Skate - Early Access

If you haven't had the chance to play the game yourself yet and have solely experienced Skate through Reddit threads and social media posts, you might be under the impression that developer Full Circle has screwed the pooch and truly fumbled this reboot. I'm not going to go as far as to tell you that Skate is a flawless return for the series, because it isn't and there are areas that lead to frustration and a little disappointment in this Early Access version. Buuuuut this also doesn't change the fact that Skate is, as far as a skateboarding video game goes, fun to play.

Admittedly, I say this as someone who has always been a Skate fan rather than a Tony Hawk fan. The latter series of games, be that Pro Skater or even Underground, have much to appreciate, but I've also always felt that EA's alternative was a better representation of skateboarding culture as a whole. This carries forward to the 2025 reboot, which has that great balance of loose and chill vibes, an instantly familiar and complex skating control scheme, a focus on culture and creating clips, and basically just living your best life as a skater in a playground world. It's an impression that Tony Hawk doesn't always match due to its typically grander focus on skateparks and performing tricks. In a way, you could describe the Skate series as a bit more of a life-simulation.

But anyway, back to the gameplay, as this is where Skate excels by far. Again, the control scheme is simple to learn and challenging but encouraging to master, the flow and mechanics work fluidly and with great cohesion, there's a great attention to former beloved systems but also with an eye to the future with new and well-implemented systems (like the climbing) to access even more of the map. The point is, as far a gameplay experience goes, Skate nails what I wanted it to achieve, and this is without even mentioning how the world of San Vansterdam is a fantastic playground filled with tons of opportunities and variety without being too large, how the HUD and menu design is intuitive and straightforward, and how the world feels alive thanks to the multitude of online players.

As far as a foundation goes for Full Circle to build upon, there's a lot to love and appreciate with this reboot of Skate, but I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention some of the other areas that leave plenty of room for improvement...

We're going to skip over the quirky bugs (which frankly are quite funny at times, in a Bethesda jank kind of manner) and any other server or performance issues as you expect Full Circle to squash and improve these as Early Access continues. Also, my experience is that technically Skate is rather solid. What will require more attention is the tone of the game, because while the lingo and the slang is pretty spot on for skateboarding culture, some of the ways it's implemented is less so. Take the AI robot companion who serves as a tutorial helper. This thing needs to go. It doesn't really ever add anything of substance to the gameplay and more so acts like an overbearing and slightly judgemental mother. It's annoying and Skate becomes instantly better when you scale it back in the settings. The Skate Tours that act as tutorials are fundamentally badly implemented too, as you won't be "taught" how to do manuals, advanced grabs, grinds, and tricks, and even some of the more stylish moves until you reach the latter stories, despite many of the daily challenges on the map - required for progression to unlock further Skate Tours - asking you to do these skills anyway... It's pointless and when you get around to these tours they feel too late to the party and a bit condescending.

Similarly, I get where the inspiration and idea for the more cartoon character designs came from, but I'd appreciate something slightly more realistic. More Dragon Age: Inquisition and less Dragon Age: The Veilguard, if you will. And speaking of appearances and cosmetics, EA's signature "surprise gameplay mechanics" return in such an overwhelming and demoralising format that something needs to change... and soon. I appreciate that you can access a lot of cosmetics through simple gameplay and that Skate is a free-to-play game too, but loot boxes suck and having to go through these to build out your cosmetic library, and even the variety of placeable ramps, rails, and skatepark chunks, is not fun. Why you can't just buy what you want with your earned currency bewilders me. And this isn't even mentioning the price tags attached to some of the premium cosmetics... It feels like the "free-to-play" element has served as a springboard to swamp Skate in microtransactions, and it's frankly not a good look nor something that bodes confidence for the future.

The jury is out on whether the daily tasks will be enough to keep players happy, but I will say that after just a few days, there seems to be a good variety in what Full Circle offers on this front. Due to the way each individual activity is baked into the overarching progression, there is also good reason to play these activities, and that's something I appreciate and can get behind. Will there need to be an expansion and innovation in time? Most definitely, but for a base to build on at the start of an Early Access journey, as mentioned earlier, it's a good foundation.

And ultimately this is still where I stand with Skate. As I noted in my pre-launch preview, there's plenty to love about this game, but there is also a lot of room for improvement. The core gameplay mechanics and the wider world of San Van is a fantastic base and something that you can see great potential with, but some of the mechanics and systems are nothing but tone deaf. I also stated in my preview that I was waiting for an EA curveball with this game (as I still am with Battlefield 6), and it doesn't take much game time at all to see this coming at you at full speed.

At the end of the day, you can play this game without spending a dime, so that's a big plus. But just know that if you're a veteran fan, there are a few elements of this reboot that will make you a tad sad if you can't blindly stay focussed on simply shredding and tricking in the colourful world, or finding hilarious ways to perform some mad stunt that is frankly beyond human comprehension.