Skate 3: It’s a Grind

As I think back, I have very fond memories of shredding the “Brennan Banks” near my house as a long-haired rebellious teenager. My friend Andrew and I would hit those banks everyday, popping a few nollie heelflips and pissing off the old lady across the street. The first Skate brought me back to these memories in a few vivid and creative ways. Skate 3, however, falls short in almost every one of those ways.

One of the best points that the first Skate had going for it was that it wasn’t a Tony Hawk game. While Tony Hawk pumped your excitement by making you grind power lines, Skate fed you adrenaline by having you grind down a stair rail. This more realistic approach was well executed and really gave the player a feeling similar to what you experience in real life.

Fast forward 2 sequels into the future. Skate 3 still isn’t a Tony Hawk game, but the luster is almost completely lacking now. By this point, there is very little you can learn if you aren’t new to the series. You know most of the controls and you know most of the tricks. The game still has you grinding down stair rails and jumping gaps, but the only way to justify a third installment seems to have been to make it all more ridiculous. In Skate 3 you will find yourself jumping over absurd gaps or racing down the side of a cliff. You know, things that every skater does in real life. This takes away from the game in big way, as it diminishes the sense of realism and makes me feel like I am playing a video game again.

This paragraph will be a short one because there is basically no story. The “story” is that you are a legend skateboarder who misses a big ridiculous trick and decides to make his own skateboard team after his sponsors pull out. That is it. Your goal is to sell boards by accomplishing goals. There is no plot to speak of past the opening cinematic (BTW, the live action opening film was completely awesome. It had nothing to do with the game, but was cool regardless). I had no sense of interest or connection to my character or the world. I felt like Keanu Reeves when he acts.

Happy.

Ok, I lied. That paragraph wasn’t that short. Moving on. The character customizations were okay. Not a lot of choices as far as hairstyles, but the face can be changed pretty extensively. The clothing didn’t impress me. Granted, skater styles has changed since I was rambunctious kid wearing an Element hoodie and ripped up jeans, but it seems like all you have to choose from is ugly plaid shirts and T-shirts that don’t quite fit the way I like them. Nothing really fit my character right. I couldn’t understand why everything was so big. There wasn’t much to choose from anyway though so shame on you, Skate 3.

Once you get in the game, you are given goals of how many boards to sell. Each task in the world sells boards. The usual stuff appears: taking ad photos, filming sessions, or playing a game 1-UP, which is really just SKATE (like HORSE. That wasn’t CONFUSING at all). You can find these challenges out in the world as you explore, or just teleport to them from the menu. Seeing as the game forced me to not really care about the world, I just teleported to most of them. As a result, I know all the main areas in the game, but I have no idea how to get from one to another. The world’s geography is a mystery to me.

As you progress through the game and hit certain board sale goals, you unlock two things. The first is skate parks. You can edit these parks anyway you want to build your experience the way you want. It works fairly well, but you never need to use it. It is all just for fun…if you find that fun. I do not. The second thing that unlocks is teammates. You create teammates to skate with you in competitions. I made my aforementioned friend, Andrew, as well as some other friends of mine. They were never any use to me, seeing as I consistently destroyed their scores in the competitions and won mostly by myself. They add very little to the game, despite having such a high emphasis.

These are what we call "Decks"

Most of the challenges in Skate 3 are pretty easy, but a couple are pretty tedious. There isn’t much a middle ground as far as difficulty goes. Perhaps I should have played on the hard difficulty instead of the medium, but I doubt I would have had enough patience with the game to keep going.

The online is pretty standard in Skate 3. You won’t be doing anything you haven’t done before, or in the single player. The best part is co-op. The single player missions become more enjoyable when you are playing with a friend, but it doesn’t change the fact that they are tied together by a lack of story. I am not even sure why this game was made.

The film editor is pretty similar to the old one in that it is exactly the same. As are the graphics and the engine…as well as most of everything in the game. There is very little difference between Skate 2 and 3. This isn’t particularly surprising to me since EA prides itself on making sports games with very minor differences so that they can make money. The addition of a co-op mode with friends is nice, but not enough to make up for the fact that this game is barely different from its predecessor.

Extremely Angry.

I became sincerely glad when I realized I rented Skate 3 instead of buying it. I have had it for 3 days and am already tired of it. The best thing for me to do now is move on and hope the next game will be better.

The Good: The engine is still fun. Skating still feels relatively real. Nice park editor.

The Bad: Not much change from Skate 2 to Skate 3. No story. No motivation to care.

The Verdict: Pass over this one. Even if you like skateboarding, Skate 3 just isn’t worth the money.

Written by Not Judas

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