For a game that takes place at such picturesque locales I was expecting much more out of the graphics department, I was sorely disappointed. Though the water is fairly well done everything else looks unrefined and rather uninspired. The surfers are passable but could have benefited from a bit more work. It seems as if the player models are identical to those that appeared in
Tony Hawk 3 as they have a few blocky aspects to them. The overall game looks fairly bland as well, the inanimate objects that appear on some of the levels just look horrible. For instance, there is a pier that must be jumped on one of the levels that just looks absolutely atrocious. Thankfully most of the game moves so fast that you’ll hardly have any time to notice. If you’re looking for the better visual package I recommend you pick up the Xbox version of the game. The water is rendered with amazing beauty and is light years ahead of its PS2 brethern.
I was able to notice some deficiencies in the audio department, however. The soundtrack is relatively weak and bland. I’m not a hardcore surfer by any means but I’m pretty sure that people don’t listen to Jack Johnson and Ben Harper while they’re surfing. The rest of the soundtrack is composed of some of the most generic tunes ever assembled, each of them are interchangeable with one another and really don’t do anything to engulf me in the surfer lifestyle. The rest of the sound effects are fairly well done and really help replicate the feeling of being on the waves. Water sounds are excellent as are the sounds of the crashing waves.
As you play the game more and more you’ll realize that there isn’t much variation between the locations. While games like
Hawk are successful because they feature unique and memorable locales,
Slater features repetitive beaches that feel too similar to another. If you were to pick out a level at random I would have a hard time identifying which beach it is from, everything eventually meshes together and in the end, the incentive to unlock new beaches just isn’t there. Why work hard to fulfill all of the goals when the next beach is going to be just like the last one, and the one before that, and the five ones before that? The only incentive comes in viewing the beautiful video introduction that gives way to each of the game's beaches but even then, they seem to be too short and unfulfilling.
A few more shortcomings can be found in the replay department, though there are multiple features to unlock none of them are really too impressive. The lack of a create-a-surfer mode really hurts this game's value as well. The multiplayer modes suffice but they're not really as impressive as those of
Hawk's. Push (where you do tricks to literally push your opponent off the screen) is fun for awhile but again, becomes repetitive all too quickly.
When I look at
Slater I find myself being impressed and underwhelmed at the same time. It’s a great entry for Activision O2 into the realm of Professional Surfing but at the same time, it feels too similar to their flagship title, just not as fun or addicting. Many times it’s easy to confuse this title with the other franchises and it’s just not healthy. More needs to be done to differentiate this title from its brethren in order for it to be successful in the future. A definite purchase for surfing fans and a highly recommended rental for casual fans of the sport.
B-
Activision O2 has taken the versatile Tony Hawk style of gameplay and injected it into another sport to lay a solid foundation for yet another franchise. Surprisingly fun and addictive, much more than you would expect from a first effort. In the end though, you’ll begin to realize that the game becomes a victim of its own repetitiveness.
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