Do I enjoy this game? Yes. Was I disappointed by various aspects of this game? Also yes. Do I recommend it? That depends greatly on who you are and what you're expecting.

First things first, if you're expecting a faithful continuation of the soul of the Skate series, this isn't it. It's free to play, live service, and always-online with a season pass and premium currency. I suspect that was the only pitch that would've gotten the suits at EA to cough up the funding for another Skate, so considering the current state of gaming, I'll take what I can get for my Skate fix. That said, I wanna get into some specifics:

Monetization: As far as free to play games go, the monetization isn't too egregious. No gameplay is locked behind a paywall (so far), every purchase is purely cosmetic, and the amount of items you unlock in normal gameplay is more than enough to deck yourself out with cool stuff without spending money. It isn't even much of a grind to get the free items, even at the higher levels.

Gameplay: The skating itself has never felt better. It definitely leans more towards the more arcade feel of Skate 3 vs. 1 & 2. Despite that the controls are tight and responsive, and everything translated beautifully to the new engine. For me, whatever the rest of the game is like, if they nailed this, I was gonna play. The challenges can get a little repetitive after a while, and there's no campaign beyond the very extended tutorials. I assume this will change as they start up the season schedule, but for now content is somewhat limited. Considering the previous games had decently long and entertaining campaigns with tons of personality, it kinda hurts coming from that to a few tutorials with the most cringe "hey fellow kids" dialogue you've ever heard. That said, there's more than enough fun to be had just screwing around in the open world. Which thanks to the one new mechanic, parkour, is more fun than ever. You can climb, vault, dive, dropkick, etc. It's pretty fun to mess around with the physics of it, and it comes in handy for getting up to spots for crazy drop-ins and stuff. One of the most efficient ways to get around is fast traveling to the top of the highest building, and spread eagle diving down to wherever you wanna go. Doing trick shots with your body has never been a bigger part of the game (despite hall of meat itself not being present, presumably for age rating reasons), for better or worse. I like it, some may find it annoying.

World Design: The world is pretty big, definitely big enough to get lost. It's some mix of San Fran and Amsterdam. I don't see the Amsterdam much, though, other than one canal. There's tons of variety in skate parks and spots, lines set up by objects in the environment absolutely everywhere you look, and gratuitous ramps placed all over, posing as parts of the environment. For example: a stained glass church with the inside converted to a skate park, with an open window you can fly through by using the side of an adjacent parking garage as a ramp. On top of probably 30% of the roofs in the city are crazy ramps and drop-ins, and you can string together some absolutely insane stuff flying from building to building. There's also 3 "community parks" which change every 24 hours, and spawn with some crazy ramps, bringing a bit of freshness to things. They're ugly as sin though and have floating objects, which bothers me. All this to say, gameplay wise, the map is a paradise. Aesthetically... it's very bland, sterile, silicon-valley corporate... pretty much the antithesis of how a skating games world should feel. There's very little detail or life to the city and it just leaves it feeling like a Roblox city or something. Generic city #21840 type-beat. It serves it's purpose, I just wish it had a lot more personality.

Graphics/Art Style: Oh boy... so, I get what they were going for by doing a simple art style. Easy to render, quick load times, and low file sizes to be able to be on all devices. I just cannot get behind a Fortnite looking art style for a Skate game. It just feels wrong. Skate is supposed to go for gritty realism, yes they started moving away from that a bit in Skate 3, but this was still a huge jump. The graphics are very underwhelming on max settings, It genuinely looks like a modern Roblox game to me. Since they're so obviously pulling inspiration from Fortnite... Fortnite is able to look great on max PC settings while scaling back for mobile/Switch. Why does it need to look like a mobile game for everyone?

Multiplayer: Squading up with your friends in this game is incredibly fun. You get up to 2x rewards on challenges, can challenge them or any other player to a points attack mode at any map location, and above all can just mess around and find spots to try impossible lines 500 times while on voice chat.

Music/Skate Culture: This is where the game lacks the most for me. There's no longer hilariously bad voice acting from pro skaters voicing themselves, and no skate culture to be seen other than some major brand names. The music, while good, isn't very "skater", it's just what the average indie/alternative Gen Z is listening to. The music is also very limited and you'll quickly turn it off in favor of running Spotify in the background. The general aesthetic comes off more vaguely hipster than anything rebellious or counterculture. It's obviously all meant for mass appeal and general inoffensiveness, and the vibe definitely suffers for it compared to previous games.

Conclusion: If none of the downsides I mentioned are deal breakers for you, and indie spiritual successors like Skater XL and replaying the originals just isn't scratching the Skate itch for you, this is worth a shot for sure. Especially if you have some friends to play with. It's a disappointing and discouraging reminder of the current state of the gaming industry for sure, but it's not a bad game. I don't think all the negative reviews are justified, it's just the overdramatic gamer outrage that happens every time a release isn't well recieved. Of course some people will genuinely not be able to get over the BS parts, but I think a lot of people didn't give it a genuine try.

