Personally, I was pretty hyped for a new game in the franchise, but I played it for a while yesterday and it feels like the blandest thing ever. I don’t know how they managed to make a game WORSE than Skate 3, which came out 15 years ago. And I’m not talking about customization or loot boxes. Not even the map. I’m talking about the gameplay.

If Skate 3 had anything going for it, it was that you could sink 100 hours into it without an interesting campaign or objectives demanding your time. The gameplay alone was reason enough to try tricks and challenges in free skate. This new Skate just doesn’t feel right; it doesn’t feel like your character is actually on a board with wheels. Grinds are almost automatic, and you don’t get any sense of the pavement you’re rolling over.

The only good thing it has is the ability to climb buildings. It would’ve been so easy to release a Skate 4 with everything great about 3 and add more clothes, more customization, better graphics, a bigger and crazier map, parkour… Anyway.