General feedback

Today I tried skate for the first time.

For context I'm a 22 year old that grew up with skate 2&3, with an older brother that skated and introduced me to the franchise. We played them religiously together on the ps3 with my dad. I’m very passionate about the skate trilogy and find myself coming back to skate 3 every once in a while. 

Gameplay:
The first thing I noticed when playing was the input response, it didn’t feel as good as the previous games in the genre. There are also some subtle differences in the controls that may contribute to this. I also struggle to find a reason for the “rolling” mechanic and the emotes (dispute those being in previous games) I feel like they’re just there so that they can sell emotes in the ingame shop.

Game feeling:

Landing tricks doesn’t quite hit the same, something about the sounds maybe I miss the “bwuom” sound of getting that 3x point multiplier from skate 3 or maybe it’s the fact that my character feels very light. In previous games when landing a trick your character bends his/her knees and you really feel the weight of your character and skateboard hitting the ground. 

Aesthetics:

I know this has been said before but something about the art direction feels off. Also the fact that the first character we’re introduced to is an app. The modernistic approach doesn’t feel very appealing to me. I feel like now more than ever the early 2000:s aesthetic is sought after by many, looking at other creative spaces such as fashion or music there seems to be a trend of nostalgia toward that specific time period. It wouldn’t be that difficult to focus on introducing some of that charm. Skating culture in my eyes is a culture overrepresented by frustrated teens listening to rock and it’s all about rebellion, something that the predecessors managed to capture very well.

Other:

I’m going to write some thing despite being well aware that the EA shareholders probably dictate all of this but why is there a battle pass, why are there micro transactions etc. Logically speaking I know why, but the game and its community would benefit majorly if the game was pay to play, and doing missions etc unlocked unique cosmetics. I understand that the game developers don’t dictate as much as the shareholders so I don’t expect this to change. Regardless I feel like there are a bunch of easy fixes that would give this game a stronger identity instead of being an obvious cash grab. In conclusion this interpretation of skate 4 feels soulless. With a bit more understanding of the original appeal maybe the fact that it’s a micro-transactional game trying to appeal to young children wouldn’t be as obvious. I feel like the shareholders told EA they wanted Fortnite but on skateboards and this is the end result. 

thanks for reading this and I'm sorry to the developers if I'm coming across as cruel. I truly would love for this game to become as great as its predecessors but in today’s “money rules the world”-state I don’t think it ever will.