The gaming landscape has changed a lot since the series heyday, but this title is stuck in a no-man's-land between not being good enough to replicate the past nor ambitious enough to move the franchise forward.
Fleeting moments of genuine enjoyment can be found in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, but with unresponsive controls and constant jarring bugs, the enjoyment is never sustained.
I absolutely love this game to bits. Wayy better than all the other Tony Hawk games. I showed it to all my friends and they all loved it. 10/10 would play again. Well worth the $70 it costs
Tony Hawk 5 is the latest and greatest installment to an already brilliant series. This game has everything: skating, lag free 60 fps, brilliant next-gen graphics, amazing animation, fun gamemodes, and plenty more. If you are a fan of the series, and a gamer in general then you'd be crazy not to purchase this masterpiece. Hours of fun to be had, plus you get to skate as LIL WAYNE
The only thing worth knowing is that no part of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is worth your time. It's bad. Real bad. And not the type of bad that makes for good comedy, either. It'd be bad at any price, but it's especially egregious that the publisher is charging a full $60 for this sucker. It'd be something you'd want to avoid for even a third of that price. Don't waste your time. You deserve better. Tony Hawk deserves better. Hell, even guest skater Lil Wayne deserves better.
Not one level that I reached in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 felt memorable or made me want to play more. It’s truly a sad day in video game history when a series like this can just become a shadow of its former self.
The hate for this game makes me question if people play games to have fun or stare at every pixel they can until they find something out of place to complain about. I've moved past the the bandwagon of blind hate and purchased the game, digitally. I might have about one gripe with the game and that's the turning is much slower than it used to be, I can get over that though. The graphics are completely fine and do not ruin anything about the game. You people expected photo realistic from a TH game? Stupid skate fanboys. I love Skate as well but TH is NEVER going to be like Skate, so stop complaining. The physics are fine and the tricks are completely fine. I'm thinking that the people who rated their score low have never played a Tony Hawk game. If you loved the first Tony Hawk games then I'm more than sure you'll love this one. Tons of fun and if you have friends, then It will be that much better. I would say, don't trust any of the user reviews on here and try it for yourself. You might end up liking it. Also, I haven't cam across any glitches and have been playing for several hours. Have a good day guys. SKATE OR DIE!!!
First of all it's not a bad game, not at all, I really enjoyed myself while playing it. It's pretty nostalgic and it's very fun to play, also the soundtrack was very well chosen and the fact that it has some top skaters from the present day only adds up to all these positive points of the game. But there is an ugly side to all of this, the game was and still is full of bugs, small ones and bigger ones. It has been patched multiple times since day one but Robomodo still hasn't been able to fix it all. Another ugly side is that they removed lots of great things that were available in previous games such as stepping of your board and acid dropping and they didn't add anything in exchange. I guess to old-skool fans of the series it could be both appealing as well as repulsive. It could be appealing cause of it's nostalgic value and just the fact of it being the first game in many years and on the next gen of consoles. But it could be repulsive because of the lack of soul and originality in comparison to the previous games in the series and because it's so bug-ridden. My personal opinion as a fan of the series is that TH:PS5 is a pretty fun game for a while and it has a lot of potential but Robomodo just couldn't deliver for a full 100% and that's just very sad. I hope it doesn't mean the end of the series and that maybe in a few years we'll see a new game in this series which will live up to its potential and won't feel as rushed as this one.
TL;DR: Do I recommend this game???
Yes, pick it up for a few bucks, I just recently picked it up at my local game store for less than 15 € and I was actually pretty pleased to play it.
Version Reviewed: PS4 (digital)
As a 35 year old gamer, I was 19 when THPS first hit shelves in 1999 and 22 when the last one hit the shelves in 2002. I spent countless hours playing those games. I by no means consider myself a master at all of the combos and lines but I can hold my own. I didn't buy this game Day 1. I'm a fan, but not a sheep. I waited to see reviews and streams of gameplay, and like many I was really disappointed with what I was hearing about pretty much every aspect of this game. However, I just could not resist downloading this game because I had to experience it for myself. I had to know if this really was the broken mess it's described as by so many.
So I paid $60 for it. I played it... and quite frankly, people ****. That's the only thing I can honestly come up with as to why people are having so many issues with this game. I have not experienced a single glitch, bug, or issue during my time playing this game so far. Certainly nothing that could even remotely be considered as "broken". I truly feel like people have forgotten how to play and/or what it is like to play a Pro Skater game. The mechanics and controls require skill and precision to truly shine. Every time I bailed, or jump out of a ramp/pool when I didn't want to, or bounce off of a wall, or hit a curb, or miss a grind...
It. was. my. fault.
It was not the result of a broken game, bad controls, or poor physics...
It. was. my. fault.
