The dry spell for skateboard games seems to be over now that Skater XL came out a few years ago. Now we have Session: Skate Sim, brought to you by indie developer Crea-ture Studios. Can this latest dual stick skateboard simulator take the crown as the best skateboarding game yet, or is such a huge undertaking just too big for such a small team? Find out in our Session: Skate Sim review.
Flickit, evolved
EA’s Skate franchise needs almost no introduction. I say almost because right now it has been over 12 years since the last entry was launched, and as such many of you may not be familiar with it. Long story short, it revolutionized the skateboarding video game genre, which until then had been dominated by Tony Hawk games that had gotten a bit old. The “Flickit” control scheme saw players perform tricks with the right stick, where the positioning of the board suddenly mattered. Session takes this to its seemingly logical destination and now both sticks are used to control the skater’s feet. I remember spending dozens of hours mastering Skate’s then complex control scheme, but Session can seemingly cost many times more with its simulation approach.
So how does it all work then? Well, just like in Skate, you use the square and cross buttons to push with your left and right foot respectively. The analog sticks control the back or front foot, depending on the control scheme, stance and current direction of the board. Look, when you skate Switch (meaning your normal back foot is in front and vice versa), the analog sticks also switch which foot they control. This can be overwhelming in a game as sim-heavy as Session, and thankfully Crea-ture Studios has added an option to hold any stick, well, to the left or right foot assignment, regardless of its condition. .
Something as simple as ollieen requires planning and coordinated movements. You should move your back foot back and then quickly slide your front foot up. This is a bit like real skateboarding, without jumping. Basic flip tricks like heel/kickflips are done by swiping the front foot stick in different directions, but the fancier tricks like Pop Shuvits, laser flips, hard flips and more require both sticks to be moved one after the other, much like a fighting game. For example, a 360 Pop Shuvit requires you to move the back foot down, then sweep it in a circular motion from bottom to top, simultaneously lifting your right foot straight up. Done right, it will result in a higher version of the regular 360 Shuvit. That’s a big if though – these combos, while simple, have tight timing requirements that take a lot of time and practice to get just right on a regular basis.
A Love It or Hate It control scheme
The biggest control change to get used to in Session is the twist mechanics. The L2 and R2 buttons control this. Using triggers to rotate is such a strange concept at first, but once you see how the rest of the controls are mapped out, it makes sense. If you’re into, well, any skateboarding game other than Skater XL, it’s going to be pretty jarring at first. There will be plenty of times when you turn, only to accidentally make your skater crouch because you have one foot under control and not turn.
Is this a better control scheme? Well, it’s definitely more lifelike and makes for a more nuanced trickset. But this is arguably the trickiest control scheme to learn for a sports game. While Session’s easier modes help with things like aligning the board, the controls remain unchanged regardless of difficulty. So if you find the controls too difficult to work with, your only option is to keep trying. This will no doubt frustrate many casual players, who will likely be better served by playing something else.
If the above attitude sounds like a Soulsborne player, it’s because this is essentially a game of that caliber when it comes to difficulty compared to most other skateboarding games. You can set a quick respawn point by holding down the d-pad, and turning back is as easy as holding the upward direction briefly. This helps you try a line over and over, which is far from a requirement for most Session quests.
Barebones Missions
Yes, Session includes a basic search system where you usually have to find someone in the city, talk to them and perform certain tricks, make a hole or some other task. It’s a very barebones setup with hardly any help. A basic checklist appears at the top left, and some semi-transparent markers snake around the edges of the quest area to show you where to perform these tasks. If a particular trick is required, the combo to perform it will not appear on the screen – you are expected to know how to perform the trick, or to look it up in the menu. This little addition would have really helped. Some quests require you to earn enough experience points before they open. However, you can still start a quest for which you are not qualified, and it will never go beyond the first step of talking to someone, without explanation. This is an annoying problem that wasn’t clear until I searched for why my search wasn’t progressing.
Outside of the quests you get, there isn’t much to do in the Session town environment. But that’s kind of the point. When you skateboard in real life, you don’t have any official duties to participate in. Instead, you set your own goals, your own lines to figure out, your own challenging set of tricks you want to nail that session. An in-game camera is always rolling, so if you hit a tricky line or a funny bust, you can quickly roll back the tape and shoot great footage using different camera angles, keyframes for transitions, speed up or slow down time, and more options.
For some people, it may be pointless not to have a formal end goal. They may want to wait and see if EA’s fourth major Skate entry will deliver the goal-based progression seen in previous versions. But those looking for a good challenge and then being let loose in an ideal city to share sick images will feel completely at home here. It seems that Crea-ture Studios managed to get the feel of skateboarding, but they couldn’t quite get the rest of the game to that same level. That is understandable, because smaller teams simply have less manpower for this. Know that when you go in, it looks like Session will feel more like a tech demo/simulator than a fully realized game.
Sim first, game second
A glance at Session’s menus really hammers home that last point. Listed among the experimental features are things like physics based skater animations, Caspers, Primos and all lip tricks along with pedestrian traffic. The default setting lets you loose in the New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco areas without worrying other (moving) people. You can turn on pedestrians, who usually stay out of the way and turn into hilarious ragdolls if you just tap them while not on your sign. This experimental section also has a lot of tweaks to fiddle with like the force of gravity, your speed while sprinting off the board, and much more. More choice is great, and it seems Crea-ture Studios isn’t afraid to make some features available if they’re not quite ready for primetime yet.
Session does not include any real online multiplayer modes – all current multiplayer is done locally. This is quite an omission, although admittedly I didn’t notice its absence until I started writing this review. This feels like the kind of game you’d be totally smashed into unless you really mastered the game, much like EA’s Skate series. If online multiplayer ever goes the way of Session, be prepared for some stiff competition. Until then, however, your options are very limited.
The Unreal Engine 4 drives Session and performs very well. However, with the abandoned cityscapes on offer, it would be hard to highlight any game engine with Session. There’s a switch to prefer image quality or higher frame rates, but either choice will run smoothly. The city environment looks realistic, but character models need some work. Fortunately, the stars of the show, the skateboards, are superbly detailed and have tons of customization options such as deck tape, trucks, side rails, and wheels that are all interchangeable. Combined with unlockable clothing for your skater, you can create your ideal setup quite easily. Session’s soundtrack is also a mix of lo-fi songs, from artists you’ve probably never heard of. A streamer mode disables playback of copyrighted music, and there’s also an option to occasionally stop music playing so you can soak up the sounds of the city. It’s a strange addition given the lack of city life, but maybe this will be fixed in time.
verdict
Session: Skate Sim is the best skateboard simulator you can play today. It may not be the best skateboarding game, with so much focus on getting the feel of the ride just right. The learning curve is such a steep cliff that many more casual skateboard fans (or especially those who don’t have huge amounts of time to devote to a game) are likely to give up before relying on these virtual decks. Still, Session: Skate Sim is a challenging simulator worth checking out if you are a hardcore skateboard fan.
Rating: 7.0/10
Advantages:
- A technically solid skateboard simulator
- Big, free levels
- Rewarding yet challenging difficulty
cons:
- Maybe not enough gamification
- Cities feel lifeless
- Difficult control schedule will not appeal to everyone
Session: Skate Sim review code provided by publisher. You can read MP1st’s rating and scoring policy here.
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