First 5 hours.

Jankyness indeed! Speed seems to fluctuate despite having a good line going. Certain challenges it felt like I didn't have enough speed for gaps, or had a lot of speed then suddenly slowed down. Jumping on and off board is quirky and jerky 

Music needs a good mix between punk and hip-hop. I'm a huge fan of operation ivy being included on the playlist. Could use more of that vibe!

Trying to navigate menus isn't as intuitive as it used to be. Selecting options with the analog sticks is what I'm used to vs individual buttons open various menus. It's definitely overwhelming. 

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks the AI is unnecessary, especially with trying to focus on social interactions. Watching people be on their cell phones in-game instead of shopping together in the store isn't what I want to see especially in a tech-saturated world. 

Hope you'll continue skating It's certainly not the perfect game and realistically the missions won't be there forever to complete then you can focus on what you think is fun!

I do agree I think the interface in a whole is a it out there trying to be cool but.. I just avert my eyes! Have you got 5 things you really like so far? 

1 - at the beginning, it felt like chewing gum for me too. try to turn off all assists. especially pumping gets broken completly by it. 
i am 350+ hours in since early access release (and 200 before playtesting) and must say it feels better than hardcore mode in skate 3, just has a bit different feel to it you have to adapt. also pumping might break when the servers lag, i feel, and some vert meshes work better than other. maybe that will get better when they further integrate to the new engine. beyond all the **bleep**ty marketing i'd like to defend the defs that made a pretty neat skate sim.
 especially using it in 'hardcore mode' and rolling a bit slower it enables pretty much freedom and possibilites. especially that lip grind stuff with pulling l down before the coping is so great (you can use it on those little snake-ramp at the skatepark very nice).

https://www.reddit.com/r/LowSodiumSkate/comments/1ng5qv6/i_just_love_how_smooth_things_are/ < a vid of this.

minimum pop height and "prewind control style" are also two options you should consider using. the prewind thingy is when used like in my screenshot unlocking this upper body / momentum controll with the right stick. like it was in skate 3. gives you much possibilities in the air, to time tricks and allover expression.

they really gatekeep the skate sim to keep it beginner friendly. the marketing is destroying so much.

3 - totally. i am photo/audiosensitive, autism + audhd. 

it is terrible, the whole sound design is so skinner boxy to 'reward' player and totally unneccessary when the gameplay is so addictive. all those sounds are so terrible overstimulating and hostile, as they try to condition the costumer. the bell when open the shop is literally a pavlovs bell at this point.

4 - it is totally tonedeaf, indeed, and so unneccesssary and a valid and often repeated point of critique...
vee is an ai camera even, iirc. you can see her in some promo material and some textlines still refer to that original idea. no she only lives on your phone. feels like the whole AI-something idea also grew old over the time reality passed on.

i believe the game is super fun and i use it as an easy-to-learn-hard-to-master stimtoy and it is more casual than session.
but i sincerly fear the marketing decisions on top of the development is just a) gatekeeping an very good skatesim that got underselled atm and b) distorting any original aesthetic  and giving it a shallow, in parts hostile vibe.