Neversoft, Activision conduct tour of Tony Hawk’s Underground 2

By Michael Lafferty

“We wanted to make the whole game feel really involved”

In a nondescript office building, just up Ventura Boulevard from Taft High School, there are the offices of Neversoft Studios. It seems a strange fit to see a building with professionals – not that the Neversoft folks are not professionals – and in the midst is the home of the Tony Hawk franchise.

Though the release date for Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 is early October, Activision took the opportunity to invite a group of industry journalists to the Los Angeles Neversoft Studios for an early look at the online portion of the title.

For the uninitiated, Tony Hawk’s Underground series represents a change from the previous Tony Hawk skateboarding titles. (If you don’t know who Tony Hawk is, you can more or less skip the rest of this.)

“We took the old Tony Hawk game in a grittier direction,” said Neversoft producer Kevin Mulhall. And with Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (also known as THUG 2), “we pick up where we left off in Tony Hawk’s Underground (the original THUG title).”

What does that mean?

“More fun,” stated Mulhall.

Using definitions for the game such as “sick as hell” and “rack up points for balls-to-the-walls skating” THUG 2 involves a rookie skater being picked for Tony’s team against Bam Margera’s team. The idea is simple: you go around the world, visiting various renowned cities, and make a mockery of the architecture and streets by painting your logo on the buildings, destroying elements of the city and creating mayhem with outrageous tricks on the sidewalks, building faces and monuments.

The game brings all the control elements forward from the original THUG game, and throws in a new create-a-graphic feature that lets players design their own graffito to paint on walls and billboards. Of course you can customize the appearance of your skater, but while those are fun elements, they are not some of the biggest draws in THUG 2.

One new element is “this year, different than any other year, the goals are always active,” said Mulhall.

As for the size of the game …

“These are the biggest levels we’ve ever done,” Mulhall said, “and totally destructible. We wanted to make the whole game feel really involved.”

Each level has secret characters you can find and play as. For example, in Boston, you might just find Ben Franklin, and should you start skating as Ben, his graffiti tag looks remarkably like the Declaration of Independence. There is also a second secret character on each level, which you may need to unlock certain elements to open new areas. There are also level events, which can open up new areas for skating as well. Each of the special characters has special moves, which you can transfer over to your rookie avatar, or your professional helper.

“We probably have the most playable, unlockable characters ever,” Mulhall said.

Though Neversoft would not comment on the number of cities in the game, each has been thoroughly researched to give accurate representation of the locales.

And don’t just expect to be limited to the streets.

“This year we tried to get height into the levels,” Mulhall said, “where you can get line upon line upon line.”

The World Destruction Tour comprises only half of what players can expect to find in THUG 2. The second half of the game is classic mode, which is a totally separate game mode and is bigger than Tony Hawk 3.

Bigger, better and fully destructible – what more could any cyber skater want from a Tony Hawk title. Well, actually, there is a lot more, but some secrets about the title were guarded. Fortunately fans won’t have to wait long to unlock all the secrets in THUG 2. The title releases on all platforms October 5.

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