Do I enjoy this game? Yes. Was I disappointed by various aspects of this game? Also yes. Do I recommend it? That depends greatly on who you are and what you're expecting. First things first, if you're expecting a faithful continuation of the soul of the Skate series, this isn't it. It's free to play, live service, and always-online with a season pass and premium currency. I suspect that was the only pitch that would've gotten the suits at EA to cough up the funding for another Skate, so considering the current state of gaming, I'll take what I can get for my Skate fix. That said, I wanna get into some specifics: [b] Monetization: [/b]As far as free to play games go, the monetization isn't too egregious. No gameplay is locked behind a paywall (so far), every purchase is purely cosmetic, and the amount of items you unlock in normal gameplay is more than enough to deck yourself out with cool stuff without spending money. It isn't even much of a grind to get the free items, even at the higher levels. [b] Gameplay: [/b]The skating itself has never felt better. It definitely leans more towards the more arcade feel of Skate 3 vs. 1 & 2. Despite that the controls are tight and responsive, and everything translated beautifully to the new engine. For me, whatever the rest of the game is like, if they nailed this, I was gonna play. The challenges can get a little repetitive after a while, and there's no campaign beyond the very extended tutorials. I assume this will change as they start up the season schedule, but for now content is somewhat limited. Considering the previous games had decently long and entertaining campaigns with tons of personality, it kinda hurts coming from that to a few tutorials with the most cringe "hey fellow kids" dialogue you've ever heard. That said, there's more than enough fun to be had just screwing around in the open world. Which thanks to the one new mechanic, parkour, is more fun than ever. You can climb, vault, dive, dropkick, etc. It's pretty fun to mess around with the physics of it, and it comes in handy for getting up to spots for crazy drop-ins and stuff. One of the most efficient ways to get around is fast traveling to the top of the highest building, and spread eagle diving down to wherever you wanna go. Doing trick shots with your body has never been a bigger part of the game (despite hall of meat itself not being present, presumably for age rating reasons), for better or worse. I like it, some may find it annoying. [b] World Design: [/b]The world is pretty big, definitely big enough to get lost. It's some mix of San Fran and Amsterdam. I don't see the Amsterdam much, though, other than one canal. There's tons of variety in skate parks and spots, lines set up by objects in the environment absolutely everywhere you look, and gratuitous ramps placed all over, posing as parts of the environment. For example: a stained glass church with the inside converted to a skate park, with an open window you can fly through by using the side of an adjacent parking garage as a ramp. On top of probably 30% of the roofs in the city are crazy ramps and drop-ins, and you can string together some absolutely insane stuff flying from building to building. There's also 3 "community parks" which change every 24 hours, and spawn with some crazy ramps, bringing a bit of freshness to things. They're ugly as sin though and have floating objects, which bothers me. All this to say, gameplay wise, the map is a paradise. Aesthetically... it's very bland, sterile, silicon-valley corporate... pretty much the antithesis of how a skating games world should feel. There's very little detail or life to the city and it just leaves it feeling like a Roblox city or something. Generic city #21840 type-beat. It serves it's purpose, I just wish it had a lot more personality. [b] Graphics/Art Style: [/b]Oh boy... so, I get what they were going for by doing a simple art style. Easy to render, quick load times, and low file sizes to be able to be on all devices. I just cannot get behind a Fortnite looking art style for a Skate game. It just feels wrong. Skate is supposed to go for gritty realism, yes they started moving away from that a bit in Skate 3, but this was still a huge jump. The graphics are very underwhelming on max settings, It genuinely looks like a modern Roblox game to me. Since they're so obviously pulling inspiration from Fortnite... Fortnite is able to look great on max PC settings while scaling back for mobile/Switch. Why does it need to look like a mobile game for everyone? [b] Multiplayer: [/b]Squading up with your friends in this game is incredibly fun. You get up to 2x rewards on challenges, can challenge them or any other player to a points attack mode at any map location, and above all can just mess around and find spots to try impossible lines 500 times while on voice chat. [b] Music/Skate Culture: [/b]This is where the game lacks the most for me. There's no longer hilariously bad voice acting from pro skaters voicing themselves, and no skate culture to be seen other than some major brand names. The music, while good, isn't very "skater", it's just what the average indie/alternative Gen Z is listening to. The music is also very limited and you'll quickly turn it off in favor of running Spotify in the background. The general aesthetic comes off more vaguely hipster than anything rebellious or counterculture. It's obviously all meant for mass appeal and general inoffensiveness, and the vibe definitely suffers for it compared to previous games. [b] Conclusion: [/b]If none of the downsides I mentioned are deal breakers for you, and indie spiritual successors like Skater XL and replaying the originals just isn't scratching the Skate itch for you, this is worth a shot for sure. Especially if you have some friends to play with. It's a disappointing and discouraging reminder of the current state of the gaming industry for sure, but it's not a bad game. I don't think all the negative reviews are justified, it's just the overdramatic gamer outrage that happens every time a release isn't well recieved. Of course some people will genuinely not be able to get over the BS parts, but I think a lot of people didn't give it a genuine try.