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Jan 23, 2020 · But Session, a new Early Access skate sim from Crea-ture Studios, treats the arduous process of learning to skate with as much love as actually being a skateboard pro.
Nov 10, 2017 · Within, Mat highlighted Project Session—a Skate-like, open world skateboarding game that uses real world physics and is powered by Unreal Engine 4.
Sep 17, 2019 · Session, with some caveats, is an admirable simulation of what it's like to learn how to skateboard, making simple flip tricks and short grinds feel like grand accomplishments.
With the Year One Complete Edition of Session: Skate Sim, you get the base game and lots of additional content. Ride the most iconic spots, explore unique maps, meet and play as professional skaters.
- Crea-Ture Studios Inc.
- Windows
- Close but no cigar.
- Bust a Move
- Trick Tok
- Session Skate Sim Screens (Nacon Connect 2022)
- Who is the most influential skater of all time?
- Verdict
By Luke Reilly
Posted: Sep 28, 2022 8:52 am
Warning: Session is a hard game and will test your patience. Those aren’t my words; they’re the words of the developer, Creā-ture Studios itself, splashed verbatim on each of Session’s trick list menus. That’s a belated caveat for the presumably bewildered people mining the menus for shreds of advice on how to actually do anything in this diabolically difficult skateboarding sim. With a two-stick control system that flies in the face of generations of muscle memory, Session is a complex but very grounded simulation of street skating that can appear wonderfully authentic when executed well. However, despite the fact that it’s just emerged from several years of early access, it doesn’t quite appear fully ready for release: physics bugs, shonky trick detection, and unfriendly mission design are regular frustrations.
Since its debut demo back in late 2017, Session has been previously pegged by some as a spiritual successor to EA’s Skate series. To be honest, it’s not really a great comparison. Session’s stick-based trick controls may sound akin to Skate’s on paper, but the reality is Session’s two-stick system is far more complicated. In fact, the single-stick Skate-like “Legacy” controls Session introduced into its Early Access build back in 2020 have actually been entirely removed in the 1.0 version. Adapting to Session’s two-stick controls is now compulsory.
Just like rival 2020 skateboarding sim Skater XL, in Session each thumbstick represents a skater’s corresponding foot, and executing flip tricks and grinds requires precisely finessing each stick like you’re trying to crack into a safe. Turning controls are mapped to the triggers, a mind-melting obstacle that took hours for me to hurdle after decades of that being a job for the left stick – and only compounded by the fact that turning is still mapped to the left stick in Session… when the skater is off the board. Unfortunately there aren’t any grab controls, but even without them I was regularly turning my hands into pretzels trying to make tricks.
This isn’t a bad thing per se; it’s just very challenging. However, the complexity does feel likely to be too much for some, such is the steepness of the learning curve here. I’m not confident that a lot of non-skaters or casual skateboarding fans would stick it out to crash through that initial barrier, though Session doesn’t necessarily do itself any favours in that regard. There’s actually a pretty long list of smart gameplay tuning options that can make things noticeably more manageable, but the initial tutorial doesn’t really point any of that out. The most helpful one for me was the option to change the mapping of the sticks from left foot/right foot to front foot/back foot – purists may scoff at this concession, but all the controls being in reverse when riding switch was absolutely cooking my brain. But there are many, many more – pop height, grind alignment, hell, even the gravity can be adjusted. None of this truly turns Session into an arcade skating game, but it can make it a little more friendly.
That said, it is very rewarding – in its own stern way. I’ve once again found myself swept up in the loop of an unforgiving street skating simulation (unfortunately there’s no proper vert skating or grabs) simply because I love to seek out unassuming staircases, ramps, and rails and bust tricks (and presumably digital bones) for no particular reason, until I get bored and move somewhere else.
It should also be said that the list of other places to move is impressively long, with dozens of authentic urban maps and spots of varying sizes spread across three cities: New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. With time of day effects and plenty of grimy, granular detail, the maps look excellent – especially at night, lit by the bright lamp of the chase camera. They are a little static and lifeless, though. For instance, piles of lightweight cardboard boxes and wheeled shopping carts are rooted to the ground and completely non-interactive, and there are no moving vehicles despite being set in the hearts of three of the most bustling cities in the US. Also, while NPC pedestrians can be turned on – an “experimental” option Creā-ture has partially buried in a menu for unfinished features – there are no NPC skaters to add a bit of atmosphere.
Creā-ture has put plenty of work into Session’s replay editor, and it can produce genuinely great clips. There’s an impressive assortment of camera types and filters available to create some properly cool skate videos with Session’s tools, although it really makes zero effort to teach you how to use them.
Unlike Skater XL, Session boasts an actual career mode, with tasks assigned by guest pro skaters scattered throughout the maps. Despite the fact most of the enjoyment I gleaned from Session’s skateboarding sandbox came from simply coasting around the maps and making my own fun, there is something to be said about having some overt objectives to con...
Session may be reminiscent of the similarly hardcore 2020 skateboarding simulation, Skater XL, but it picks up where its rival stalled by arriving with a far more substantial map selection, plus a simple campaign that stitches it all together. I also can’t deny the addictive charm of seeking out a spot and having dozens of attempts at sticking a sl...
Sep 24, 2022 · After a successful Kickstarter campaign and frequent updates, Sessions: Skate Sim looks to be the perfect skating-sim for many - but not for all. Heavily inspired by 90s skate culture, Sessions: Skate Sim is purely about the love of skateboarding.
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Jul 28, 2022 · At least if you are not looking for the insanity of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games. Instead of encapsulating what 90's and early 2000's MTV was like in a video game, Session is more like a quiet love letter to the sport and the culture around it. Particularly street skating.
