Skate 2 Demo Impressions

BY Rohan Anchan | POSTED: 20 January 2009

EA takes their popular new skateboarding franchise to the next level.



EA managed to bust out a brilliant sports game which was a cut above the rest in 2007, in the form of ‘Skate’ – their take on the popular street sport of skateboarding, and a title which provided a welcome breath of fresh air after the slew of Tony Hawk games that gamers were forced to put up with one year after another. The title featured great graphics, a lovely open world environment, good gameplay, and a realistic albeit a bit iffy control scheme (you can read our complete review here).



Now less than two years down the line, EA is ready to release the sequel in the form of Skate 2 (wow, how creative!), and they’ve also decided to give us a taste of what’s to come before the game’s release – that’s where the 1.5 GB free demo on Xbox Live! Marketplace comes in. So if you’re a big Skate fan, or just curious to check out what this is all about, sign in and start downloading. And while that download’s taking place, read on…

When it comes to making sequels, many developers succeed by either adding in tonnes of new content and features, or fail miserably by taking all the old mechanics and just crudely polishing them up a bit. Where Skate 2 stands, is somewhere comfortably in between. EA has added in a couple of small twists and turns to the gameplay here and there, and it looks like they’ve nailed a sweet spot with their clever decisions.

For starters, you can now get off your board and roam the world on foot – something that was not possible in the original game. The character animation on foot looks a wee bit weird, but the concept works quite well. This allows you to now actually go up and down long flights of stairs and such, but more importantly, it’s a requisite for the ‘create a spot’ mechanic that’s also new to the series. This allows you to define your own places in the environment to pull off trick moves and stunts, so you’re not limited to showing off only in predefined places. Picture this: there’s a nice, long rail just waiting for you to grind on it, but its higher than you can jump and out of reach. Thanks to the innovative new ‘create a spot’ feature, you can get off your board, walk up to anything that can serve as a ramp, and just grab it and drag it until its lined up with your long, oh-so-high rail. Then you take a couple of steps back and go full throttle, and before you know it, you’re smoothly sailing across that never-ending rail, racking up them points like nobody’s business. It’s a nifty new feature, and the potential it brings with it seems quite vast.

One of Skate’s most fancy features was its Replay Editor, which allowed players to edit and create movies of their favourite moments in the game, and then upload them via Xbox Live! for others to watch and rate. Skate 2 retains all those great features, and it also allows you to manually define the camera angle from which the action is captured, so you don’t have to settle for the limited preset angles like before. We loved the slow-mo and image filtering options that the original had, but sadly, the filter effects have been axed from the sequel. Since the game now allows us to create our own spots to trick out on, I’m guessing that there’s gonna be some pretty crazy videos being posted online once the full game is in the hands of the public.



Skate 2 also features full online functionality, and a new mode titled “The Hall of Meat”, wherein the objective is to inflict as much damage as you can upon your skater. That’s right, your own skater. Sounds crazy, I know, but there’s this niggling little feeling of satisfaction every time you turn a street corner and get smacked by a 4WD, or trip over an obstacle and bang your head against the pavement. You can now jump directly into the multiplayer action without having to quit your current game and go to a different menu, and this is a great tactic we’re seeing more and more games adopt these days.

The game retains its detailed level of character customization, and you’re given a plethora of clothing, footwear, bling, and board options to trick your skater out with. You also get to define his/her facial features, body size, and stance at the beginning. As you game on, you’ll earn cash and unlock tonnes of new shirts, tees, hoodies, bottoms, shoes, glasses, hats, and boards to help your boarding avatar stay on top in the fashion department. Yeah sure, several other games have character customization, but this one here is one of the few games that do it well.

A final point of interest that we noted from the demo was the hinting at an increased amount of ‘security’ in the game. For those of you who didn’t know, there were certain places in the original Skate which had cops/security guards patrolling about, waiting to pounce on any skater who dared come near and beat them up good. As luck would have it, the number of these mean dudes has greatly increased throughout San Vanelona, and they’re now supposed to be twice as badass. It’s great that we can get off our board and make a run for it now, but if only they had thrown in some molotovs…Oh well.

The demo is a bit different from the conventional ones in the sense that it’s timed, and you earn more time as you complete each objective. Once you’re done with all the objectives, you can use the remaining time to skate around at will and do whatever you want. Once the timer expires, you’re shown a video showcasing stuff from the final game, and the demo ends. You can start all over of course, or give the online party mode a shot. Either way, it’s quite a short experience, but one well worth the download nevertheless. It gives you a taste of all the new features, as well as all the things that made the original a hit.



As it stands, Skate 2 looks like it’s heading for glory just like the first game in the series. It introduces many small yet useful feature sets to the premise, while retaining every other aspect of the original that made it an enjoyable title to play. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out how good the final build is, as the game is slated for a January 23rd worldwide release. Check back soon after for a complete review.