A step sideways/back for Skate

Just wanted to preface this by saying I was a huge fan of Skate 3 (only game I've played prior to this, about 750-1000 hours) and after playing for a couple hours today, I can't help but feel like the franchise hasn't moved anywhere (if not backwards).

It feels clunkier than Skate 3 and the button mappings don't make much sense to me. 1 button tap teleport sounds great as a premise until it's pressed by mistake and you have to restart your line. Sprint's on X this time around and doesn't feel right to me (aware I'm just used to other button mappings so would probably get used to a workaround). Getting on/off your skateboard doesn't seem to flow as freely anymore and the reimagined Hall of Meat feels okay at times but then abysmal and infuriating at others.

The "free-running" feature just misses the mark for me. You can scale these huge buildings but struggle to climb head high ledges because the game won't recognise there's a ledge in front of you. I know it's pre-alpha but the building blocks for this kind of mechanic a) already exist everywhere in gaming and b) worked fine in 3 so why is this a problem in 2025? Again, just builds frustration throughout your playtime.

Due to this game eventually being F2P, I get the shop and loot box thing, it clearly works for some games so why not for this one, but for the love of god, make your shop usable. If I'm going to be spam opening crates, don't kick me out of the crate category each time, just let me either open multiple at once, or keep me within the opening menu.

I'm still of the strong opinion that this should never have been built as a F2P experience, I get why they did it cough money cough , but just feels like I'm being robbed of a true Skate 4 experience that built on what made its predecessor so fun and enjoyable.

Rolling around on the floor like a panda is fun though.