Recent reviews by TDToasterVT

Originally kinda just moved on without writing a review, but given they're now actively walking back on promises I feel compelled to at least say something. Long story short, I would have happily paid $60-$70 for a complete, ready-to-release game instead of this but here we are. Cannot recommend this unless you are DESPERATE for flick-it controls in a current skateboarding game, and then please do not give EA a single penny of your money.

The best thing I can say about this game, and the worst, is that when you get into the *moment* of skating it actually feels great! I put in around 60 hours (plus quite a few more, I'd guess around 40, prior to it being added to steam), the majority of that being AFTER I maxed out all 3 neighborhoods, and legitimately had fun at many points during that time. It mostly controls like older Skate titles and that is excellent. But every single other moment of this game is mired in seas of monetization, bad game design, and flimsy excuses of "well it's early access!" Aggressively monetized even in the closed alpha & beta testing, 3 seasons in without a release in sight, and complete tone deafness as to what skating culture is or what people want out of it, this game is a vapid money grab that wears the skin of Skate.

The ability to climb to cool spots and place your own obstacles should be a home run in a skateboarding game, but instead they end up feeling like chores you have to do just to get to a few minutes of fun. The game emphasizes the wacky antics of flying off buildings instead of simply enjoyable skating. The tone of the game feels as if they strapped every developer into the clockwork orange chair and made them watch "steazus" meme videos until that's all they could understand. I believe (it's not been confirmed afaik, but I remember seeing an article stating this) they even hired real skaters and hid them behind unlikeable, bland caricatures.

Just read this back and realized I'm putting too much effort into writing a steam review for this pile of garbage. Don't play this, don't buy any microtransactions, EA has proven that their word means nothing and they'll happily fleece you for every penny if you allow them to. They've gone back on several promises already, filled the game with dubious and frankly unethical microtransaction advertising, and likely ruined any chances we have of getting a GOOD Skate game ever again.

I enjoy this game as a concept, and truly hope that it reaches a solid point where it's consistently playable soon. However the lack of general QoL, the near-constant server lag and crashes, EXTREMELY poor performance (40FPS on a 4090 in Tiger Bay? Really?), and systematic issues such as faction locks and helicopter wait times make this hard to recommend at this time. I hope it will get better, but I believe in reviewing a product as it exists when you review it and not reviewing based on promises and "potential". I'd be happy to review it more favourably if this game significantly improves because I truly enjoy it, but as it stands now I simply cannot say it's truly worth its $35 asking price much less the ridiculous $100 they want you to pay for a decently-sized inventory.