bad it really was, but wouldn’t go through a full playthrough until more recently. Having played every game from Pro Skater to Proving Ground, I can say without a doubt that Pro Skater 5 is truly the worst Tony Hawk game I have ever played.

As befitting the Pro Skater label, this entry dials back what the player can do and keeps the moves more in line with the first four games, meaning the player can no longer get off the board. The player can still Manual, Revert and Spine Transfer, although the Wall Plant was retained from Underground (or at least how the move worked in Project 8). Pro Skater 5 also adds a move of its own, Slam, which forces the skater to quickly slam down onto the ground from any height and immediately end the combo, a move that can actually prevent bails when used right. In addition, it’s also possible to manual in place without any forward momentum.

Like Pro Skater 4, this entry allows the player complete freedom to skate around the different levels and tackle missions at certain markers sprinkled about (although the player can start missions at any time by opening a menu via the touchpad). Completing missions earns the player cash to purchase unlockable parts for their Custom Skater and Stat Points to increase the level of their abilities. Additionally, every 15 stars that the player collects by completing missions unlocks a new level to skate around in; missions grant one to three stars based on whether you complete the AM, Pro or Sick objective. Each level also has a unique powerup that adds an additional effect to the skater and lends an arcade-like feel to the game.

Players can freely skate around levels inspired by
classic levels from previous games.

Though I could see what developer Robomodo had attempted with the game, the execution is still deeply flawed. The “always online” mentality of its design led to a number of inherent flaws, including long load times and the lack of a built-in Offline mode for people who wanted a more solo experience, especially since, as of this writing, the Private Match option for each level no longer works (yet I did see other people playing online for some reason). The only way to truly play by yourself is to disconnect the console from the internet before selecting the Private Match option for a level, which also has the positive side effect of dramatically reducing the load times to something more tolerable. Unfortunately, the “always online” aspect also means that levels feel very lifeless, since they’re designed with multiple skaters in mind, and you, rather awkwardly, have to exit out to the main menu every single time you want to change levels or use the Stat Points and cash that you’ve earned from missions.

The mission-based structure of the game wouldn’t be too bad, however, if there were any thought put into them. Every level has the same five Freeskate objectives (Collect SKATE, Collect COMBO, Secret VHS, Secret DVD and Destroy X) with no variation, but there doesn’t seem to be any incentive to completing them, since they don’t help you unlock the next level. Missions themselves are also repetitive and unimaginative (ex. clear a pool of inflatable balls, collect objects and return to one spot, Simon Says) with little variation apart from the increasingly ridiculous requirements to get AM, Pro or Sick. The most egregious example, asking for literal millions of points to get AM in a later high score mission, would feel less overwhelming if obtaining Stat Points didn’t feel so tedious and grindy or if more tricks were available to the player. For example, you can no longer modify any manuals, lips or grinds once you start them, so longer combos would be easier with these available.

As for Stat Points, they operate much like in previous games, but this time performing tricks feels harder without them. Unless you start gaining a good number of Stat Points, balance meters deteriorate much faster than before and vert trick spins are much slower. On top of that, Stat Points don’t carry over between skaters, so you have to go through the process again for each one. Though this system was certainly in place for the original Pro Skater entries, the tedium associated with obtaining Stat Points feels far more pronounced here and instead feels like a ploy to artificially inflate the game’s length.

Playing Pro Skater 5 also feels tedious thanks to physics that feel a bit off compared to nearly every other Tony Hawk title. It feels harder to get forward momentum even with an increased Speed stat, since the game insists that aside from pressing up or moving the stick forward, you press R2 to speed up, like an oddly implemented version of Proving Ground’s Aggro Kick. To compensate for this, stance switching and Revert were remapped to R1, a move that not only messed with my muscle memory, but seemed especially odd considering R2 still triggered a Revert anyway. The physics in general also felt a little floaty, with less of the particular weight I grew accustomed to throughout the series. You can't even bail a grind, which takes away the feeling of risk. Wonky physics also results in odd moments like jumping several feet in the air when performing an Ollie right after a respawn.

