General game feel and vibe: Great Physics, Pivot the Writing
The art direction is not my favorite but it can work but the feel of the game needs to pivot. The sunshine cali coast and bright lighting and colors were chosen rather than the darker grimier feel of the previous games and that can work for this but the writing needs to pivot. If you want bright poppy colors and a less adult art style then the writing needs to be a little more raw. Everything can’t be gum drop lollipops. Vee is not doing any favors. They need to be pulled, that writing is just not it. Skate parks and skate culture are raw and sketchy. The writing currently feels like an imitation of what someone who thinks skate culture might be like.
This doesn’t mean you necessarily have to add adult content if you are trying to keep rating or accessibility open to a certain age demographic but you can be high brow with the comedy you know like some classic cartoon comedy our parents laughed at but we didn’t get yet as kids. You don’t have to add “drugs sex and rock and roll” to make it skate but it just can’t be this soft weird imitation of the culture. Right now it feels like the indie sleaze performative male is trying to post his mall pics holding a skateboard on his Instagram story. The bright colors and sharp art can stay the character art is honest really clean and lots of customization versatility which is awesome, the writing just needs a pivot.
Other than that the physics are amazing. At first I thought they felt a little floaty for my taste but I was able to go into the settings and really fine tune them to my liking and I thought that was amazing and will probably really open up gameplay for more people and that’s always a good thing! Love the level design and just cruising around. I spent over an hour just dropping this ledge I found over and over cuz it’s so good.
Overall I think the game is great and will be even better as more content is added and hopefully some optional side campaign activities. Like if there were paid DLC campaigns I would totally pay for those! Maybe like little team sponsorship side stories or working with pro skaters and including them in the game and you can pay for a dlc story doing some quest or adventure whatever with them.
Really excited to see where the game goes and really loving it just please pivot the writing going forward.
