January 8, 2008 - A proving ground is what the military calls a reserve used to test new technology, weapons, and tactics. What we have to figure out with Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground is if the name refers to the game being an exploration of skating styles, like rigging, hardcore, and career, or if the game is simply an experiment to see where Neversoft will go with their next proper instalment to the series. Graduating from THPS101, which focuses on over-exposure to the series, ‘completionist’ playing, and thus knowing its history as a series, I would like to issue the educated statement that some Tony Hawk games are simply filler. This game, unfortunately, fits that statement.

The series goes up and down; the originals all scoring very high with critics, and future instalments always receiving average to high scores, even if they are the filler titles. American Wasteland was, in my opinion, the poorest of all, adding nothing at all to game play or graphics. THPS 4 was the leader in online console play and introduced the free roaming mode, and THUG1 rode on its coat-tails. THUG2 then rode on THUG1’s coat-tails, and Wasteland rode on THUG2’s. Project 8 came along and brought the series back from the dead, and now it seems we’re in next-gen gaming, but being left with much to hope for every year.

That’s not to say that Proving Ground doesn’t have anything to offer, because it boasts plenty, as each Hawk does. It’s just not a breakthrough it all. It has what I like to call, “the high-school syndrome,” wherein it has great potential, but hasn’t fully reached it. Tripping over a lazily tied shoelace as they bum-rush the podium for the diploma so they can pack their bags and move out on mom and dad (or in this case, release for the holidays). Neversoft still seems to rely heavily on updating their games with patches post shipping, fixing the floating hair, the “11 of 10 photos” textual errors, and of course swapping or adding in giant Jeep ads in every nook and cranny.

Proving Ground focuses its story on three skating styles. Career skaters, like Tony Hawk and Arto Saari, choose the life in the spotlight, entering competitions and filming skate videos. Your goals will obviously reflect this. The hardcore skaters, like Mike V., is a personal favourite of mine in this title. These guys barge the biggest gaps and take out security guards while they do it. Or if you like to rig up a kicker and a flat pipe to create a spot, like Daewon Song, you’re most likely a rigger skater. This would have to be the weakest part of the three, modifying the environment around you and placing a limited amount of pieces to your heart’s desire. Chalk challenges are still around and a tad bit harder, but they don’t advance the story whatsoever this time. If you’re not familiar with the chalk marks around town, they’re simply set up like start and end points for you to manual, grind, or air across to increase your stats. The start is marked with green chalk; make it to orange for amateur, to blue for pro, or yellow for sick. These add a lot of replay value, especially when going for the sick marker.

The lifestyles are episodic, with each chapter of goals supported by a different pro. To name a couple more: Burnquist, Houston, Saari, Sheckler, Williams, Jeff King, Bam, Mullen, Daewon, Vanessa Torres (thank you Neversoft, my suggestion in the Project 8 review must have been heard), Dustin Dollin, Andrew Reynolds, and Mike V. Some will teach you new tricks, some will simply get annoyed that your interrupting the taping of their TV show, all will have at least one goal that will challenge you. Finding the skaters in the giant map without any form of travel/jump mode means it may take you just as long to find the characters as it would to complete the goal they have set out for you. A meter also fills as you complete goals, each time it's full to the brim, you’ll be showered with a fancy new sponsor of some kind (boards, shoes, etc.). When all of the episodes in one lifestyle are finished, you’ll have a final challenge appear, and it’ll be a clincher. As an overall goal, you’ll gain popularity and gain the ability to put together a new skate team. This of course unlocks another challenge. Complete this one and the credits will surprise you with a pre-mature, extremely anti-climactic appearance. The final goal is so trivial it seems like you’re still trucking along once the credits are finished scrolling. No finisher video, no set of impossible goals, no grand finale whatsoever. The time clock was hitting around seven hours when this happened, and I was only at about the 50% completion marker.

Although some of the best things about Proving Ground are the things that were removed and not the things added. The lack of a “freak out” mode comes to mind right away, no back-flips or double jumps or wall-climbs, as well as the lack of a focus mode (but that’s only because I’m an old-school Hawk veteran). This is the first time Hawk has lacked the trusty special meter as well as the wacky special moves that it enabled players to execute. The traditional balance meters have also been swapped out for a more natural curved bar that goes across the entire screen either horizontally or vertically, whilst grinding or manualling, respectively. So, what do the career skaters teach you then? Nail-the-trick modes mostly, including flip, grab, and manual. I’m glad they’ve kept nail-the-flip, and nail-the-grab isn’t bad, but nail-the-manual is just too touchy and will never be trusted for those cracking out high combos.