Après s'être contenté de façon triviaile d'une simple incrémentation à son titre pour chaque nouvel épisode, Tony Hawk suit désormais la tendance et nous propose une déclinaison dite Underground, comme pour se démarquer nettement de ses aînés et signaler qu'il s'agit cette fois de bien plus que d'une simple mise à jour. Il faut dire que cette itération apporte son lot de nouveauté avec un jeu plus customisable et un mode story inattendu pour une série plutôt paresseuse. Bref, voilà de quoi se pencher très amplement sur les versions preview Xbox et PlayStation 2 qui ambitionnent sans aucun doute de révolutionner le genre et de distancer une concurrence de plus en plus encombrante.  
 
 
 
 
Par Nanark
 
 
 
 
 
Qu'on se le dise, Tony Hawk's Underground est sans aucun doute l'évolution la plus significative pour la série. Si la quatrième mouture avait déjà posé des bases nouvelles concernant la gestion des challenges, ce dernier épisode tente lui carrément de s'affranchir de la notion de simple succession d'arène de jeu en y intégrant le cycle jour-nuit, des conditions climatiques ainsi qu'une tripotée de personnages que vous devrez amadouer, par exemple en effectuant des missions. La maniabilité, quoique très similaire, n'a pas été épargnée par ce vent de nouveauté. Il est en effet désormais possible de marcher avec la planche sous le bras, et ainsi de se balader très librement, grimpant aux corniches et sautant de toit en toit dans la grande tradition des jeux de plates-formes. Quel intérêt me demanderez-vous ? Tout d'abord se déplacer plus précisément lorsqu'on cherche par exemple à analyser les lieux, mais également à enchaîner des combos sans obligatoirement passer par l'infatigable mais parfois délicat manual, figure jusque-là censé servir de lien entre les acrobaties. Dorénavant, si durant un enchaînement vous basculez en caveman (autrement dit en mode piéton), une jauge de quelques secondes se vide et ne s'arrête que lorsque vous repartirez sur une autre figure comptant comme un multiplicateur supplémentaire, ou un arrêt du combo si elle arrive à son terme. Cette maigre jauge vaut naturellement pour l'enchaînement entier, c'est-à-dire qu'elle ne se remplit pas pendant les figures, et il sera donc impossible d'aligner des cavemen indéfiniment comme des manuals. Précisons tout de même que cette option est en revanche illimitée en dehors des combos, et servira même à remplir de nombreux challenges.  
 
 
 
 
Les challenges parlons-en justement. Après quelques heures de jeu, il faut admettre qu'on a de quoi être circonspect puisque les objectifs fantaisistes sont tout aussi présents que les challenges de pur skills en skate. On a eu droit à de (trop) nombreuses reprises au pilotage mal aisé d'une voiture de course, à des séquences de plates-formes à pied, et à d'autres gadgets amusants certes, mais en théorie largement annexe dans un Tony Hawk qui se respecte. Heureusement pour les intégristes, les objets à attraper en temps limité, les Skatetris (reproduction de figures imposées) ou encore les high-scores parfois déraisonnables sont encore présents, mais disons que l'esprit de Tony Hawk semble s'être dispersé au profit d'une variété pas toujours bien maîtrisée, le tout sur fond de scénario complètement bidon. On pourra cependant profiter des aires de jeu librement entre deux challenges pour affûter ses talents de skaters, mais il faut admettre que comparé à Tony Hawk's 4, les objectifs ont fichtrement perdu de leur fraîcheur.
 
 
 
Outre cet aspect largement remanié, la gestion des aptitudes a également été revue au profit d'un système lié aux exploits du joueur et non plus la récupération des points de stats ou de billets verts comme ce fut le cas jadis. En effectuant des grinds de plus en plus longs par exemple, les statistiques de cette figure augmenteront sensiblement selon un barême de mini-challenges permanent. Il ne sera donc désormais plus possible de booster temporairement une qualité pour passer un challenge, ici le joueur se devra d'être plus complet et maîtriser tous les domaines. Autre nouveauté et pas des moindres, on parlait plus haut de la personnalisation du jeu, Tony Hawk's Underground permet en effet de créer non plus seulement son personnage et ses aires de jeu, mais également de customiser ses tricks, d'intégrer ses propres challenges, et d'insérer son visage grâce à des outils ma foi très convaincants (et accessoirement une webcam cela va de soi).
 
