Both teams persevered with interesting new designs that pushed the tiny little pocket of surfing games to entirely new levels -- Krome by simply doing it early, and Angel by developing striking technology and using intriguing design. Now Activision, which takes its extreme sports very seriously -- as seen by its huge '02 lineup covering everything from skateboarding to wakeboading -- has entered into the fray with Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer.
There's little doubt in this surfer's mind that Activision's attempt at tackling the once obscure surfing genre is a respectable, all-around triumph. The wave engine generates waves that never appear to break the same way twice, the surfing is fun and difficult but ultimately rewarding, the goals are well balanced, and Activision has kept the stupidity of jumping ocean creatures to a minimum. If ever there was a surfing game to recommend, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer takes the prize, hands down.
Presentation
Kelly Slater nails the sport of surfing on the head, from the presentation to gameplay to the waves themselves. And somewhere along the line Activision's extreme game designers decided to try different things, to appeal more toward the sport they were going after, a very good thing indeed. Instead of trying to replicate Activision's uber-popular skateboarding experience directly into a surfing game, they took a different stance, approaching surfing from a surfer's point of view. The time spent on replicating a genuine surfing experience goes a long way these days, as gamers are inundated with me-too extreme sports that don't do enough to distinguish themselves.
Working with six-time world champion surfer Kelly Slater (who also narrates the game), Activision uses live footage to show how poetic and powerful ocean waves are, and what joys and dangers lie in that particular part of the world -- with Slater adding a personal story or two, such as in the intro to Curren's Point, Japan. Slater's disposition and his voice are remarkably humble and mellow, adding to the game's own remarkably laid back tone. And the game features cool acoustic music from, among others, Jeremy Kay ("Back to You"), Ben Harper ("Faded"), and they even got Perry Farrell to chill with "Nua Nua."
Lastly, the creative interface takes place inside a traveling boat, enabling players to choose from various parts of its insides (port holes, surf racks, framed pictures, etc.) to get started. The live footage is massive. Each break is recorded, and there is a 30-minute video of Slater' Pipeline Sessions, a video on bails, and short presentations on each of the surfers. The game also offers a substantial training session (which has been shortened in the PC version), which is well needed, since surfing requires different skills than snowboarding and skateboarding. In all, this game is delivered with a classy touch of originality and creativity.
Technology
It's clear that Treyarch has done its homework on many fronts, but perhaps the one that required the most blood, sweat and tears is the technology behind the waves themselves. If you ask any surfer what is the one thing about surfing that makes it unique, it's that no two waves are the same. With a strong showing of technological know-how, Treyarch has drawn closer than any developer in re-creating the random and unpredictable nature of waves while simultaneously presenting a perfect watery palette on which to surf.
Players start each session by lying on a surfboard and as the waves quickly appear from the calm waters your surfer stands up and begins his or her ride. Each wave breaks down into about seven segments, with each one programmed to do different things. There is the whitewash, the barrel, the curl or hook of the wave, the face, and the line that draws into the distance. If you simply watch the waves break, you'll quickly notice their morphing nature.
Unlike skateboarding, which offers solid, concrete surfaces to perform tricks from, Kelly Slater offers an amazingly fluid and gorgeous wave of water that must be watched and adjusted to as your session progresses. The game isn't just about pulling off tricks, but learning to read and play the changing wave. These waves offer break sections that close off potential opportunities, barrels grow viciously strong and suck you, and each break is entirely different.
The best way to see these differences is by opening up the 15 real-world surf breaks. Located all over the globe, these wildly varying breaks offer the whole gamut, from the small, quick thrasher waves of Slater's hometown break, Sebastian, to the monster 60-footers at Cortez Bank. The waves move slower, break harder, offer giant, sucking tubes, or none at all depending on the break. The waves at Teahupoo, G-Land and Pipeline, for instance, offer burly, sucking thick-walled giants that are dangerous to get too far into, while the larger monster break of Mavericks, on the other hand, has no barrel at all. Sebastian offers smaller, faster trick-style waves, while the break at Kirra, Australia, is re-created to generate 6-7-foot waves perfect for every kind of trick, be it face, barrel or air.
