Skate is back after fifteen years, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The 2020s have seen a resurgence in skateboarding video games, sparked by the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater remakes and indie titles like Session and Skater XL. It was only a matter of time before EA tried its hand at making a new skating game. After years of development and insider tests, the publisher, alongside studio Full Circle, is finally ready for the world to play the latest iteration of Skate.
I signed up for the Insider program earlier this summer, but was unable to spend much time with it. Thankfully, Insiders now have early access to the Early Access build (a bit of a mouthful, that), which launches on 16th September. The Insider NDA has officially lifted, meaning I can now speak freely about the game, and I am under no obligation to sugarcoat my words.
So, how is Skate?
San Vansterdam Blues
I’ll start things off on a positive note: Skate plays like a Skate game. The team at Full Circle has successfully recreated the gameplay of the original trilogy using the Frostbite engine. Flicking the right stick to flip and holding the triggers to grab feels just like it did fifteen years ago, and you can still set session markers to return to the start of a line.
The creation elements that featured in Skate 2 and 3 are also back. I’ve never been particularly interested in using them, but the ability to instantly drop a kicker or a rail anywhere on the map is intuitive and gives players a lot of freedom.
Skate is at its best when you’re coasting through the city, flipping and grinding on anything that stays still. San Vansterdam is rife with opportunities to create lines, but for a world full of spots and built around online multiplayer, it feels eerily empty. There isn’t much to do. The activities are pretty basic, and I don’t find any of them particularly exciting. The majority of them reset after a timer, which would be fine if they supplemented a more meaningful mode, instead of being the primary focus of the game. It’s reminiscent of Mario Kart World’s free roam, which suffers from the same problem: lots of bite-sized activities, no main course to really sink your teeth into.
Stunt challenges do help break up the monotony of the others, though. You launch your skater off the side of a building and glide down, either aiming to bail through obstacles or land back on your board and do some tricks. It’s the kind of mayhem Hall of Meat was notorious for in previous games. Sadly, there’s no sign of that mode here.
Perhaps the most controversial part of Skate is the art style. On the surface, it’s not the worst thing in the world. It’s not what I’d have preferred, but it does help certain parts of San Vansterdam stand out, and it makes the gravity-defying stunts feel a little less absurd. The cartoony character faces, however, do not help with the “it feels like a mobile game” complaints. They are rotten.
Combine those ugly avatars with the supporting characters, and the game gets rough. I really don’t like them—especially the AI assistant. Any charm it had was gone by the end of the tutorial. Everyone sounds robotic and monotonous, and a lot of the dialogue made me cringe. I’m not looking for deep lore in Skate, but I’d like to care a little bit about the NPCs that bicker at me. Even returning characters like Slappy and Shingo don’t quite feel the same.
And if I hear the word “footy”—as in footage—one more time, I might just delete the game and play FIFA instead. Granted, “footy” is genuine skating terminology and was used in the original trilogy, but the way it repeatedly comes up feels so inorganic. It’s like when a child learns a new word and tries to put it in every sentence.
What Is Old Is New Again
“Vibes” are crucial in a skateboarding game. Outside of a few inspired music choices and UI effects, Skate feels sterile. Clearly, it isn’t aimed solely at ageing skater kids—it’s hoping to tempt a new generation into the fray. All fine and dandy, but the new direction has to surpass the original. I don’t think it does. The Tony Hawk series found a way to modernise the Pro Skater games while keeping the essence of the originals intact.
Compare Skate to those recent Pro Skater remakes and it’s night and day. They retain most of their late ’90s/early 2000s humour, evoking skater culture through a modern lens. New artists and skaters who grew up on the games complement the classic line-up; it feels nostalgic, like an elder skatesman passing the torch on to the next generation.
After my latest session on skate, I went back and played the 2007 original for an hour. It’s incredible how well it holds up, even with the severely outdated graphics. I’ve got half a mind to play through the whole thing again instead of spending more time in San Vansterdam. If EA is committed to the online multiplayer thing, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to repackage the originals. (I’m not even asking for remasters here, EA. C’mon!)
Skate is at odds with the first two games. Those had you skating against authority: dodging security guards and making your mark on a city that didn’t want you on its streets. Maybe that’s why I didn’t gel with Skate 3, which had a similar “we love skating!” vibe. The sanitised husk of San Vansterdam is ruled by skaters, for skaters. The absence of M-Corp, the greedy corporation that comedian Tim Robinson worked for last year at Summer Games Fest, confused me. I expected them to be involved, pushing back against the skaters. I suppose it was just a marketing stunt that turned out to be more interesting than the game’s actual narrative. That sounds familiar…
EA has emphasised that Skate is “isn’t a sequel, remake, or a remaster. It’s the evolution of the Skate franchise.” Fair enough, but omitting things like Photo Challenges, Hall of Meat, and S.K.A.T.E. is a massive oversight. These were popular for a reason—they are fun ways to engage with Skate’s gameplay. There’s a chance they’re part of the roadmap, but it’s so vague at this point that there’s no telling.
Live-Service Death Sentence
Skate is a live-service title. Its aim is for San Vansterdam to be a living, breathing world that players return to time and time again. These games live or die based on player engagement. As a result, I already have real concerns about the future of this game.
If EA expects Skate to roll in the cash, I’m afraid there will never be a 1.0 launch. If the publisher has been realistic and gives Full Circle time to work on it (you know, the entire point of early access), there may be hope. While there are issues with almost everything, the game unequivocally plays like Skate. There’s no reason it couldn’t end up top dog of its genre, much like the way Dead by Daylight has cornered the horror multiplayer market.
The progression system is standard free-to-play fare. Daily and weekly challenges, a soon-to-be-released battle pass, a shop with rotating timers, and a virtual currency. The main hook is unlocking cosmetics via loot boxes, earned by spending Rip Chips. I’ve unlocked a few neat pieces of clothing for my skater through this method, but I can’t say I’m that enthused. It’s a problem that I feel no connection to my character when the bulk of the game’s progression and monetisation is based around character customisation. If I’m not arsed unlocking free loot boxes, do you think I’m going to spend real money on San Van Bux?
Limited-time events might inject more life into the game, but we don’t know much about them yet. I’ve become immune to FOMO, and I think a lot of other people have too. I wonder how that’ll impact these “never-ending games” in the future, because artificially chaining your players to the controller is no longer a guaranteed success. We don’t want part-time jobs; we want to have fun.
The soundtrack updating each season is a feature that has potential, but what does the budget look like? I’m all for discovering new artists, but you need to balance them out with big names. Will older tracks need to be replaced as well? It’d be unfortunate if the favourite tracks playlist is decimated with every seasonal refresh.
I really hope Skate succeeds. But I’m concerned about the game’s longevity. Most of us can only juggle one or two live-service games simultaneously, and with what Skate currently offers, I can’t see myself putting serious hours into it. As much as the skating feels superb, it’s not enough to keep me on the line. I’ll hop on for new updates and events, or if I’ve got the urge to shred, but there’s not enough substantial content to keep me playing into the small hours—like I used to every weekend with the original Skate.
My final thoughts echo those I had about Black Ops 7, and given that nostalgia is a hot commodity, it won’t be the last game I have to say this about: If you are invoking former glories, you’d best be ready to match them at a minimum. At present, Skate is far behind what came before, and I’m unsure it has the wheels necessary to catch up.
