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The Tony Hawk franchise has been around for a long time. With Project 8 marking the eighth entry to the series (duh), the birdman is going back to his roots with a more realistic art direction (in contrast to the THUG and American Wasteland flavor of animated style) and a mix of goals that feel like a combination of classic Pro Skater goals and THUG style mayhem. The final product is yet another terrific addition to the Tony Hawk brand, but while it remains as fun as it ever has, there’s some pieces curiously missing from this iteration.

Last time we caught up with the Tony Hawk franchise in American Wasteland, Neversoft created a game that was sans load times. However, the entire concept was a slight cheat, as load times were replaced with sparsely populated ‘tunnel’ zone that acted as transitions between the games areas. In Project 8, the absence of load times is implemented much better, offering a large, expansive city for you to shred without the tedious tunnels. This is open ended skating in it’s purest.

Of course, don’t think you can just load the game and skate over Hell’s half acres. You’re going to have to prove your worthiness when it comes to gaining access to many of the games areas by raising your rank and completing specific goals, as is tradition by now.

The game follows your created character as he climbs the ranks from the bottom of the food chain (#200 of 200) to one of the top 8 amateur skaters around, and landing a place in the coveted Project 8: a group of killer skaters put together and chosen by the Hawk man himself. Everything you do in Project 8 will help you move toward this goal. Every gap, goal and challenge you pass will aid you in your climb to the top.

Thankfully there is no shortage in goals and challenges for you to complete in the franchises latest outing. You’ll find plenty to keep yourself busy in the city, from old-hat goals to some of the newly constructed challenges new to the franchise.

Instead of having to play the game in a separate Classic Mode like in past installment, the Classic Mode runs are seamlessly integrated into the open ended city. As you traverse the city, you’ll find that certain characters are highlighted. Some of these characters will open up Classic Mode challenges, which give you 2 minutes to complete a set of goals within a given area of the city. If you’re really pro, you’ll be able to do all 10 in one single run for the SICK score. Good luck!

There’s also the addition of the “Owned” graffiti tags scattered throughout the city that, when activated, challenge you to match a track line as far as you can in order to claim that area for your own. Some tests involve grinds, while others involve manuals.

Most of the challenges come in three distinctive flavors: Amateur, Pro and Sick, each one requiring a higher level of skill. Amateur goals, as you may guess, are simple challenges meant more for newcomers to the franchise than vets. Pro is for the vets, which require moderately more skill than the Amateur goals, but are still nothing when compared to the Sick goals. Sick goals will challenge even the most Tony Hawk elite. They demand inhuman feats to be completed under insane conditions. Fulfilling every challenge in the game under the sick rating is something anyone can be truly proud of.

Aside from the standard challenges, there’s also Pro Challenges that take place after you’ve earned yourself certain spots on the ranking list. These challenges introduce the pro skaters into the fold, from Bob Burnquist to Ryan Sheckler and of course, Bam Margera. These goals usually play out similar to other challenges (except the likes of Bob Burnquist’s do-a-bunch-of-tricks-after-leaping-out-of-a-helicopter goal), but with the addition of interaction with the sports highlight pros.

Now, instead of earning stat points after completing challenges, your character will raise their stats naturally by performing appropriate tricks. Spend a lot of time grinding and your grind skill goes up, do a lot of manualling and your manual skill goes up, etc. It’s a much more fluid and natural feeling system than just assigning points to certain skills at random.

In addition to all the insane new challenges you’ll be forced to complete, there’s also a sweet new addition to your arsenal of tricks: Nail the Trick. Whenever you’re catching some air, press down on both thumbsticks and you enter Nail the Trick mode. In Nail the Trick mode, time slows just as it does in Focus Mode, and you’re able to control your skaters feet with each thumbstick. Doing so flips the board around according to your movements, allowing you to effectively create insanely monstrous tricks. There’s even goals peppered throughout the game that challenge you to complete a certain number of flips before you hit ground again. It’s an addicting new wrinkle to the ever growing arsenal of tricks the franchise has come to offer.

The city you travel is pretty massive and offers all manner of atmosphere. Every area has a distinct feel to it and you’ll be finding your way around in a matter of hours. The design is decent this time around, but it lacks a level of inspiration that doesn’t necessarily take away from the experience, but doesn’t really leave you wowed afterwards either. To Neversoft’s defense, however, this is the first time anyone has attempted a completely open ended skateboarding world, and their job is still a commendable one. I just hope they improve on what they have already when it comes to the next installment.

Customization is at a low in this installment, offering you a very limited create-a-skater, and excluding create-a-park all together. In a series that has been offering increasing amounts of customizability, it’s curious (and disappointing) to see such a decline in attention to one of the series’ most popular feature sets.

When it comes to multiplayer, Project 8 supports 2 player gameplay offline or 8 player Live play. The offline multiplayer is pretty bare bones, but it’s still fun if you have no other way of playing against your friends. Offline you can play Trick Graffiti, Horse, Trick Attack, all the standard stuff we’re all used to by now. Online, though, you get access to Combo Mambo, Score Challenge, Combo Challenge and Walls. The area of the city you choose to play in becomes your virtual lobby where you can screw around until the host launches the challenge.

Walls is the only real newcomer that deserves special mention, and that’s because it’s a weird combination of Tron and skateboarding that is sure to hook gamers and become a new fan fav. In Walls, your character leaves a wall behind them as they move. The goal of the mode is to force your opponent to crash into your wall while avoiding theirs. While the walls themselves look pretty lame, the mode is fun as it gets.

In addition to playing online, you can also enjoy the extremely intricate leaderboards. The game keep track of practically everything you could possibly do in the game, from your highest scores, your longest grinds and even your most brutal bails. It’s been a long time coming, but now you can finally see just how good you are when put side by side with the rest of the world.

In terms of sound, the Tony Hawk series has always offered up a great soundtrack in addition to great sound effects. In Project 8, we get both, yet again. The soundtrack is as big and varied as ever, offering up a little something for everyone. The sound effects are exactly what you’d expect by now, and get the job done effortlessly.

Graphically, the series has never been better. Offering up fluid animation and a realistic art style akin to the Pro Skater series, this is the best looking Tony Hawk yet. Every environment is well populated, both by NPC characters and environment to trick off of. The areas of the game all have a distinct style, and though we’ve seen many of the themes used here in previous iterations of the series, they’re still welcome in my books.

It’s a tough task to keep a franchise fresh after eight versions, but Neversoft has been up to the task. While there’s a few misses in Project 8, the experience as whole is still as fun as ever, and remains enjoyable despite the absence of any major customization. Project 8 stands as the best entry into the series since the series dropped the Pro Skater moniker.