Ja, es ist der Teil ab dem der Timer gegen die "Open World" Struktur mit freier Missionswahl ersetzt wurde. Plötzlich konntest du nicht mehr SKATE sammeln und dabei deinen Highscore brechen und musstest dich nun dazu entscheiden nun entweder SKATE zu sammeln, ODER den Score zu machen.
Das machte das Spiel deutlich länger, aber... auch deutlich länger. Eine kontroverse Entscheidung, aber... ich mags. Ich mag das Spiel.

Klar, nicht jede Aufgabe ist toll, es gibt sehr viel Filler und Stuff den ich nie machen möchte. Aber abseits von High Scores und Sammel-Aufgaben, gibt es so viele interessantere, spaßigere und abwechslungsreichere Missionen die die Reihe jemals haben konnte.
Außerdem ist das Spiel recht hart. Damals, als Kind hatte mich das genervt und es war auch ein häufiger Kritikpunkt. Aber heute bin ich echt froh mal ein paar echt knifflige Combo-Lines machen zu müssen.

Außerdem ist THPS4 der Teil mit dem die Mechaniken plötzlich richtig gut wurden. Also richtig gut, so in kursiv geschrieben und alles. Die Steuerung wurde präziser, wir haben mehr Moves, alles ist so viel mehr responsive. Hier fing die Reihe an diese übertriebenen Combo-Videos zu bekommen und ich weiß auch wieso.
Auch die Maps sind besser, größer und "dichter" als in den Vorgängern. Mit soooo vielen Lines, mit soooo viel zu entdecken und einem wahnsinnig guten Setdressing. Nicht jede Stage ist großartig, aber allein College und Alcatraz sind zwei der besten Maps die die Reihe jemals hatte und je haben wird.
THPS3 fühlt sich, im Vergleich, wie ein richtiger Inbetween-Teil an, der nicht mehr die heavyness der Ps1 Teile hat, aber auch dieses Level an smoothness nicht erreichen konnte.

Der größte Kritikpunkt an THPS4 ist eigentlich, dass Nachfolger noch mehr Features haben, die hier natürlich in Hindsight bitter fehlen. Keine Wallplants, kein vom-board-absteigen und auch all die Glitches die Tony Hawk ab THUG so viele mehr Layer geben, fehlen natürlich.

Mit THUG aber weiterhin mein Lieblingsteil.

I've owned this game ever since being a kid and while I was never very good at it back then, I did play it often. I hadn't touched it in a long while since then, but the last couple weeks I've been recovering from some weird digestion issues and on a whim picked this game up to pass the time. It's really, really fun. The amount of love and care that went into this game really shines at every moment and there is so much to do in it that you could spend weeks or longer playing it just to complete everything or even to improve your scores. I didn't technically "finish" it because later in the game you start facing harder and harder objectives and it eventually reached a point where I was happy with what I got out of the game and didn't feel like stressing myself out with completing everything, especially since I was playing while getting over an illness. I'll surely revisit it again.

i have a creepypasta about this game. i recently tried to buy a copy of this on ps2 to relive my childhood and the disc i bought would only show me the legendary Red Screen until ONE INSTANCE that it worked and when the game loaded it was not tony hawk pro skater 4. it was some very strange, low poly, offbrand... version? it was a skating game. it was made to Look like thps4. it was not thps4. the disc never worked again after that and i have no documentation of this besides messaging my friend "WHAT IS THIS BOOTLEG THPS4 I WAS SCAMMED?". im still haunted by this.

It's a really good game overall, but falls slightly short compared to the better entries in the series.

The highlights for me are the improvements to the movements and the additions of the 'spine transfer' which allows you to be much more creative when going for big combos. It's a good thing too because the maps in this game can be huge!

On the maps, it's another mixed bag. It starts off in one of the best maps in the series being 'College' with the real world 'Kona' being another favourite of mine. There are a couple of duds in here though like 'Alcatraz' and 'London', the latter of which seems a little small in comparison to the rest of the maps.

The biggest turn off for me though is the inconsistent difficulty. Alcatraz for example, being only the third map in the game has some missions that aren't just difficult to complete, but difficult to even reach the mission giver! This inconsistency is present throughout the rest of the game too.

It's a fun game with a great soundtrack and the controls are the tightest yet, but it misses the mark in too many places for it to be one of the best Tony Hawk games.

THPS4 has all the marks of a new and improved sequel. Better movement (though it takes a little to get used to), new hub based level design that allows you to get better acquainted with the levels, and new mechanics that further deepen the potential of banging out nasty combos.

However...

This novelty doesn't last forever. Much like THPS2, the latter stages of the game turn into complete fucking nonsense, but this time it's a different kind of nonsense. Rather than braindead level layout, the issue this time is exhausting goals that literally suck the soul out of you. And that's not even mentioning the Pro specific goals. A good majority of them are complete nonsense they threw together with glue and scotch tape and said fuck it because they need to get back to dicking around.

I understand Neversoft had to pump these games out like Phillip Rivers and his wife pump out children, but you weren't there when I was trying to hit 1.5 Million points in Chicago. I have never in my life felt more defeated than when I failed over and over again over the span of nearly four hours trying the same exact line over and over again only to get fucked by the balance meter or just jump in the water and ruin the whole fucking thing. That shit genuinely broke me. I don't ever want to go through some shit like that again in my whole life.

Even still, I can't bring myself to hate this game.

Yes, Neversoft may as well have barged in my room and beat the shit out of me with the way this game had me tweaking, but that pro skater charm is still there. It's not quite as magical as THPS3, but their distinct humor and creative direction is still very apparent in this game. The soundtrack is the worst of the series so far, but that's saying essentially nothing because there is still so many bangers in this game. And how can you not love the bonus movies? Just guys being dudes drinkin beer and playing ping pong and shit. Could be why the goals suck ass actually but that's not the point.

Even if THPS4 totes the best gameplay in the series so far, I can't forgive the sins they committed with the level design in this game, especially since the levels themselves are actually a blast (except for Chicago) (fuck Chicago). The joy in improvising and landing sick lines has never been better, but unfortunately some chump over there wants you to do some nonsense bullshit that somehow manages to be frustrating, difficult, and wildly unfun all in one package that's gonna have you begging Tony Hawk himself to end your suffering.

I usually don't like when people say this, but you're better off playing the levels in THUGPRO.

Jango Fett is fucking awesome though.

One of the more polarizing entries to the series, this is where THPS shifted to the mission focus with bigger levels and away from the timed runs from the earlier games. I was pretty fond of it but this was also my first THPS game so there's certainly a level of nostalgia. The gameplay itself is a bit more forgiving, with it seeming a little harder to bail and the addition of flat ground and switching grind tricks making huge combos more doable than previous games. There's more content than ever with more levels and more goals per levels, more customization content with cash, etc. Takes a bit longer to work through on account of that, but still good fun all the way through (except for Shipyard) and it features my personal favorite soundtrack (still can't get over the fact that Chad Muska produced an album with a bunch of old school hip-hop heavyweights).