Gameplay
Designed as a trick-based game, Treyarch's Kelly Slater takes on surfing differently than other developers' games by breaking the wave into three separate areas -- face, barrel and air. This is significant because previous surfing games haven't addressed anything but air and maybe a few lip tricks. Now, you can pull off various laybacks, carves, lip tricks, slides, rebounds, and cutbacks on the face, then slide into barrel, perform tricks there, and then link them to air tricks, such as the maniacal Rodeo Clown, the amazing Backflip or the goofy Monkeyman. The depth of moves is thus varied between three areas, keeping players from settling into one particular area and growing bored.
The controls feel different and better than anything else I've played. They're quick and responsive for the most part, but the amount of play on the waves is simply excellent. Players slide around as if they really are in water. They can gouge the wave, pull off deep carves, speed up and slow down, all in a seemingly frothy, watery moving surface.
Barrels are completely different in Kelly Slater than in any other game. Unlike the very admirable TransWorld Surf, getting barreled and staying there isn't easy. Altering the manual meter from its skateboarding game, Activision uses it here as a balance meter for staying in the barrel. Using a single button to pull off tube tricks, players can pitch their legs out, reach for the tube ceiling, or lay down into a coffin pose. There are about 15 tube tricks in all.
Pulling them all together in a nice bow is the newly introduced Special Meter, seen on the upper right-hand side of the screen. The Special Meter is, by my account, the other big thing that separates this game from other surfing or skateboarding games. By performing a variety of tricks from all three areas, the special meter raises from green to yellow. It opens up special tricks only possible when it's on, and multiplies and links tricks. The key, however, is to keep it up (no pun intended, unless you require Viagra. In which case, we're terribly sorry, hee hee, keep it up, heh). By combining face tricks, landing aerial tricks, and performing tricks in the barrel, players keep the meter running so they can ratchet up huge point scores.
Set up for players to spend most of their time in the Career mode, Kelly Slater also offers numerous other gameplay modes. There is Freesurf mode with games such as Infinite Time, High Score, and Icon Challenge; and Multiplayer mode with Push, Head-to-Head, and Time Attack. Career mode is the game's core because it's where players earn new boards, increase skills (balance, speed, air, and face abilities), and open up new surf breaks (15). AND, you can also open up new secret surfers (SPOILER ALERT) including Tony Hawk, Travis Pastrana, and the freaky-deaky Surf Freak, among others.
This mode offers several ways to continually improve your skills. Every aspect of it is well balanced and thought out. Some levels push your knowledge of the moves with Icon Challenge (where the game names a trick and you perform it), while in each break, players must reach the specific beach goals. These goals range from tedious to interesting, and when completed, you're rewarded with goodies. The mission objectives include beating the grom or the local, maxing out the special meter for 20-40 seconds, collecting 25,000 points in the tube, or humiliating other people on the wave (windsurfers, spongers, jetskiers, etc.), just to name a few.
But perhaps one of the biggest elements of surprise, realism, and pure innovation, is the way in which surfers react to the waves. Unlike any other surfing game, these waves permit an amazing amount of interaction, and more impressively, in key areas of the waves. Surfers pull off moves right in the hook of the wave and go wild. Likewise, you aren't restricted to landing with a perfectly exact landing; here, you're given a sloppy or perfect rating, the former ending your special meter, the latter adding to it. On the curl of the wave, surfers can maneuver like never before. Players can go to nearly any point of the lip and pull off snap turns, tail chucks and tailslides. Surfers can land in the whitewash-crashing part of wave, and pull out the move. Sometimes they're even heaved forward by the lip in doing so. They can touch or hit the lip of the wave and not be pitched off their boards. And if you find yourself caught behind the soup, the game cheats a little by giving you extra speed to pull in front of it to continue your session. The sum total of these real-life abilities means each wave is a nearly perfect slate for trick-fueled madness.
But... (There's Always a "But...")
It was difficult for me to see them since I simply love surfing games, but Kelly Slater does have a modicum of weak areas. My first gripe is with the camera. Much like in Championship Surfer, the camera in Kelly Slater looks at the surfer, rather than from behind him. It works, but it's not the best position, in my opinion. I prefer the camera in TransWorld Surf because you can actually see where you want to go. Treyarch did indeed add a second camera angle, a tight, third-person perspective, but that's equally annoying. The default position becomes increasingly annoying when you have to hit objects, such as windsurfers, icebergs, spongers or to jump turtles (turtles! Gawd...). It's do-able, of course, but it just doesn't seem to make much sense to stand in front of the surfer and watch him come toward the camera.
