skate. Preview

The long-awaited next entry into the Skate franchise is here… in the form of a live-service game called skate. (sigh). That isn’t going to be confusing to bring up in conversation at all. Anyways, I’ve been cautiously optimistic about the game despite some of the controversy, which includes no way to play the game offline, a style that evokes more of Skate 3 than any other game, and an overall icky feeling of having to play a modern EA game. However, I want to give it a fair shot, so let’s check it out.

Starting the game, I was hit with… well, a pretty lame intro that didn’t have any of the fun that previous entries had. Yeah, the lack of pro skaters built into the game is pretty apparent. Actually, the game asks if I played Skate 3 before, not any of the previous titles, so that’s saying something. 

But when I finally grabbed my board and skated down that giant ramp everyone has to do… it felt great. Sure, I’m very rusty (I played a lot of Session: Skate Sim and I had to break a few habits), but the actual skating is just as great as I remember it, maybe even better. The Flick-it system is just as easy to use but hard to master, and there have been changes added since.

Skating culture has changed over the years, with new tricks and techniques having been developed since Skate 3, and skate. reflects those changes. Slappies (hit a curb at an angle and automatically go into a grind), Fireworks (manual down stairs), quick Ollies and Nollies, and even the ability to climb your way up buildings in a somewhat similar system to Assassin’s Creed. Although, at least in the Early Access, it is missing quite a few tricks from Skate 3. No Darkslides, Bonelesses, and Finger Flips, but they will be added eventually in Season 2.

I actually really liked the parkour and climbing system. I’ve seen so many Skate videos where players do insane lines from buildings which can only be accessed through exploits, but now you can just climb up it, which is a fun challenge on its own. If you level up enough, you can also unlock a fast travel point so you can easily go back there at any time. If the game focused on climbing, I wouldn't mind that much. If only Vee (your personal AI videographer) shut up by default, I’d enjoy it a lot more.

But enough about that, what about the challenges? Well, there are a lot of them dotted around the map, tasking you with achieving high scores in a Jam session, collecting bearings in a Line, Own The Spot by tricking off certain objects, and all that sort of jazz. Each challenge has several goals, and completing them will earn more rewards; plus, if you play with a buddy, you’ll earn a little extra. They’re pretty good, teaching you a few new tricks you can add to your style or test you on how well you can use the Flick-It system. And don’t worry too much if you run out of challenges to do, as non-essential ones are refreshed so you can keep earning more stuff.

Oh, but I know that a lot of people played Skate for Hall of Meat, where you fling your skater off high places and make them suffer in the most painful ways possible. Hall of Meat is… kind of there, in a new, more generic form called Stunt challenges (I should say that Thrasher is in the game). As it turns out, skaters can no longer break their bones or die thanks to some fancy technology that protects them from any sort of pain.

Leap off the tallest building in San Van and land on your face? Walk it off. Now that I think about it, I don’t remember if there was any animation for picking yourself off the ground before, so points for that! And the ragdoll actually gives your skater a sense of self-preservation instead of flopping around at the slightest touch to the knee. Otherwise, it’s still fun to splatter yourself onto objects, controlling your descent with the Torpedo and Eagle gestures. Falling with style never looked more… painful but safe, I guess.

That being said, your starting outfit… sucks. I don’t wanna ride around in a “I Heart SV” t-shirt the entire game. A big part of skater culture is the clothes you wear and how you customise your board, so let's talk about cosmetics. You can change your skater’s entire appearance at any time, from the clothes they wear to the very body they have. Shirts, jackets, socks, shoes, and accessories are all available for you to change out.

There's a bit more you can do with your board than previous games. Aside from being able to change your deck, trucks, and wheels, you can now change your grip tape, give it a pattern, and slap up to three stickers on the bottom of your board. Although I couldn’t find any option to modify the hardness of your wheels, it’s cool to see how much customisation there is… but there is a very serious catch: you’ll have to buy your new duds from a store.

You can spend your IRL cash to exchange for SVBucks, which is used to buy some of the exclusive items that rotate in and out of the shop. You can buy clothing from actual brands, costumes that would've been unlockable characters in previous games, emotes to style on other skaters, and bundles for a collection of items that I wish were sold separately.

However, if you don't want to spend real money, then you’ll either need to level up your Rip Card, increase your reputation in the district, or spend Rip Chips earned in challenges on product boxes. They are a lootbox you unlock as you gain more reputation in a part of San Van, so whatever you're getting is randomised, but at least you won't get duplicates as they're taken out of the pool. If you play the game enough, you’ll have a plethora of clothing and skateboards to use.

I might be spoiled by HELLDIVERS 2, but staring at all the stuff in the store reminded me why I hate live-service games. I would've loved to wear some generic brand hoodie, but that's locked behind dozens of challenges and hours to grind out the resources needed to get a chance at unlocking it. And it might not even be the right colour.

Of course, if/when the servers become inaccessible, that's it. You can't play the game at all. I also had to contend with server queues for the first time, and had to wait my turn to get into the game. It was surprisingly short, though. Actually, the game runs pretty well even on my mid-tier PC with rather quick loading times. Although, that could be because the map isn’t or doesn’t feel very big.

In conclusion, I want to see where skate. goes from here. I’m still cautiously hopeful as the game itself is fun, especially with friends, but it left a bunch of its soul behind to chase after the potentially infinite wealth found in live service. It feels good to play a new Skate game, and it still has plenty of room to grow, but I don't want to play it in this way, especially knowing that one day the servers will shut down. Still… it's just fun to skate around, doing challenges or finding spots and seeing how much footy you can get from it.

Footy is footage, by the way.