The good, the bad, the fugly (Season 3 review)

After spending about $40 total on Skate., I’m disappointed. I paid about that much (not counting the DLC’s) for Skate 3. While there are some rad spots and big improvements in Season 3 (some of which were player demands that were fulfilled), it still sums up to a one-trick pony. Or skater in this case. A little flash-bang Twinkie to whet a player’s appetite; tastes good when you eat it, gets to be rote and a bore after snarfing it too many times. The big request fulfilled was having tutorial island back, the big bait and switch was you have to pay to play early. That’s not so bad, is it? Turns out with the isolated map, it’s not that much of a banger anyway, so don’t feel bad if your bank account is giving you the choice of the pass or lunch (definitely take lunch).

There’s a megaramp, spillway, upper spillway, speed track, pump track some very sparse street courses and the final park at the end (where you were probably like “WTF I can’t get back to this?” after that tutorial. Well here it is. There are some “secret spots” too that give you an additional dopamine rush…for a few seconds. Overall, it’s a gorgeous map remiscent in many ways aesthetically to Skate 3 that’ll give you an arm shot of nostalgia. Innovative? Hardly. Skate 2 and 3 had hilly neighborhoods, megaparks and mountainside speedruns with 3 featuring a stone quarry for chrissakes, all of which flowed nicely and almost seamlessly. That’s what made the replay value insane on those games. We get pieces of other previous Skate series maps into one big island, but it still feels all TOO familiar. It’s like that fried sample platter from Chili’s and every item tastes the same.

Then there’s San Van. Yeah. Just one big paint job. No new areas or features. As a matter of fact, the skyscraper ramps and rooftop parks are all gone. At least there were those. But hey, the super-intelligent folks at Full Circle figured EVERYBODY would flock to Isle of Grom (insert buzzer sound) and forget SV ever existed. And all 70’s themed…because they could. I think most of us can agree they should just start ditching the “eras” themes. What’s next, late 90’s Boy-Band/Diddy era?

Aside from visual improvements that de-Disneyfy San Van a tad, I will give credit to some notable improvements to the trick system. Darkslides and catches are the most notable and even improved from the rather stiff feeling Skate 3 variant, but for me, it’s definitely the footplants. They need good timing too. Plant your foot at the wrong time and you either eat it or don’t make the trick. Then there’s the No-Comply. It took me a bit, but I was able to fire off a string of tricks following the half-ollie/plant. It’s much smoother feeling and looks pretty gnar too. You can also tweak these under the settings section. I do miss that bail-roll-recover animation from Skate 3 though. Ahh the memories.

This still being in Early Access, it implies that there is more ahead but the reality is the nature of a live service is that it’s always evolving. Nothing is in stone. That was apparent when EA went back on their words about pay-walls, skate culture and micro transactions. It’s more of a clever term for a data gathering session to see how they will lay the foundation or if it’s even profitable to keep this moving forward. I would like to see more interactivity with the map, seeing more life in the street scenes (people sitting at the tables on laptop or sipping lattes) and that damned street fest that looks like nobody got the invitation for. How about a throw down with spectators? A band playing or DJ doing a set while we bust out tricks? More importantly, how can I purchase sunglasses off that rotating rack or Dippity Donuts from the vending machine to feed my hungry avatar that’s been skydiving/threading through the church windows for six hours? There’s so much potential with the toilet and port-a-potty that’s in our inventory.

Lastly, they need Casper and Primo slides with more freestyle tricks. Full stop. It was announced that underflips are on the radar, but who gives a snatch about those or finger flips? Nice to have, but I’m not going to wither away without them. I think that’s what EA forgets that’s exactly what the player base thinks about this game. Oh and do something about the shitty ten-minute marker respawn times I set about two feet back from where I wiped out. That REALLY blows.