 
 
 
On avait plutôt l'habitude de circuler dans des arènes de skate vides, ou encore des fragments de villes fantômes pour exécuter ses figures malgré une constante amélioration pour rendre tout cela plus vivant. Tony Hawk's Underground semble être l'aboutissement de cette volonté avec des univers magnifiques et très cohérents, truffés de badauds, de véhicules et de détails en tous genres. Forcément, au jeu des performances la Xbox s'en tire admirablement, ce qui n'est pas le cas de la PlayStation 2 qui commence à montrer des signes de faiblesse au niveau de l'animation même s'il est permis d'imaginer que l'optimisation n'a pas encore été totalement réalisée. Il faudra donc une version finale pour juger définitivement tout cela, profiter du mode online et approfondir notre expérience de l'Underground. Rendez-vous est pris pour ce mois de novembre.

October 07, 2003 - After last year's fourth and perhaps slightly ignored Tony Hawk game, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, Neversoft, the versatile overachiever of all things extreme sports, took a good long look at its calendar for 2003. Tony Hawk 5?Hm?what to do?what to do? Many questions rolled through the heads of the 30-plus member staff. What can make the game better? What can we do that hasn't been done? How can we retain the hardcore aspects of the series while making it more accessible to the masses? Though I don't know if these are the exact questions the Neversoft team asked itself, I suspect they're pretty close. (I'm sure there was a lot of fun swearing in there too. As I learned last week down at Neversoft's office, these guys like their emphatic cussing.)
 
 
As many developers have shown this past year, they want to grow their games, evolve and broaden them. The Woodland Hands, Ca.-based developer has made small but significant strides each year with the series, adding moves that enlarge the scope of the skateboarding experience in a logical pattern. After the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, they added the many new moves, but the most significant ones were the manual (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2), the revert and online play (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3) and the spine transfer (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4), each game linearly expanding the series.  
 
Having revealed their plans at E3 this May, Activision and Neversoft devised their boldest plan ever for the series. From an evolutionary standpoint, Tony Hawk's Underground is the biggest jump the series has ever made. (And, if you're cynical, contrary or anal retentive, it's at least as significant as the jump from the THPS2 to THPS3, when the series went from the 32-bit to the 128-bit systems and online.) With new moves, levels, lines to explore, and additional online mini-games, the title is again expanding linearly, as if straight up a tree. But given the other more significant additions, Tony Hawk's Underground is more of an overall evolution, wildly branching outward into new spaces and territories, landscapes such as adventure games and RPGs.  
 
 
 
Just skitchin' a ride.  
 
   
Today we're going to present the most detailed information on the story aspect on the Web, followed later this week by even more details in this enormous game.  
 
The Untold Story
Tony Hawk's Underground or THUG, as it's casually known, offers the series' first full-fledged storyline and enables players to take on the lead role, instead of playing as a pro. To enhance the notion of individuality, Neversoft implemented the idea of scanning in your own face, so anybody who plays is the star. You can scan in anything - your face, your niece, your cat, a weasel face, whatever. It's quick and relatively painless. Grab a digital shot send it to thugonline.com and within a minute you'll get a password back, and your face will appear downloaded onto your memory card. The face goes on your character that then becomes the star of the game. It's a trip to see your own face in the game, there's no other way to describe it.  
 
Then there's the Story Mode. Surprisingly, the story isn't vapid. It's a real story, based on a hefty script. It implements ideas from the pros themselves.  
 
"We asked the pros how they made it from skate rats to amateurs to pro, and we implemented those experiences into the scripts to build the story mode," explained Scott Pease, who's been working as a producer on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater since the original. "The skaters came in and we gave them the script and then they told us what they'd really say."
 
The story isn't a just a list of things to do, it's the team's first effort into creating a dramatic narrative in becoming a pro skater. It's filled with characters that matter, plot events that change the course of your career. It's packed with betrayals, surprises, a surplus of pro appearances and more.
 
