Trending
EA is back with their award-winning sports title Skate. Skate (Skate 4) is an official reboot aiming to deliver a sandbox-style multiplayer experience. The new game will be free-to-play, with early access going live soon this summer.
Recently, EA gave us a chance to try out Skate with the close beta testing session. The testing session allowed us to take a deeper look at the game's revamped mechanics and the brand-new map.
Right at the start of Skate, EA greets all new players with an extended introduction course, which aims to simplify the basic game mechanics, including how to use tricks and the new parkour system. The tutorial period of the game is great for all new players, and being a new player, I quickly got a grip on the essential game mechanics.
As a new player to the Skate series, I did not have high expectations regarding the game. However, from my initial playthrough session, I was quite impressed with what I saw. The skating felt natural; however, there were a few jittery movements here and there, which is expected due to the playtest build.
My experience with skating games is limited to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Rider Republic, so I had some basic understanding of how skating works in general. The new Skate title is quite straightforward with its mechanics from the get-go, which shows that the game is catered to the casual audience as much as it is catered towards the longtime fans of the series.
The new San Vansterdam map is quite versatile, with a variety of points of interest to keep your gameplay fresh every playthrough. The map has hundreds of spots for players to discover through skating and also using the new parkour feature. Moreover, the parkour feature allowed me to find new rooftop spots to pull off inhuman skate tricks.
The parkour mechanic in the game caught me off guard because I did not expect to see it in a Skate game. After putting in a few hours into the game, I quickly understood the reason behind the inclusion of the parkour mechanic. The parkour mechanic helped me climb to different high places on the map and to send it with my skateboard to pull off extreme tricks with high airtime.
While Skate functions almost similarly to its previous games from what I have seen by comparing gameplay videos, the new visual palette is more similar to Fortnite or games with a more animated style. While the animated or cartoonish art style is not a bad thing, it might be off-putting for the longtime fans of the series. However, it is evident that the art direction has been made to attract players of the new generation.
Visually, Skate has very "Gen Z-coded" graphics and an art style that resembles the trend of most modern live-service games opting for a look that's similar to Fortnite. The previous Skate titles had a more gritty, realistic visual identity, which has been a major factor behind the series' undeniable popularity. Although the new visuals might be a major turn-off for the old-school fans of the series, it allows the game to build its own identity in the shell of the traditional Skate experience. Moreover, performance-wise, the new visuals perform very well on PC; however, I don't know if the same performance will carry over to the current-gen consoles.
Music has always been a major part of the skateboarding culture worldwide, and EA has curated a large playlist of music for making the gameplay experience more enjoyable and true to life. There are almost 100 songs in the current playlist of Skate, which is specifically curated by the devs to promote new artists. Aside from new music, you can expect to see big names like Denzel Curry and MF Doom. You can discover music just by skating around, and you’ll hear it blaring out of speakers in different spots of the map.
The controls in Skate are pretty straightforward; it follows the traditional Flick-It system. The Flick-It system requires you to flick the right stick of your controller in any direction to perform tricks while skateboarding. You can combine flicks to perform continuous tricks with unmatched fluidity. I admire their efforts of adding their own in-game "Skatepedia," which is the holy grail for learning tricks in Skate.
Unfortunately, Skate is a fully live-service title, which means that the game won't work without an active internet connection even if you own the game. The choice of making the game a completely live-service title doesn't sit well with me. This restricts all forms of solo gameplay if you choose to play the game while you don't have an internet connection, especially on devices like your laptop or handheld.
Final Thoughts
While Skate delivers a sublime gameplay experience, it gets hindered by some jittery movements here and there. From my time in Riders Republic, I have seen how smooth modern skating can be made if the movement mechanics remain smooth. On the other hand, the parkour mechanic was in a good state from what I have experienced; it can open new skating routes every gameplay session.
All in all, Skate is an excellent rendition of the iconic Skate titles. With the new revamped game mechanics and polished graphical improvements, EA has the opportunity to create an evergreen skating game for players worldwide. Hopefully, with continuous updates after launch and by fixing issues like the jittery movement, EA can deliver Skate as a complete skateboarding experience.
