ALBAWABA - The new Skate is finally here. However, after spending eight hours playing its early access, Al Bawaba finds it difficult to recommend the game to returning fans of the popular skateboarding franchise.
While the gameplay can be entertaining for a while, Skate lacks many things that made its predecessors so unique, from its art style and locations to its characters, dialogue, and gameplay modes.
It’s clear that EA has shifted Skate’s target audience by adopting a free-to-play, live-service model filled with loot boxes, skins, and other purchasable items, in contrast to previous titles of the franchise, which featured a story mode and focused more on skateboarding culture and single-player.
So we tried EA's Skate (Early Access Review)
The game's art style also took quite a turn, moving from realistic and gritty to stylized, similar to games like Fortnite. Fans of the franchise have been constantly criticizing EA for the style change since viewing early gameplay footage on social media.
While Skate 3 looked quite different from 2 by adding a more colorful palette to its map, the game still looked and felt like a Skate title, despite its more arcade-like gameplay.
Skate is missing game modes such as the Hall of Meat challenges, which allowed players to gain specific points by landing in awkward positions and breaking their bones. While a similar mode exists in the new title, it doesn't quite have the same impact because EA opted for a more family-friendly approach by removing the X-ray mode.
An NPC mentions during the game that characters no longer get injured by bales, thanks to a new AI technology that protects their bodies.
Nothing screams 'skateboarding culture' like a corporate AI bot companion
EA's Skate.
Additionally, professional skateboarders and iconic characters such as Coach Frank are missing from the game. Instead, Coach Frank got replaced by an annoying AI bot and NPCs that won't stop pressuring you to finish their repetitive quests as they feed you everything the game has to offer.
Moreover, the dialogue often felt unnatural or forced. For example, NPCs use cringey language by saying words like "Skater eyes."
While darkside tricks are currently not available, EA revealed that it will add them in future updates, as the game is still in Early Access.
That said, not everything is bad. The gameplay feels solid and responsive, the challenges scattered across the town get challenging the further you complete them, and the leveling-up system can get addictive. However, fatigue can start kicking in due to the game's repetitive gameplay.
The challenges start feeling similar after a while, and the lack of a proper story mode made it difficult for Al Bawaba to pour more time into the game.
Overall, gameplay elements like grinding and transitions from bailing have been improved compared to previous titles. However, the same "floatiness" from Skate 3 remains to let players perform crazy aerial tricks.
The soundtrack has several great tracks; however, while nostalgia might be kicking in here, Skate 1 and 3's soundtracks are unbeatable.
On PC (via Steam), the game takes up just under 8 GB of storage, which is an impressive feat for a 2025 open-world game.
Skate is currently out in Early Access for free on PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and the EA App.
While EA's Skate has its moments, its shift to a free-to-play, live-service model, along with changes in art style and its visible departure from the skateboarding culture that made previous entries so special, makes it hard to recommend to older audiences who grew up playing Skate 2 and 3.
EA's Skate. (Poster by Al Bawaba)
