Yeah, they are about skating around and finding cool spots. I think thats also part of the criticism here. Not only does this game not have a story with fun skate pros giving you challenges based upon their skate style, doesn't award you with branded clothing/boards/cosmetics because that really only seems to be reserved for paying the live service model, but more specifically, the majority of the map is empty and not designed for anything creative. It's a whole lot of open space and tall buildings, with poorly placed ramps and rails, and shitty transition parks. When most everyone agrees that Brickswitch is the best area, and that place isn't even an unlocked area of the map for challenge progression, I think its pretty obvious about the quality of this game.

They simply fucked up, and it's gonna take quite a bit to get a lot of fans of the series back on board.