When EA announced that they would be taking on Activision in the skateboard videogame arena, many expected that their game, simply titled Skate, would bail out when put up against Tony Hawk's legions of followers. No one was prepared for just how much Skate would redefine the genre, introducing a new control scheme, camera angle and overall focus to the world of skateboarding games. Placing the camera down by the skater's feet put the focus purely on the board and the tricks performed while using it, all of which were pulled off with movements of the right stick. The whole game was a lot more realistic, and more like real skateboarding, than the Tony Hawk's series, with even the smallest flip trick feeling almost as rewarding as it would do in real life. Now that developers Black Box are back with Skate 2, a mere year after the original game's release, is the magic still there?

At the end of the last game, you were busted and sent to prison. Now that your time in the slammer is over, the only thing you could possibly want to do is get back on your board and hit the skating scene once more. While meeting up with old friends from the city, it becomes apparent that this 'new' San Vanelona is very different to the one featured in the first game. The whole city may have had a geographical overhaul, but the biggest difference is that the police of the city - Mongocorp - now roam the streets, taking skaters who cause disruption into custody, as well as those who attempt to skate in certain areas. This element of the game plays a large role in many of the missions that you are tasked with completing, adding to the already steep challenge of the game. The city itself is much more open than before, with a larger area to explore and pull tricks around. Objectives are placed across the map - which you can also teleport to - and they expand as you progress. When cruising around, there's always a line you can be making, with small sections of wall to grind or a ramp to flip trick off. The city is begging to be skated on, something that the missions pick up on throughout.

The missions from the first Skate were one of the weaker aspects of the game, especially when compared to simply cruising around the city. The same is the case here, as while at first the tasks are an easy way of getting to grips with the right stick controls again, their difficulty ramps up exceedingly fast. Missions range from clearing a set of stairs to performing a very specific trick sequence and even racing against other skaters, which works surprisingly well, being faintly reminiscent of the SSX series' races. This variety doesn't hide the trick-specific missions though, as once these occur, the game starts to lose most of its appeal. The problem with the right stick controls for tricks is that, unlike simply pressing a different button, performing different tricks can be difficult. The stick movements are far too similar for this sort of precision to be mastered, as just when you want to perform a Pop Shuvit for example, the stick moves a tiny bit out of place and you pull off a standard Ollie - or vice versa. This only becomes a problem when the game requires a certain trick though, as the rest of the missions are more reliant upon your own style of skating and tricks.

When the new tricks for Skate 2 are introduced, such as the Hippy Jump and finger flips, the trick-specific sections become even more of an annoyance, as you have even more room for error when trying to pull off that final Inverted Kick Flip. In one mission in particular, pretty early on in the game, your skater must Hippy Jump over a barrier then perform a finger flip, followed by any flip trick. This mission took me at least forty minutes to complete, and while much like the first game, it felt rewarding when I finally did it, it sucked the fun out of the experience. On the flipside of this, another mission, a skate-off against a pro skater, was solely dependent upon the opening section of the course, which made for an obsessive amount of restarts every time my points tally at the end wasn't enough. That said, every time a wipe-out occurred, the animation was different - a whole mode called Hall of Meat is dedicated to creating the best wipe-out possible. Nevertheless, both of these mission types make the game aggravating at times, which is disappointing when compared with how fun just cruising around the city can be.

No matter how annoying or tough the missions can be, one single aspect of Skate 2 makes certain sections a chore to play. After spending some time in the can, it seems that the ability to get off your board has finally become a part of your repertoire, a much-requested aspect of the original Skate. With that said, I doubt whether anyone wanted the movement off board to be like it is in Skate 2, but it seems that the developers have really missed the ball with this feature. When you press triangle you can manoeuvre on foot, but the way your skater moves following this is reminiscent of games such as Resident Evil from the PSOne era. Your skater suddenly becomes a tank, moving in one direction at all times - save for backwards, which is supposedly impossible to do on foot. This transition feels plain wrong and makes the defining new feature of the game an unpleasant task. The ability to move most objects around the environment is implemented so that you can create your own lines and experiment with the tricks on offer to you. This is sometimes way too obvious though, such as a carefully placed rail or ramp that must be moved in order to clear a gap. When it makes sense though, and you create a well thought out line - which you can upload online as a spot for your mates to try out - it's ultimately rewarding. It's just a shame that moving around to get objects is so archaic and downright sloppy.

The city of the original Skate had a sparse but clean look to it and in Skate 2 this has been ditched for a bustling city that's full of colour and detail. The graphics haven't had any noticeable improvements since the 2007 release though and so it just isn't up to the standards of the latest games of this generation. It doesn't look bad but it lacks a certain polish that one would expect from an EA title. The soundtrack of San Vanelona is a mixed bag; everyone will find a few songs that they want to listen to but for the most part it's pretty slim pickings for a sports game. The rest of the sound design is serviceable, with the clunk of skateboards being perfected this time around and the sound of the city always forming a part of the experience. When you cruise around popping off tricks, the voices of people from across the street and the sounds of cars driving away can be heard, both of which create an atmosphere of being in a real city. The biggest issue with the presentation is the bugs and glitches that are found throughout the game, though; small hiccups such as a drop in the frame rate when there's a large amount of skaters onscreen at once can be ignored, but ones that mess up certain missions can be more than annoying.

When the oppressive force of Mongocorp officers gets too traumatic, you can call on some help from some old friends to sort them out. The only problem with this is that they have the uncanny ability to either get stuck behind objects, move objects across the screen, or even make an object you that have moved to a specific place go crazy with motion and start knocking you off your board. This is a major problem in certain missions and it doesn't help the fact that the Mongocorp's AI is bad enough to get on your nerves anyway. These glitches are unwarranted in the single player but when you hop online, on the PS3 anyway, the graphical glitches become unbearable. It doesn't happen all the time but the frame rate can sometimes drop to single digits, making pulling off tricks and even staying a straight line near impossible. This is a real shame considering how robust the online mode is, featuring Hall of Meat contests and Trick Offs within which to go up against the rest of the world.

Skate 2 isn't a bad game, it's just inconsistent. For every amazing trick set you pull off for major points, you have to restart twenty times to make up for every time you failed and for every amazing line that you create by moving objects, the anger that ensues when trying to walk on foot is always in the back of your mind. As was the case with the first game, mastering a certain spot or line is more rewarding than completing most games, but it takes a lot of hard work to reach this point. The biggest downfall of Skate 2 though is the fact that it hasn't learnt from the mistakes in the mission design of the first game, making you fail multiple times on a specific trick because the controls are so sensitive. As a whole, Skate 2 adds just enough new features to warrant a purchase for the people who enjoyed the first game. For everyone else though, be wary that it takes a lot of perseverance to look past the inconsistencies and find the rewards underneath. Let's hope that EA doesn't rush another sequel next year and that they spend the time needed to refine what should be an amazing experience.

Reviewed by Sam Atkins for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).