"We tried to avoid the standard laundry list of tasks this time around," said Pease at the conference table in Neversoft's office late last week. "We want to immerse you, to give you a flowing?I don't want to say it, but?to give you an adventure." "No, say it," The company's President Joel Jewett added emphatically. "It's an adventure game. It's different than anything we've ever done in the series."  
The long list of pro skaters who have appeared time and again in the series haven't been axed by any means. Though they've been pushed to the side, pro skaters such as Tony Hawk, Chad Muska, Bam Margera, Bob Burnquist, and Buckey Lasek, among others, make star appearances to give you a challenge, offer a tip and to play a part in the game's storyline. Even old-school skaters from the sport's biggest progressions make cameos. Neversoft gives Dogtown and Z-Boys director and skater guru Stacy Peralta a hilarious part in the mix. (The full list of skaters includes all the skaters from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4: Bob Burnquist, Steve Caballero, Kareem Campbell, Rune Glifberg, Koston, Bucky Lasek, Bam Margera, Rodney Mullen, Chad Muska, Andrew Reynolds, Geoff Rowley, Elissa Steamer, Jamie Thomas, and, of course, Tony Hawk.
 
 
Though we cannot reveal the whole story, the game unfolds as you and friend Eric skate their way out of a rather skanky little burb in New Jersey, replete with nearby nuclear plant, drug dealers, traffic, houses to skate on, school yards and the like. "We wanted to find a place, just some middle-of-nowhere town, where people could start," said Jewett. "One of the guys on the team said, 'I got the perfect place, the place I where grew up.'" Neversoft team members flew to the undisclosed New Jersey town, took notes, mapped it out, and started up the first level of the game.
 
After creating their character, which can take as short as three minutes or as long as 20 minutes depending on how long players want to spend, gamers find themselves in an open 'burb with characters peppering the grounds ready to offer you a challenge (much like in THPS4). The challenges can be selected in any order players choose, but eventually gamers find themselves indelibly linked to their "best friend" Eric.  
 
 
 
There's nothing like fresh air in the morning.  
 
   
The story eventually challenges you to leave New Jersey, landing the duo in Manhattan, and later on in the Florida Tampa Am, the breeding ground tournament for the potentially next big skater. Several hilarious cutscenes show you getting busted by a fat, corrupt, loogey-heaving cop (who ends up being an unlockable character in the game), for whom you'll end up working for a spell. You'll even do work for the Mayor Jed. Hm?Jed, Florida?.politician?interesting choice of names?
 
Eventually, the cutscenes show Eric and you (yes, your exact skater, with scanned face and all) arriving at the Tampa Am event, only it turns out Eric hadn't signed both of you, only himself. You quickly realize your friend is more of a weasel than you suspected and instead of skating, you're left behind. Making your way through the local Florida landscape you come upon numerous challenges, and you meet up with the coolest skater of them all, Tony Hawk. He offers up a challenge and when you meet it he suggests you head over to meet Stacy Peralta, after which you then pursue and achieve more challenges, which get you into the Tampa Am. Amazingly enough, when you make it to the finals, you face off with your old pal, Eric.
 
Making it past the Tampa Am is a big step, and it changes the game pretty drastically. Winning the contest is like entering the draft in the NFL. All the pros and all the "talent scouts" are there checking out who could potentially become part of their team, and if you win, you're likely to get offers from not only teams, but sponsors, too. Once you've won the contest, players can then select a team to join, which helps determine the sponsors, the gear and the rest for the remainder of the game.
 
Neversoft uses multiple FMV movies to explain the style, location and membership of each team so gamers can get a real world sense of who they're pairing with, and once you've selected the one, it's done. The game features numerous locations this time around too, including Hawaii, San Diego, Vancouver and Moscow (eight in all), plus secret levels and secret characters. That's really only the beginning to the story, as it only follows the first three levels. There is much more to tell, but Neversoft is keeping it secret for now.  
 
And that's just the Story mode. Given how much information we plan on offering you, we're going to continue this preview with multiple updates on multiple days. Look for our ongoing preview updates later this week, which will include in-depth features on Create-A-Trick, Create-A-Player, Create-A-Park, Online games, and more.  
 
-- Douglass C. Perry