Recent reviews by Thomas

I desperately want to support the devs, but I cannot play the game. With my DualSense, movement is horrible. I push my left stick all the way up - Samson starts walking, then jogs for about two steps, then starts walking again, then jogging, then walking, then jogging. This happens all the time. And no, my controller is fine and is working in every other game I own. I even tried increasing the controller deadzone in-game, which helped a little, but I won't increase it anymore. If the devs can fix this, they may save me from refunding the game and changing this to a thumbs up review. I'll wait for one more patch before I request a refund.

If you enjoyed any of the Elder Scrolls games, just get this game and thank me later.

5 hours in and wow, what a triumphant return. It perfectly balances the claustrophobic horror of the first games and the action-horror of RE 4 and Village. Stunned at how good it is so far. I'm definitely giving it a recommend already as I can't see how anything here can possibly change my mind. RE Engine looks better than ever!

Addicting and relaxing!

I've wanted to like this game since it was released, but one year of fixes later, here we are. This game is the definition of what is wrong with UE5. Lumen looks like absolute garbage, and runs the same way. Any sense of immersion is completely broken as soon as I step into any indoor area - the lighting is comically bad, with shadows ghosting and fading seemingly at random based on where the camera is pointed. The broken ray reconstruction implementation does not help and does not seem to do anything - that is until you try to turn it off mid-game and the reflections turn into pixel art. I understand that the circumstances under which this game was made were and are very tough, but that excuse can only take you so far. You still released and sold a product at a AAA price point.
After 1 year, the perfomance is still crap, the AI has barely evolved (enemies can now take cover- hooray), the UE5 shortcomings are still as aparent as they ever were, even after the version of UE5 used for the game having been updated (disputing any claims that the version of UE5 in which the game was built was the culprit). The big update after a full year is the inclusion of night vision goggles - think about that for a second. No binoculars because what's the need when you can't see NPCs further than 100m away.
There are some positives for sure, but the negatives far outweigh any of them.

If they keep working on the game for another 5 years, perhaps it will be a playable prototype, but after having seen how little has been managed in a year since release, I don't have high hopes. May check in again in another year.

For now though, the TL;DR: I do not recommend.

Literally unplayable because there is a black line horizontally across the middle of my screen, which sometimes moves to cover the subtitles. I've tried everything to fix it - capped my framerate, disabled DLSS, changed from fullscreen to borderless, forced V-SYNC. I really wanted to play this, but I'm not supporting things that release in this state. My refund is pending.

Casting my vote to try to counteract all the negative reviews from people who hae played the game for less than an hour before listing all the things they feel are wrong with the game. Don't take my word that it is recommended as I (at the time of writing this) barely sit on just over an hour of playtime. My review may change the more I play, but anyone who reviews a game with 0.9 hours of in-game time, trying to pass off as knowing the ins and outs of a game, certainly are no source of trustworthy reviews.

This review will remain negative until EA proves why forcing it to be an always online live service with microtransactions was a good idea. As it stands, that is the exact pitfall of this game. Why does the game look the way it does? Because it needs to cater to a wider audience since EA needs gullible kids with their parents credit cards to make money - this game can, under no circumstances, get the same rating as previous Skate games. That is also why the Hall of Meat is removed. The game even looks like Fortnite, but that is also because the game needs to be able to run on mobile phones.

The game has no story, just a glorified tutorial starring some cringe characters and an annoying robot that talks to you and says things like "your female parent said 'knock those objectives out'". I've been with the game since the skate. Insider days, and the Early Access launch was such a disaster. Not only did Full Circle mess up the launch times for Europe since they have never heard of daylight saving, but they also managed to not be able to release the game on time - fun fact, because this is published by EA after all, they started selling the Founders Pack and Founders Deluxe Pack during the Insider days, and these Founder packs actually went live on Steam AND the PlayStation store before the game itself. That alone should tell you something about their priorities, Not to mention they've been selling cosmetics for a looooong time.

The soundtrack is the absolute worst. I get that this is a F2P title, but it's clear (with the extensive devlopment time to get to where the game is now - rough, buggy and far from finished) that the budget for this title is close to non-existent, but it's still hard to see such a bad soundtrack with close to zero licensed songs.

The majority of the skate. Insiders have repeatedly told the devs all of this and more during our player feedback, but the devs cherry-pick what criticisms to address in their dev videos and refuse to acknowledge any of the points that I have mentioned here. Apart from the soundtrack that they've said will be evolving - a nice way of only temporarily having to license music.

The only redeeming thing about this game is the Flick-it system which, admittedly, is fun, and is the sole reason I am wasting time in this game. Everything else is just sad to look at when you think about what has been, and what this could have been. I have no doubt they will continue to add bad challenges and seasonal events that won't offend a feather, heck they may even evolve and expand the game world, but I hope the game dies quickly so as not to leave a stain on the legacy of Skate (back when you could spell it with a capital letter and without a period). Re-releasing Skate 1-3 for modern platforms would have been a much more enjoyable way to enjoy the Flick-it system.

My recommendation if you want to play this:
- Lower your expectations - this is not Skate they way you remember it or how you want it to be
- Turn down the music volume all the way to zero, as well as the volume for the robot
- Do not give these greedy sacks of s*** a penny in the form of microtransactions - remember that when this game does die (and it will, of course it will), you will lose everything you've spent money on. They are adamant that this is and always will be a live service title. It's EA, they won't make the game available offline once the servers die.

Good:

- Fantastic setting
- Great narrative system without traditional quests and map markers
- Decent gunplay and many weapons
- Intriguing story
- Multiple endings and branching storylines

Bad:
- Stealth, or the lack thereof. Coming from Rebellion I expected much better. Basically, if you are seen for a split second while trespassing, the enemy will be alerted. Probably realistic, but far from fun.
- Inventory - you get a very limited backpack which will be constantly full. Items cannot be sold as there is zero currency in the North of England apparently. Shops will only trade items for items.
- AI - kill someone, run 2 meters and crouch and the enemy will go “Damnit, I’ve lost sight of them”

All in all a recommend, but only if you decide to not even attempt stealth.

The game has such potential, but the final release including enemies that lose aggro as soon as you jump over a rock, causing them to beeline to their spawn point to get a full heal (while ignoring the 500 arrows being shot in their back) is exceptionally frustrating. Nothing is worse than wasting several mana and health regens. Being a ranged character is pretty much a no-gom which is wild for an RPG. Unless you choose melee (and stick to within 10 metres of the enemies' spawn area) you will not be able to complete bounties (you will be surrounded by 5-10 enemies, including a boss) as when you run to get a vantage point, the enemies forgets that they are staring right at you.

The world looks really good, the crafting and inventory management all really works for me, as does the narrative, but when the combat is as frustrating as this, I am not having fun.

I recommend the game for people who are fans of close combat fighting, as for me, I wish I had refunded the game before it was too late.