We'll have to admit to some trepidation when starting to play Tony Hawk's Underground 2. The advance press highlighted the influence of Bam Margera in the game, threatening to turn the game into a Jackass or Viva La Bam. In truth, that is only a small part of the overall game, seen mostly in the Story mode cut-scenes and a small number of the goals. The rest follows more traditional lines with many goals based on skating ability in both of the main modes, Story and Classic.

Story Mode follows a group of skaters around eight global locations, beginning with a training level that gently introduces players to some skating techniques, both old and new. The new levels are well designed, offering boundless opportunities for finding lines and building combos. They are also quite large, displaying remarkable depth not only in their breadth but also their height. Each level's goals are broken up, with separate goals for the player's character, some for a pro skater, and some for a guest skater and secret skater. With around 20 goals in each level there is quite a bit to do in Story Mode, and mastering all three difficulty settings will take quite a while.

The shift in focus in the Story Mode is towards more of a Jackass-type game, which admittedly will find favour with many gamers but sadden others who see it as an intrusion on a formerly pure skating game. The main problem with the mode is an over-reliance on using transport other than a skateboard. Wheelchairs, scooters, mechanical bulls and others are used, and these only cheapen the experience. A few of the goals are similarly based around this type of gimmick. Having said that, this is not too detrimental to the overall game, and constitutes only a small part of Underground 2. The cut scenes and scenarios in the Story Mode are admittedly amusing and form a counter-point to the more serious Classic Mode.

Classic Mode is just as we left it in Tony Hawk 3, with the two-minute timer, a set number of goals and even the old way of collecting stat' points surviving intact. Skaters used in the Story mode will have theirs reset, so collecting the stat' points is once again vital to continued progress. In an unfortunate twist though, a stat' point collected for one skater is applied to all the unlocked skaters rather than just the one skater as it was in previous games, lessening the appeal of completing the mode with different skater

The return of the two-minute timer will probably come as a bit of a shock to those who have grown used to the lack of time limits over the last couple of years, but soon feels as natural as it once did. Other goals mainly consist of either hitting various high scores or finding various letters or tapes hidden around the level.

The new levels work just as well with this type of mode, although their larger size make completing all the challenges in a single period a task only masters of the game will be able to come close to. All the new levels are available in this mode, as well as a few older levels remade for Underground 2. Their appearance is quite a surprise, given that most may not have been played for several years. New to the Classic mode is the concept of difficulty settings. In a neat touch there is now a harder difficulty setting for pros more used to the series, and this extends the life of the game immeasurably.

The actual gameplay is virtually identical to previous titles, keeping the new moves and techniques that were added in each. This allows more experienced players to pick up where they left off from previous games, while still being accessible enough for new players. The gameplay in Tony Hawk games has always been one of its great strengths, especially using the PlayStation 2 controller; shallow enough for beginners but displaying a depth that constantly challenges the more experienced.