Thoughts after 10 hours played
I'm a big fan of the skate franchise, having played all 3 early games and 100%'d each of them. I've been looking forward to this game for years and sadly, it's fallen a little short of my expectations.
My main issue is that speed/ollie height seem very inconsistent so it's hard to get your bearings for a trick. I get that different feet push at different speeds, but even if I repeat the same exact movements, it never quite has something quantifiable to count on. Sometimes I get rushes of speed - ollies are sometimes huge, other times I get pulled in a random direction or barely make it up a kerb height (even after playing with different settings).
Secondly, I'm 10 hours into the game and it still feels like a tutorial. I understand new players might need to learn the nuances of the systems, but after this long it's getting really boring that every challenge is to; do one trick, reset, do another slightly different variation, reset etc., etc. The voice acting doesn't help. Sounds like no-one wanted to be there on the day.
Generally, I don't like the style of the game and the way they've taken the artwork - that's personal preference. I feel like the cartoon-y style however has carried across to the play style too. The reason I loved the old games was because you could really realistically recreate great tricks. One of my favourite things to do was to create DIY parks and do some cool lines and get a good video of the lines. The video editor makes that hard, but the fact the play style is bent on zooming around the map with massive airs or walking up and down stairs doesn't feel very fun.
The final thing I'll mention is unlocking gear. I'm sure it'll look better once the brands get involved, but right now unlocking cartoon stickers with loot boxes feels so dull. The animations take too long (there should be an option to unlock multiples at a time) and then the end results are always underwhelming. The decks look like something bought from a supermarket rather than a skate shop.
The whole world just feels constantly jarring from little issues like this, and it takes me out of the immersion I enjoy with the other skate games. I'm sure when more's added to the game I'll find things I like but for now it feels tedious and a far cry from all the things I loved about the original series.
