Even though Session: Skate Sim proudly trumpets that it was “(m)ade by and for skaters right in the first line of its Steam page and I?m most definitely not a skater I was still interested in giving it a try. After all, I enjoyed the Tony Hawk remakes, and I figured that would be enough to get me into this game, too.
I was wrong. So, so wrong.
See, the very first thing you need to know about Session: Skate Sim is that it?s tough. Probably not as tough as real skateboarding, but it?s still a game where more traditional controls don?t apply. Its controls are built around each thumbstick controlling one of your feet, and using shoulder buttons for turning. (You also use face buttons to push off from the ground, to add to the challenge.) Consequently, it?s not all that intuitive, and you?ll spend a lot of time flailing and crashing and restarting before you get the hang of it ? and that?s even if you set the difficulty at its easiest level, and play through the tutorial.
And once you?re into the game and free to explore the world, it doesn?t get any easier from there. You go around the city looking for missions to complete (which are mostly just tricks to pull off), and you have pretty much no margin for error. You either do the tricks as the game wants you to, or you?ll fail and have to start over ? or, more likely, you?ll bump into a wall or a curb and wipe out, and have to start over.
However, the problem with Session: Skate Sim isn?t how tough it is (though I don?t want to minimize how steep the learning curve is). Rather, it?s how empty the city feels. Even though the world is full of buildings and cars, other people are pretty much non-existent. While I get that the lack of people makes skating easier, it also makes the game?s world feel a little lifeless.
But if you?re really into skateboarding ? like, really into skateboarding ? I have a feeling that won?t matter to you all that much. Session: Skate Sim is true to its name: it?s a true-to-life skateboarding simulator, so if that?s all you want to do, it?ll more than deliver.
Nacon provided us with a Session: Skate Sim PC code for review purposes.
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