Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 Review (Comm823)
So, THPS 3+4 is finally here. I'm gonna go over some pros and cons.
Pros:
1. Reusing the 1+2 engine was not a bad idea, that game felt great to play, and this one feels just as good.
2. Soundtrack includes some of the best songs from the original THPS3 and THPS4.
3. Digital Deluxe Edition lets you play as Doom Slayer and the Revenant, and includes Doom music as well.
4. Bam Margera finally makes his return in a Tony Hawk game in 3+4. The last Tony Hawk game that had Bam in it was Proving Ground way back in 2007.
5. Unlike 1+2, which completely relied on nostalgia, 3+4 adds in not one, not two, but three brand new levels; Waterpark, Movie Studio and Pinball, and they're all pretty good levels, much better than the awful Carnival level from the original THPS4 which was omitted from this remake.
6. Michelangelo from TMNT is an unlockable skater alongside Bam and Andy Andersen. Also this is the first time any of the TMNT characters have been in a good Tony Hawk game, since they were last seen in THPS5, which was a complete embarrassment of a game.
7. Having the option to change the timer in the Game Mods menu accessed via the Options menu, this is useful for the THPS4 levels which a lot of them are a bit too big for only 2 minutes.
8. Harder, more challenging goals are added via Pro Goals, unlocked after you beat both THPS3 and THPS4 careers, giving the game some much-needed replay value.
9. Most of the levels from the original THPS3 and THPS4 return, all THPS3 maps have returned (except the OG Xbox exclusive Oil Rig level as well as the PS1/N64 exclusive Downhill level) and most of the THPS4 levels return, except for Chicago from Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 and the Carnival level (btw the Carnival level was dogshit),
10. Forgot to mention this when I first wrote this review. I haven't played multiplayer yet, but it supports crossplay, so anyone who's playing this on PC can play online with console players, which is really neat. Unlike 1+2 which had no form of crossplay whatsoever.
11. Unlike 1+2, which launched without the option for Solo Tours (They let you replay the career modes as other skaters rather than beating all of the career mode as just one skater and you can't replay it without starting a new save), 3+4 has Solo Tours included day one, but you do need to 100% the THPS3 and THPS4 career modes with both the standard and pro goals.
Cons: (btw, I'm not gonna mention the controversial THPS4 career mode format change, the OG THPS4 career mode wasn't really as good as a lot of THPS fans say it is)
(Now there are two cons I'll mention that are exclusive to this PC port)
1. This PC version can stutter sometimes, especially on the highest settings, this will need to be fixed in a future patch.
2. The PC version requires an always-online connection to play the game at all, even if you're just playing single player. THPS 1+2's Steam release has this same issue, however there was a patch released for it so that it could play offline on the Steam Deck, and there's a command you can put in in the launch options in Steam settings that allowed non-Steam OS users (Windows and Linux) to play the game offline, hopefully the option to play offline will be added in a future update.
3. While it was really nice to see the Spacewalk return, it has been completely ruined in this game. Basically the whole purpose of the Spacewalk is to give you a little speed boost when you're not gaining much speed while manualing in a combo, however in 3+4, the Spacewalk does not give you a speed boost whatsoever, therefore making it completely useless here. This 100% needs to be fixed.
4. For whatever reason, some goals in the Cruise Ship level have been changed for whatever reason, while all the other THPS3 levels have the exact same goals as in the original 2001 PS2/GameCube/OG Xbox/PC game.
5. Create-a-Skater is 100% identical to 1+2, except for new clothing options, which is kind of a shame, as Create-a-Skater in 1+2 was pretty lackluster.
So there's my review of THPS 3+4 on Steam, I give it an 8/10, it's really good, much better than 1+2, and definitely worth checking out if you're a big Tony Hawk fan, or if you're new to the series and you wanna play more of these games.