That’s not entirely true, Jim Sterling of The Jimquisition, for example, is calling Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 “Pro Abortion” – oh wait, that’s worse.
At one point, we really were excited for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, a game that promised to deliver the beloved pro skating experience from the Tony Hawk’s games of old, long before the more recent, really rather tragic titles in the franchise.
And just as we were to ride the hype train all the way to the station, developer Robomodo proved that they’re no Neversoft and that we should not be expecting the same sort of experience. Not only did the game release alongside a day one patch that was larger than the game, but without it Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 is near unplayable.
Actually, from what most are reporting, the game is still damn near unplayable post-patch, or is it that it’s so buggy, ugly and all round unlikable that it remains unplayable after the patch – even if you can, technically, play it.
Here are some of the scores and comments of recent critic reviews:
The Jimquisition: 2/10
“Tony Hawk 5 looks like the burned corpse of a three-legged sheep and plays like the results of teaching a chimpanzee how to code. At its very, very best, it’s an intensely mediocre experience, populated by repetitive, remedial missions and archaic stunt “action” that you could find in literally any other skateboarding game – all of which is buried behind loading screens, unintuitive menu design, and the curious decision to make players wait an arbitrary amount of time before they get to confirm or cancel any decision.”
“In my professional opinion, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 can fuck off.”
Eurogamer: AVOID
“This, the fifth game in a series that debuted in 1999, is broken in similar kinds of ways. Bail from a grind and your skater might, on hitting the ground, disappear up to his neck in solid concrete. Strike a half-pipe at the wrong angle and your character’s body may cartwheel through the air in majestic slow motion, before the game jump-cuts jarringly back to the action. It’s as if the shot was directed by a mildly distracted editor who notices an awful accident occurring on-screen slightly too late to pan away, but just in time to save the audience from the distress of seeing someone break their neck.”
Hardcore Gamer: 2/5
“The worst part to THPS5 is its scale. It contains an online mode that’s supposed to be a giant hub for interactivity, but it’s more served as just watching random people skate around a level while achieving virtually nothing.”
Destructoid: 5/10
“In the end though, it seems as if Robomodo can’t be trusted to make a glitch-free game. I really liked Tony Hawk HD, but man was it a glitch-fest, filled with wonky physics and collision issues. It’s the same thing in Tony Hawk 5, but worse to an extent.”
Need we say more? We don’t need to because this video will say the rest for us.
Like every other studio under the sun, Activision has pushed a broken mess out of the door long before it was ready.
Seeing as we’re on the topic
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