It's clear that Treyarch didn't approve much of the stupid objectives from all other surfing games. Even jumping the turtles. The only fun I had with these goals is to hear the spongers and windsurfers squealing as I nailed them. Cheap, cheap thrills indeed.
While the animations are absolutely superb looking, they take longer to pull off than it seems necessary. I often found myself waiting and watching to pull off the next move. And though I guess it's just the nature of the game, the face trick animations often look dopey linked together. I found a way to sort of cheat using numerous face moves linked together to beat the special meter, which becomes increasingly tedious to maintain in the later levels.
With all of the fantastic technology behind the game, I was startled to see that the waves are so weakly presented. Surfers don't just sit there and up from nowhere a huge, 20-foot wave appears. That's silly. With sets, you can especially see waves coming in from hundreds of feet away. With regular waves, you can still easily see them. You can pick and choose your waves by smartly positioning yourself. Here, there's this obvious animated wave in the background and then "poof!" a 60-foot wave appears like a genie from a lamp. Sorry, but it's dorky.
Lastly, the most arduous tricks to pull off are the barrel tricks. At first, the learning curve for me was higher. I grew quickly frustrated by my inability to do anything in the barrel. Initially, I chalked it up to being spoiled by TransWorld Surf's far easier barrels. But later, when I grew adept in the barrel, the difficulty in pulling off moves in the barrel became obvious. You must keep the balance meter steady, and simultaneously do moves requiring hitting left, right, or various diagonal angles on the D-pad. Not that I want it to be easier, but perhaps working against the meter is too diametrically opposed to balancing the barrel meter at the same time. There must be a better solution than this, either by softening the balance meter, or not initiating the balance meter only when you get farther and deeper into barrel -- just a thought.
Graphics
It's funny, but there isn't usually that much to look at in surfing games; there's the wave and the surfer -- end of story. Maybe a little background stuff, too. Suffice it is to say, Kelly Slater is an excellent looking game. The game runs at a perfect 60 FPS with no noticeable drops, and with sparklingly beautiful waves, great surfer animations, and handsome looking surfer models, it's hard to slight the game with anything. And this game looks great on the PC.
In Kelly Slater the waves are frothing, rolling powerful beasts of nature. They are simply beautiful. The water color changes depending on which beach you're at -- from indigo blue to blue-green, to blue-black at Cortez, to the fluorescent red and orange flares offered at G-Land BC. The range of water textures is great, with blown out days showing chop, late night sessions boasting stars and moon reflections, and that summery glisten of the sun reflecting off the water in nearly all levels. Regardless of which location, the water is always gorgeous.
The waves show impressive crests of water arching off the lip, while the inside of the barrel blends whitewash and see-through water perfectly. There is also a heavy amount of spit that bursts out of the wave at key times, and if you watch carefully, the surfers will shake their hair out of their face.
The game boasts excellent special effects, such as superb reflections, great particles (in the form of spit, spray, and froth), and simply unbelievably superb looking water in every aspect.
Verdict
This is, by and large, the most impressive looking and playing surf game ever created, whether you're looking at the water technology, the extras, or the design itself.
I happily admit to being totally biased toward all surf games. I have played them all, and I can't wait to play this one 17 more times. It's sort of like the same thing for RPG or football fans -- it's hard to resist playing them. And so if Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer doesn't spark a huge interest in videogame surfing, well then sh*t, nothing will. But after the talk of technology dies down, and the rush of admiration for these incredible athletes wears off, what's left? Core gameplay. And Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer is a well-designed surf game, the best there is.
What I particularly like about it is Treyarch's intelligent focus on the sport of surfing, instead of the tacky arcade tricks like adding ducks, turtles and other silly objectives (though Treyarch is slightly guilty of this, too). But the developer's dedication to delivering the wild, radical sport of surfing to the videogame medium is pure and direct, and for that I am deeply grateful.