The physics never really feel quite right.

I also found the Slam mechanic poorly implemented, as it’s mapped to the exact same button as Grind, resulting in a lot of missed rails and ledges. They did later patch the game so you could toggle Slam to a double tap instead of a single tap, but the issues still came up every so often. What never went away, however, is just how slowly the Special meter fills up and, even then, the fact you can’t trigger it mid-combo if you happen to fill it up then. Several patches still couldn’t fix the inconsistent frame rate, which was especially noticeable during one specific version of the “inflatable balls in a pool” mission, where loading in all of the necessary objects briefly reduced the game to a slideshow.

Visually, the game isn’t too impressive. The slightly cel-shaded look is decent, but doesn’t really take as much advantage of the next-gen hardware as it could have. There’s also some visible texture loading when entering a level for the first time, as it takes a few seconds for the details to exist. Even then, however, the levels felt a bit too pristine compared to previous games, which often went out of their way to make the world feel used or lived-in. This makes the levels feel even blander than they already did, since some of them resemble inferior versions of classic levels. If there’s one thing I liked, however, it’s that the skater was positioned at a more tolerable distance from the camera compared to Project 8 and Proving Ground, so I didn’t feel anywhere near as nauseated as I did with those two.

Of course, I have to bring up the product placement throughout the game. There are no physical storefronts like in some of the previous games, but I did notice Mountain Dew trash cans, Monster Energy vending machines and billboards for GoPro, Skullcandy and the (as of 2017) defunct The Skateboard Mag magazine, as well as posters for Sony Action Cam. The mission timer is also blatantly branded with the Nixon logo, likely so you’ll think of them next time you’re looking for a watch. Two of the extra skaters are also obviously in there to promote games that Activision wanted to promote at the time, including the Secret Skater King Graham from the 2015 King’s Quest game, which started an episodic release beforehand, and the TMNT from the then-upcoming Mutants in Manhattan, even using the same art style from that game.

The inclusion of the TMNT is fun, but obviously promotional.

As with every other Tony Hawk game we’ve reviewed, we like to look at the soundtrack due to its prominence within the experience. I wouldn’t say that the music choices this time were bad, but I didn’t feel as enthusiastic about them, since my list of highlights only includes eight out of 32 tracks. These include “Keep on Knocking” by Death, “When the Wolves Come” by Deer Mother, “Go Down in History” by Four Year Strong, “Cynics & Critics” by Icon For Hire, “Wings of Feather and Wax” by Killer be Killed, “Cream on Chrome” by Ratatat, “Secrets” by State Champs and “Burial (feat. Pusha T, Moody Good, Trollphace)” by Yogi & Skrillex. Interestingly, “Cream on Chrome” would find another life as the background music of a number of videos on the Binging with Babish YouTube channel.

Before I end this review, however, I feel I should mention the rocky development of this game, as it explains a lot about the quality. Notably, Pro Skater 5 had a rushed development cycle of only a few months, as it was created to have one final game under Activision’s belt before their deal with Tony Hawk expired at the end of 2015. However, the game would have not only PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions, but PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports as well, meaning the entire game was developed with the limitations of the previous generation in mind. The game also shipped incomplete, as the file size was about 4.6GB, which only contained the tutorial and Create-A-Park features. Literally everything else required a 7.7GB day one patch. Since then, the game did receive additional patches, but was also later delisted from online storefronts immediately after the announcement of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2. The servers were also apparently shut down, yet I still saw people online at the time of this writing, so who knows?

Nearly five years later, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 still isn’t a great game. The attempt at making something closer to the first four games is admirable, but the “always online” philosophy and rushed development time led to a noticeable lack of polish that managed to take the most enjoyable aspects of the Tony Hawk series and make them feel tedious. I can’t really recommend this to even the most die-hard fans, but I will caution those looking to experience this train wreck for themselves that your mileage may vary on getting patches, let alone connecting to online servers.