rheaton's Full Review: Chris Edwards Aggressive Inline for PlayStation 2
Tony Hawk Fans, small children and women with weak constitutions might want to avert their eyes for a moment, because we are about to make some truly earth shaking comments here. Acclaim's latest title, Aggressive Inline caught our attention at E3 with it's massive levels and damn near perfect controls. Now that we have our own copy to beat on, we've discovered a whole lot more to like. In fact, we discover more on an almost daily basis. This game is just that big.
For Aggressive Inline, Acclaim turned to developer Z Axis and their years of experience with extreme titles. Having worked on the Dave Mira franchise for the past several years, these guys are no strangers to the demands that fans place on extreme sports titles. Aggressive inline meets and handily exceeds almost every demand any extreme fan may have. It is without a doubt the best extreme title on the market today. On any system. Period. ( And yes that includes Tony Whats-his-name)
Aggressive Inline takes the genre and stands it on it's head by introducing inline extreme skating into the mix. What's so special about inlines? Well, anything you can do on a skateboard or a bike, you can do on inlines. You can also do about a million more tricks as well. Because you have a couple of advantages on inlines you lack on a board or bike. First, your hands are always free. You never need to hold on to your equipment during any move so you always have your hands to use during tricks. This means grabbing light poles, railings, handrails, lips, buses, anything you want and never worrying about losing your bike or board. You also have the ability make moves you can't do on a bike or board. Like vaults. Jumping over solid objects like walls, cars, people, or simply vaulting from a the road surface to a building ledge.
Throw in the fact that your skates can move independently and you can create some pretty slick looking tricks. Oh, and then you can skate backwards and do them all in reverse as well.
What Aggressive Inline does so well is take that freedom of motion and wide-open trick style and combine it with ten real world pros (Shane Yost, Taig Khris, Franky Morakes, Matt Lindenmuth, Chris Edwards, Sven Boekhorst, Jaren Grob, Matt Salerno, Eito Yasuko, and Sam Fogarty) across seven massive levels (which are so interactive and deep that we're pretty sure no two people will ever experience them the same way), a huge variety of play modes, a skate park builder, and several unlockable fantasy characters (and our Fav, "chrissy" who is playable from the start) which feature some , um, great details and realistic, er, gravity modeling that would make DOAs "Bouncing Breasts" mode jealous. Oh and then there's the real world fabric physics. Say "Chrissy" does a back flip off a ramp, that cute little Catholic school girl skirt simply isn't going to behave in a manner mother superior would approve of. And it doesn't here. Note to Chrissy's mom: You taught your daughter well, she always has clean undies on.
The Levels you have to play with are incredibly huge. You might think that Tony Hawk's sprawling levels are impressive, but Aggressive Inline takes level design to new heights. Literally. Levels aren't just sprawling, they're high. In some cases several stories high. You almost feel like each level is really several levels stacked one on top of the other and then laid out side by side. More impressive is that you can actually change the levels to some degree. Items you break or topple remain that way. Some areas are designed to be damaged in order to open up new areas. Thus extending the already massive lines even farther. In fact, the lines in Aggressive Inline are so huge, the developers claim that on some levels It's possible to literally follow the lines into each other into one massive level wide line.
As if that wasn't enough, you'll randomly skate past doors that will open, revealing a hidden area that is nearly as large ( or in a few instances larger) than they one you were just in. And THAT area will have hidden areas. Add to that the keys scattered across the levels that unlock doors to even more areas (there are upto 5 on each level and many are twice the size of the main level!)and the mind begins to boggle. It's crazy how utterly massive the levels can get in this game. And that's without even mentioning the traffic, people, and other moving items in each environment. All without a hint of graphical strain on the PS2.
Z- Axis has smartly added a bit of a twist in the level design. Some area's can't be accessed your first time through. They require either more skill than you currently have so you must power up your skater before reaching those areas. This seriously increases the replay value of Aggressive Inline. Still thinking "Only" seven levels?
