Game Overview
No levels. No load times. Just never-ending action that doesn't stop until you leave the game! Tony Hawk's American Wasteland gives you - for the first time ever in a Hawk game - the freedom to skate, or bike, throughout a rich, expansive open environment. Once you arrive in Los Angeles, the vast city that gave birth to skate culture, the sky's the limit as you progress through the Wasteland story and choose missions that will have you immersed in the action without ever skating the same line twice!

No loading times is fantastic, and it's true, the game doesn't stop at all, you just go through very plain sections with only a couple of rails to amuse you when going from level to level, this is obviously the time the game loads but there is no freezing or anything straight through and out the other side into the next level, quite amazing really!

As usual Tony Hawks American Wasteland boasts one heck of a soundtrack, Punk legends and more modern hits, a prime example why the game is up for best soundtrack year after year! Unfortunately the characters voices and the dialogue get a little bit tedious and boring but these can be skipped which is a real help!

Graphics are what you have come to expect from Neversoft and Activision, crisp clean graphics that give off that punky skater image! One thing we have to point out is the realism of the graphics when your character arrives in Hollywood at the start of the game. As the camera pans down over the Hollywood sign you won’t be the only person thinking you are actually in Hollywood! Had us gob smacked! Then someone goes and pinches your bag and gives you a mini pasting! Nice, huh!

A nice touch to the game is being able to switch from Skateboard to BMX, the game is now officially a cross between Tony Hawks and Matt Hoffman’s, they really should have called it Matt & Tony’s American Wasteland! Pick up the BMX and you have a completely new set of goals, get back on the skateboard and away you go with more objectives, plus as the story mode has a 24 hour cycle (not real time) different objectives are given to you every day in order to learn different tricks to try and get sponsored, a nice touch but does mean that you will be playing this game for a very long time!

Multiplayer and Online play is as standard with Tony hawk games, these are what makes this game and thankfully with American Wasteland they have just got better and a lot more addictive! Great to play at any time, with your brother or with your mates or even making mates online, you chose, but whatever you do decide to do your going to be having a blast doing it!

Our Conclusions
With loads of different tricks, completely different style of play, Tony Hawks American Wasteland is breath of fresh air from the Underground series which was eked out a little too much. American Wasteland won't set your life alight but it will keep you glued to your PS2 for a long time. Rock n Roll people!

Overall Score: 8/10

Thanks to Activision