[Review] Skater Xl

[Hossam Taibi]

Release date:
 2020
Players:
 1 player
Genre:
 Action, Simulation, Sports, Indie
Publisher:
 Easy Day Studios
Developer:
 Easy Day Studios
Supported Languages:
 English

It's been 10 long years since the gaming landscape has been blessed with a high-profile skateboard game (no, the atrocity that is Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 doesn't count), and Easy Day Studios looks to fill that void with Skater XL. The skate game aims to bring the sport back to the video game spotlight via an innovative and fun control scheme that ditches programmed tricks for a unique, physics-based control setup. This PC game gives you the freedom to explore moves similar to a real-world skateboard session, but so far it has a bit of Early Access blandness and jank.

Grab Your Deck

 

Before you dive into Skater XL's world of pushing and coasting, please note that the game isn't a completed product. As I mentioned earlier, the $19.99 Skater XL is a Steam Early Access title, so it has some of the expected issues that come with an unfinished game. For example, the phat beat that plays during the title screen is currently the only music in the game. Skater XL also has an extremely limited character creator and just two levels (California Skatepark and West L.A. Courthouse).

Easy Day Studios doesn't position Skater XL as a pure sim, despite the independent foot controls. Although the control scheme is designed to encourage exploration and creativity, the development team made certain to also focus on accessibility. The combination is extremely well-executed.

 

Hitting the Concrete

Skater XL is designed with a standard console game controller in mind, as the action involves deftly mani[CENSORED]ting dual analog sticks. The left stick controls your created character's left foot, while the right stick controls its right foot. As you accelerate through areas, you use stick combinations to bust out tricks.

Flicking the right stick down and then up, for instance, triggers an ollie that lets you clear low-lying objects or hop toward a grind-worthy ledge. Using both sticks in the same fashion causes you to do a stronger ollie that launches you higher in the air, though not unrealistically so. The game leans heavily toward this intuitive and accessible control scheme.

Skater XL includes a tutorial that teaches you the skateboarding basics, but those highlighted tricks aren't the only in-game moves. Due to the game's physics engine, speed, movement, and controller inputs, you can perform moves that aren't listed in the tutorial. While tinkering with the controls, I accidentally performed a sick primo slide. I've been trying to land it with mixed results ever since. My ongoing frustration aside, the freedom that the game affords is commendable.

A recent Skater XL update pushed out an animation overhaul that makes the motion-captured tricks, and their transitions, incredibly smooth. Performing an ollie into a nose grind simply feels and looks right, though some of the animations when you go face-first into the concrete are rather funky. Another gripe: it's possible to literally skate off the maps and see your character get stuck in a limbo-like empty space. This happened twice during my play sessions, and both incidents required a game restart.

Unfortunately, Skater XL doesn't offer much to do other than cruise around the two levels or perform tricks. The current build lacks goals, so there's not much "game" in the game, at the moment. Hopefully, challenges are coming soon so that people interested in Skater XL get a glimpse of what the game will be like at launch.

Cool Extras

 

Recording cool lines is a big part of skateboard culture, so Skater XL includes that as an in-game feature. The game's replay editor lets you play back lines and view them from multiple angles.

The game includes a map pin, too, which lets you create a new starting point. That doesn't sound very exciting on the face of it, but if you wipe out on the far side of a map while grinding a handrail, you don't want to return to the original starting point and skate all the way back over to try again. Instead, you can drop a pin when you find an interesting area, so that you start fresh in that area. It's a great touch that comes in handy when you're practicing moves.

An incredibly productive mod community has emerged to give Skater XL features not in the base games. With mods, you can cruise new levels, wear fresh clothing, and even enjoy night skating.

Grind Alley
Your PC doesn't need cutting-edges system specs for you to manual, revert, and power slide. According to Skater XL's Steam page, your gaming desktop or gaming laptop needs at least a 2.5GHz dual-core Intel i5 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 GPU, 8GB of RAM, 5GB of available disk space, and the Windows 7 operating system.

In terms of input devices, Skater XL supports Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 controllers. There are no keyboard controls. That's understandable considering the game's reliance on dual analog sticks.

 

Future Potential

As previously stated, Skater XL is a Steam Early Access game, so it's bare-bones and incomplete in many areas. That said, the game's skating is impressive; I easily lost a couple of hours exploring the engine's depths. Developer Easy Day Studios has plans for a skill tree and an "aspirational aspect of multiplayer that's not there yet."

If you're looking to jump into a fully realized skateboard game, Skater XL isn't the game...yet. Still, if you're hungry to explore a beta skateboard title that has the potential to be something special, give Skater XL a grind.

MINIMUM:

OS: Windows 7

Processor: 2.5GHz dual core i5 or higher

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: GTX 950 or higher

DirectX: Version 11

Storage: 5 GB available space

Additional Notes: Please drop quality settings if not seeing 60FPS. This game is best played buttery smooth!

RECOMMENDED:

OS: Windows 10

Processor: 3.5GHz quad core i5 or higher

Memory: 16 GB RAM

Graphics: GTX 960 or higher

DirectX: Version 11

Storage: 5 GB available space

Additional Notes: Consistent 58-60FPS on Ultra with these specs in beta testing.