Tony Hawk's American Wasteland 360 Review

One Big Level? Maybe Not ...

One of the big selling points of THAW has been that it is just one big level and there are no load times. Well, that isn’t completely true. The city of Los Angeles is split up into different sections that include, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Downtown, Beverly Hills, and East LA and these areas are connected by long sections of grind lines (while you are going through these sections the game is actually loading the next area). Really, the game doesn’t feel any bigger or any different than any of the other Tony Hawk games since the levels are about the same size and we don’t actually have free reign like we all though we would. There is also an indoor skate park, an oil rig, and a casino you’ll get to play in as well. The levels are absolutely covered with great lines and there are hidden pools and halfpipes all over the place and if you are the type of player that likes to look for tougher and less obvious lines this game is for you. Overall, though, none of the levels really jump out at you as classics and are pretty much middle of the road compared to the rest of the series.

Online Play

The biggest and best change to Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, and the best reason for buying it is that we can finally play it on Xbox Live. Up to eight players can join a game and a number of different game types including capture the flag, graffiti, goal attack, trick attack, and more. The only downside is that games are controlled by the host player (whoever started the original game) and you will occasionally find people that would rather sit around and do nothing rather than start competitive games. Once you do find a good group of people to play with, the online play is simply outstanding. It brings together players of all sorts of different styles and skill levels and is just a whole lot of fun to play. One thing I really enjoy is that thanks to the crazy number of lines in the levels you can pull off some really insane stuff and use lines that other players can’t even find which makes graffiti games particularly enjoyable. Overall, if you like the Tony Hawk games, the experience is 100x better when you take it online so in spite of some flaws with THAW, if you have Xbox Live I highly recommend it for a purchase because you’ll definitely get your money’s worth.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland is a very good looking game. It seems like more attention was paid to making the characters (both skaters and pedestrians) look better and it really shows. The levels aren’t really any different visually from previous games, but the game is very sharp looking overall. Once again, the animation is just about perfect. The Xbox 360 version looks better than the Xbox version, but not by much. It looks nice but it isn't going to sell anyone on the 360's graphical power.

The sound is also quite good in THAW. The sounds of skating have always been great in these games and THAW is no different. There is a lot of spoken dialogue and the voice actors all do a really great job. Always important in Tony Hawk games is the soundtrack and the music chosen for this game is right up there among the best the series has seen. You can also use a custom soundtrack if you want, which is nice.

Bottom Line

Overall, Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland is a bit of a disappointment because it doesn’t really deliver on some things that have been hyped for months now. The biggest of which is that the game most definitely is not one big free roaming level. Also, you only get to play in one level at a time online rather than the whole interconnected city like in story mode, which is a disappointment. The gameplay is as solid as it has ever been, but you can only do the same stuff so many times and the novelty of THPS is starting to wear a bit thin. Take a year off, Neversoft, and really wow us with something. All that said, however, THAW is still worth owing and playing for one reason and that is online play. For the first time, we can play online via Xbox Live it is a very fun and enjoyable experience. If you can’t play online, there really isn’t anything here you haven’t seen before. If you are a Tony Hawk fan with Xbox Live, I highly recommend Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland because you’ll definitely get your money’s worth just by playing online.

If you already have the Xbox version there isn't anything new on the 360. If you don't already have it, however, the 360 edition is definitely the way to go.