Which brings us to one of Aggressive Inline's best features. Unlike previous extreme titles where you received skill points for completing tasks, the main means of picking up skill in a given area is to do it. Just as in real life, practice makes perfect. Say you're having trouble with grinds. Grind more. Grind everywhere and everything. Your skater's balance and grind ability will improve. Jumps a little flat? Jump more. It's an almost RPG like experience point system. You can still score some skill points by completing level goals but the meat of your skills will be worked up this way.
Speaking of level goals, you might want to sit down. Each level seems to have a near endless supply of goals, and achieving one goal will often "unlock" a new one. Also, NPCs on the levels will offer you challenges with various rewards. Just to put things in perspective, we've counted roughly 40 level goals on the first level alone. With no time limit imposed on a given level (some goals will have time limits but they simply end the challenge not the level) it's literally possible to skate any given level forever in the quest of high scores, secrets, and goals.
It's this depth and complexity that permeate the entire game. Even the training level is incredibly complete and detailed. The level editor and multiplayer mode ( along with freeskate) add depth to a game that's already so deep you may never "finish" it.
Graphics
As impressive as the massive levels and smoothly animated characters may be, they'd all be wasted if the graphic engine collapsed under the load. Amazingly enough the guys at Z Axis have tapped some serious muscle lurking under the PS2's hood. Nothing in this game ever slows down from it's silky smooth 60fps. In the well over 100 hours of play that the staff has put into this game, no one has ever seen a bit of slow down or pop up. Never has a character animation or cut scene twitched, shimmered or hiccupped. We knew the PS2 had some untapped power down there, but this is unreal. All of the graphical goodness just helps suck you in further.
Controls
Absolutely critical for an extreme title, and even more so for one this ambitious are controls that respond almost as fast as you can think. Aggressive Inline easily has the best we've seen in pretty much any game ever (regardless of genre). The control system itself is simple to pick up and, like the level design , consists of many different layers and levels. How deep into it you want to go is up to you, but the ability to pull some seriously sick tricks is there. All you need to do is go for it. You'll never complain about the controls forcing you to blow a landing or crater after a long trick combo. It's all you pal.
Sounds
The sound track is on par with other aggressive or extreme titles. It might be a bit too "pop" for hardcore skater punk fans, but most should be able to put up with it, even those that aren't into the harder side of the alternative rock scene. Z Axis thankfully added the ability to dump out of a song during a level just by going to the pause menu screen. A nice touch that should keep you from having to hear that one track you just can't stand. While we're willing to bet that the Xbox version will allow you to rip your own tunes, the PS2 song list includes "Wrong Way," by Sublime, "Monday Morning" and "Falling For You," by Student Rick, "I'm A Cloud" by Boy Hits Car, "Passing Me By" by Pharcyde, "Sell Out," by Reel Big Fish, "Crawling In The Dark," by Hoobastank, "Idea for A Movie," by The Vandals, "Song # 13," by The Ataris, "The Choice Is Yours," by Black Sheep, "Your Disease," by Saliva, and "Don't Sweat The Technique," by Eric B & Rakim.
Aside from the music, the actual sounds and noises in the game are pretty much standard fare with traffic and skating sounds all sounding realistic if not terribly spectacular.
Overall
Acclaim and Z Axis have created something here that really took us all by surprise. EA managed to pull off as big a shock with the original SSX, and Tony Hawk did the same for Skateboarding. What Aggressive Inline manages to do is take a market already saturated by the likes of not only those previously mentioned powerhouses but also a ton of also rans and wanna-bes and stand it on it's ear. By taking the best of all that came before it adding in the unique tricks only available on inlines, and then throwing it all into a pot with incredible gameplay and huge levels, Aggressive Inline takes the Extreme sports genre to a whole new level. Put this one down as a must have for any PS2 owner.
For Play on Your PlayStation 2 Published by Acclaim Game Genre: Sports, Game Sub-Genre: Extreme Sports, Platforms: PlayStation2, ESRB Rating: TeenMore at Amazon Marketplace
Chris Edwards Aggressive Inline is the first inline skating game for any next-generation console. Grab your inline skates and get ready to pull all ki...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Choose from a variety of pro skaters like Jaren Grob, Taig Khris and Chris Edwards in Aggressive Inline, and experience the best skating action in 12 ...More at GameQuest Direct. com
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