Since Skate’s announcement way back in 2020 (originally dubbed Skate 4) we’ve seen an influx of skateboarding games, from sims like Session, to the arcadey Tony Hawk remakes, and unique experiences like VR Skater and Olli Olli World. No matter how you look at it, skateboarding video games are definitely back, but they’re still missing that open-world sandbox feel that the Skate series popularized back in the late 2000’s. When I got the chance to play an alpha build of Skate 3’s long awaited sequel, I was excited but also skeptical of how the Skate revival would work as a live service game, and most importantly, would it be able to recapture the magic from the first three entries?
Within minutes of my nearly six hours with Skate and after a few moments of me spectacularly ragdolling around San Vansterdam, I was able to reactivate my long dormant muscle memory to find myself grinding and kick flipping my way around Skate’s sandbox world. From the extremely intuitive and easy-to-digest first handful of missions that smartly taught me its gameplay mechanics in small digestible chunks, to its cleverly designed world that never slowed me down when I was cursing around, and its unique traversal system that plays more like an Assassin’s Creed and Spider-Man game than what I would expect from a skateboarding sim, it’s obvious that developer Full Circle took an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to this and made sure that Skate is a game that can be played and understood quickly.
In addition to the classic control scheme, Skate offers two variations of controls that can make the difficulty curve easier for new players as well as a multitude of quality-of-life features that, quite frankly, are a welcome addition. While I stuck with the original control scheme and didn’t mess with any of Skate’s accessibility features outside of a few less button presses, there’s definitely a way to make Skate’s unique playstyle a little easier for both series newcomers and die-hard Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater fans. Regardless of how you want to play, Skate’s controls make pulling off gravity-defying tricks an easy and really fun process, thanks to its flick controls and intuitive movement system.
Skate’s controls make pulling off gravity-defying tricks an easy and really fun process.
Simply put, I had a ton of fun with my time cruising around San Vansterdam discovering cool things to skate on while riding from objective to objective. At its core, Skate is a big open sandbox where you jump on and off of things and do cool tricks in-between that. Because of this, I never felt pressured to complete any nearby objectives on my map, I never paid much attention to my score, nor did I feel stuck in that carrot-on-a-stick gameplay loop so many live service games rely on. While you are encouraged to complete objectives in order to unlock new areas and level up your character, I found myself ignoring that and just vibing around to the in-game soundtrack and finding new cool places to skate on.
Thankfully, discovering those spots is extremely simple thanks to the ability to hop off your board and parkour around the map. I was able to easily scale buildings with Skate’s easy-to-use climbing controls and drop markers wherever I needed to spawn back to, which happened whenever I tried something stupid – like attempting to heelflip off a skyscraper onto a park bench. Which never worked out, by the way, but I still found myself trying over and over again. A movement system like this makes Skate less frustrating to mess around with and find fun and ridiculous areas to skate on all over the map. That being said, there are a hefty amount of objectives and story quests to complete that range from following a premade line, to getting a high score, and even one where I had to skydive off a building into a nearby bridge.
Tonally, Skate looks and feels a bit different than the direction the original trilogy had. While I’m definitely nostalgic for the pseudo-realistic look of the originals, the world in Skate seems to be a bit more exaggerated and saturated. Early on in my session I had to complete a mission where I jumped off a building into a dumpster. The in-game narrator explained that nobody in that world feels pain when falling because a tech start up called ImpervaTEK figured out how to make people invincible. When asked to further elaborate, I was told to not worry because its science and the topic was never mentioned again. That’s pretty dumb, but OK, whatever. Let’s me keep skating, I guess. And while I loved the simple world building of Skate, the character models took a bit of time to get used to, since they kind of look like next generation Sims. But eventually, after a few costume adjustments, I was happy with how my bleach-blonde, mullet-wearing self looked, and I was back to landing triple kick-flips in no time.
If you weren’t already aware, Skate is a free-to-play live service game, and while that is a major departure from the previous titles, its heavy focus on multiplayer gameplay really makes this version of Skate seem like it could be a game I would return to long after its release. The developers on site told me that there could be well over 100+ players on the map at once, and while proximity chat was not featured in my demo, I never really felt like I needed to speak out loud to anyone whenever I ran into another skater. Seeing other people casually mess around in Skate’s sandbox world is a unique experience that very few live service games seem to get right, and with its numerous customization features and evolving world, I’m pretty optimistic about the world feeling alive once it’s released and I can absolutely see a map full of people hanging out and skating.
Finally, there is a level progression system where you can earn in-game cosmetics, one of which is that same pair of Vans a lot of us have been wearing for the past twenty-something years, notable decks from major skate brands, emotes, and a ton of cool and weird clothes to put on my custom character. As expected, there is also an in-game store full of cosmetic items and costumes, but I never felt like I needed to buy anything and was reassured that there are no “pay to win” microtransactions in Skate. While this is only from pre-alpha gameplay and that can all change, I didn’t seem to find any of the typical trappings from other free-to-play live service offerings. Let’s hope it stays that way.
After playing Skate for well over five hours, not only I can clearly see the direction developer Full Circle is taking the series, but I can also say that Skate is shaping up to be a game worthy of being the long-awaited sequel to 2010’s Skate 3. The gameplay seems refined and lives up to its predecessors, the world is big and fun to explore, and the overall sandbox’s “do what you want” vibe is really making me look forward to diving back into Skate – and hopefully add it to my rotation of games that I can pick up and relax to after a long day.