If you run into a wall and break your combo then you failed to do a wall plant in time to reverse direction and keep things going. If you missed a grind, then you poorly timed pressing the grind/slam button. If you jumped out of a quarter pipe/pool then you pressed "up" as you launched or jumped too soon before you hit the lip. If you bailed in the middle of a trick then guess what... it's your fault. In order to land tricks you need to do 2 things: 1) complete the animations for the trick and 2) land with your board facing the proper direction. If you mess up just one of these things, then you bail. It's all about learning precise timing and execution along with learning the maps and the lines where you can string together the most combos.
Let's break down why I give this game a 7/10:
Graphics: Are they "next gen"? No. Are they ugly? No. Look, THPS was never about mind-blowing graphics. Things look good enough to not distract you, but not so good that you're distracted either. (-1pt for "meh")
Sound: Classic THPS sounds are everywhere. Soundtrack? That's going to be subjective, but it sticks to THPS usually was... a mix of both familiars and unknowns from the punk, rock, and hip-hop genres. That being said, if you really don't like it, then make your own playlist on a usb and use the PS4 media player to play your own music while you play. (-1pt for not having at least an option to skip tracks or pick the songs you like from the available soundtrack)
Gameplay: Classic THPS mechanics that will punish those that fail to learn what it takes to really pull off bigger tricks and combos. This game has always been and continues to be only as good as the player can make it. (-1pt for lackluster tutorial that confuses the noobs)
So -3pts total because nothing about this game is perfect, but everything about this game is classic THPS.
I've seen the videos with the glitches and bugs. I have yet to have any of those issues. The complaints about the non-gradual speed when kicking... well here's a tip. There are 3 ways to start moving (which the tutorial does not make clear). 1) Press/hold "up" on the d-pad or stick. This is the best way to get started at a slow pace. 2) Hold R2 to kick/push and gain speed more rapidly. 3) Hold X to get 2 quick kicks to gain speed and then crouch down in a ready stance to ollie. For those that complain about how you have to be too close to the mission markers in order to activate them... learn. to. use. the. touchpad. The mission markers are actually quite unnecessary and you don't have to worry about how close or far you are to any of them. All you need to do is tap the touchpad and you will have a menu that allows you to choose and jump into any of the available missions. Just forget about the markers.
I just don't get the amount of hate being thrown at this game. I truly feel like people are either too young to know what the THPS experience was, too old to remember what the THPS experience was like, or too horrible of a player to understand that it's not the game's fault that you ****... it's your fault.
This game is not broken, the gaming community and user base is. This game deserves more respect than what it's getting. Too many people are making noob mistakes and blaming it on the game being buggy or having poor physics. It just has not been my personal experience with this game. It is everything I expected from a THPS game and totally worthy of a 7/10.
I can't state anything that hasn't already been said, but the main problem i have with this game so far is the single player. Whenever a game is started in "Private" mode it stays like that, until a challenge is started or left. Whenever that happens, it automatically puts you into a an online lobby, which is rather annoying. Maybe this game will help EA and possibly another skate game
The game isn't awful, but it isn't good. The gameplay works *most* of the time, and when it does it can be quite fun. The characters initially control quite sluggishly, but that is improved as you play the game and unlock stats.
That said, there are some glaring issues with the game.
The character 'creation' is extremely limited, making you edit already existing skaters with new heads and bodies, instead of making your own skater from the ground up (which has been a feature since the first games). Another huge issue with the game is the level design, which is arguably one of the most important parts of the Tony Hawk games. All of the levels are completely forgettable and feel lazily cobbled together in a few hours by someone using the in-game park creator. On top of this, the game doesn't look all too pretty either. The cel-shaded graphics kind of saved it in this regard. Without them the game would look like an early 360 game. And despite that, the game runs like **** it aims for 60fps but rarely hits it, by dropping down to lower than 30 at a lot of points, which can lead to physics-based glitches such as falling off of rails and losing your combos due to your skater inexplicably falling down. And yet another problem with the game becomes apparent, the glitches. The glitches I've experienced aren't quite as bad as the ones reported, with people reporting constant crashing and sometimes even game corruption. Luckily, the glitches I've experience lie only in gameplay, such as getting trapped inside scenery and getting thrown off my board mid-combo for no reason.
Overall, the game isn't good. It's very disappointing for a long-time Tony Hawk game fan like myself. The gameplay still holds up moderately compared to the other games, and is a slight improvement over Pro Skater HD's clunky gameplay, but these rare moments of satisfaction are far overshadowed by the mediocrity and sometimes outright awfulness of the rest of it.
Avoid Pro Skater 5 until it drops down to $20 or less.
SummaryTHPS 5 offers a new take on combo-driven skateboarding, the most advanced Pro Skater online multiplayer experience in a Tony Hawk game, and a state-of-the-art skatepark builder. Ride, build, and repeat.