Skate Story Review
Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Skate or Die, California Games and Skate. The list goes on and these are all great games, but when was the last time you played a skateboard game that truly felt unique? Skate Story is unique in concept alone, which is about a glass demon that makes a deal with the devil in exchange for freedom.
What separates Skate Story is that the journey is paramount, but happens to feature incredible skateboarding. There are tricks, scoring and bosses, but those are equally as important as the narrative and atmosphere. Skate Story is a poetic journey to find a deeper meaning through the lens of a skateboard and while the messaging gets a little obfuscated by the end, the experience as a whole is an unforgettable adventure.
Skate Story Review
Skate Story isn’t a traditional Skateboarding game. It’s a game a glass demon who makes a deal with the devil himself in exchange for freedom. On the steam page, Skate Story is even classified as an indie, action, and adventure before mentioning skateboarding.
You’re offered a deal to skate to the moon and swallow it and if you fulfill your portion of the contract, you’ll be given your soul and become free. As you might expect, there are catches and fine print with the main one being that you are extremely fragile, due to being made of glass.
Another catch is that there are several different moons, seven to be exact, that are located throughout the nine different layers of the underworld. The narrative was the initial cause for curiosity and interest in Skate Story, but what eventually pulled me through the experience was the fantastic skateboard mechanics. Despite being about a demon skating to the moon, it has arguably the most grounded skateboarding experience around. Skate Story has speed, momentum, flow and realism that doesn't exist elsewhere.
As you descend (or ascend) the nine different layers of hell through relatively bite size chapters, you’re slowly given new tricks to add to your repertoire. You quickly learn staples like ollies and kickflips as well as being taught how to manage the hazards of the environment such as barriers that you need to kick-push as fast as possible through or sewers that you need to jump over to close.
Gradually, Skate Story drip feeds you more skills to learn, buttons to use and feats to accomplish. The way that Skate Story tempers you into the experience means that you never feel overwhelmed, can retain the info and are able to utilize the full skillset offered. The world around you also evolves from simple jobs of going from point A to point B, but quickly mixes in gauntlet style levels and boss fights. From beginning to end, Skate Story is always asking something completely new of the player or combining familiar elements in a way that feels fresh.
Skate Story Criticisms
Skate Story was intriguing because it wasn’t about pulling off unrealistic tricks and stunts, but about a journey of one demon who made a deal with the devil for his freedom. Early on it was extremely captvating, as I was trying to piece it together and understand the message. Was Skate Story an allegory for the journey of life or an introspection on the internal demons we all battle?
Unfortunately, as the chapters progressed, Skate Story kept getting more weird, overly metaphorical and it wasn’t too long before the meaning just became completely obscured. This problem became exacerbated by cutscenes that constantly interrupt the phenomenal atmosphere and gameplay with long, wordy expositions, which made me wonder if there wasn’t a greater meaning and was just about how weird life can be.
Most of Skate Story gets broken down into boss fights or gauntlet style challenges, which were great and mostly remained unique to the end. However, these levels would occasionally get the added complication of a timer, which never felt long enough and created a mindset that encouraged speed over quality, which was a stark contrast to the rest of the experience. This forced the player to rely on tricks that always rewarded high scores with low effort such as grinding.
The skating mechanics of Skate Story were surprisingly sublime. Having a free skate area option available once you have finished the game would have been a great way to spend more time in the underworld. This could have been either completely new demonic skate parks, or at the very minimum some of the environments used in the game, but with timing and challenges removed. Instead, once you finish, your option is to either continue your current file, which just allows you to replay the epilogue, which was one of the weaker points of the experience or start a new file.
SKATE STORY FINAL THOUGHTS
Developer Sam Eng once said that his sole purpose for creating Skate Story was to find the beauty of skateboarding. Skate Story looks, sounds and feels incredible and gets tied together by the phenomenal electronic, psychedelic pop soundtrack from New York Based outfit Blood Cultures that captures the feeling of the modern skate scene and beautiful is only way to describe it.
Skate Story isn’t a skateboarding game, it’s a skateboarding experience. Even though the narrative became too opaque and failed to meet the standards set by the rest of the game, I still wanted to complete the journey because chasing it’s meaning is more invigorating than chasing high scores.
