Reviewed: Skate 3 (360, PS3)
The Skate franchise is now in a league of its own. The original Skate title burst onto the scene and brought a freshness to proceedings which eventually toppled the tired Tony Hawk franchise.
Little could stop this gem of a game and the sequel provided added depth and gameplay to keep the Skate series alive. Now we are at number three in what seems to be a now yearly franchise, so has it run it course or is there still plenty to give?
The game itself starts with its usual 10 minute intro video giving you a foundation of what’s to come. In true Skate fashion the video is pretty funny in places and ends up with your character doing a rediculous stunt to look cool, only to end up flat on your face with a few broken bones. After a bit of reconstructive surgery via the character editor you are on your way to what can only be considered a storyline that is the games weakest link. Before you stop reading here because you feel the game has failed then think again. The storyline, to create a brand and sell a million boards, acts as a crux to link all the challenges together. It is just a pity that it seems merely an afterthought where it could have been more central to the gameplay.
The first feeling about the gameplay is that it is actually easier now and is catering to the mass market rather than just the hardcore skate players. The first two titles were renowned for their difficult challenges with regards to specific tricks that needed to be completed across gaps, rails and obstacles for you to get that magic tick and were able to move on. Now, the challenge system is tiered to allow a smooth ride into challenges before they get trickier. That is not to say that the hardcore fan has been left out. Each challenge has two levels to it. The first is to achieve a particular task like clearing a gap or grinding a rail but the second level will ask you to perform the side task with a certain trick or achieve a certain score which will give you bonus boards for completing it. Broken down, the main challenges are for photo and film opportunities that will help brand awareness, the hall of meat challenges that has had a nice little overhaul this year and is great fun and owning spots amongst others.
The control system is everything that you know. The right stick is used for ollies and flips, the left stick for direction and the triggers and bumpers for various grabs and tweaks. For anybody that is new to this you can visit the Skate school immediately with Coach Frank, voiced by Jason Lee of My Name Is Earl fame. This will get you used to the system and how the game works. My 6 year old daughter learnt a lot from it so there is no excuses here and goes to show how easy everything is to understand.
The biggest addition this year is the community element to the game. Every publisher is looking for the next big thing online and with Facebook and Twitter going ballistic, EA have incorporated a huge community element into the game. Everything is based around teams and each team has a community page for you to post messages, grab videos, custom skate parks, photos of your team performing that can be uploaded to the main Skate website for all to see. Team challenges, freeskate, park building can be used with each of your team being able to seemlessly jump in and out of each others games if required. Any challenges that are competed also go towards your board count and a problem challenge, if completed, by a fellow team mate can be checked off in your own campaign. There is so much here and so much to explore that after you have finished the campaign it would be very easy to spend countless hours online, meeting, greeting, downloading skateparks or just shredding with random people in a free skate.
Overall, Skate 3 provides a welcome upgrade to the first 2 and at the same times dumbs down the challenges slightly to cater for all players without pushing away the hardcore. The online modes will provide the longevity of the game as well as allow you to create your own team and to take on all comers in team challenges, racing, owning spots etc. The engine itself seems the same as the last 2 and will endanger the game of becoming dated if another Skate is released next year. It will need a serious overhaul to stop it from becoming as stale as the Tony Hawk franchise has but for this edition of Skate, we get to see the most definitive game in the extreme sports franchise to date.
