izigame.me

I believe that this game changes in quality depending on how long you play it. After having sunk over 700 hours into Skater XL, I can put my personal gripes with the developers and game trajectory aside to admit that the game is a relatively fun skate simulator, given the current skate game drought. The two stick foot controls are the natural progression of the skate simulator genre and Easy Day nailed the feeling of trying repeatedly for a trick until it clicks. Not only that, but I can tell that the original team were skate culture fanatics, which is shown in the original map pool of real life skate spots and mashup skate parks that pay homage to iconic obstacles and locations. I would also do anything to experience the original soundtrack for the first time again. Buuuut you're better off buying Session.
Do I think that the game is worth the price tag? Absolutely not! For the casual skate fan, this tech demo loses its magic about 20 hours in. I would not spend more than $20 on this excuse for a finished product. Skater XL is a "what could have been" that has the foundation for a genuinely awesome skate simulator platform, but instead was released in the proof of concept stage while still charging full price. This game is a perpetual alpha that Easy Day decided to charge $40 for. This isn't hyperbole or internet cynicism; I have been in the Skater XL community since the alpha, and little to no new content has been added since then. The game is unplayable past the aforementioned 20 hours without mods. Every Skater XL player starts to notice that the physics are floaty and the board rotates in a way that feels magnetic to your character model. You then start to realize that the base game only includes about 5 medium sized maps, all of which have been left unfinished since their Steam Early Access back in 2018. Sure the maps all look really good, but a good portion of each of them have yet to be properly splined. Rails and ledges are used as set dressing rather than skate-able objects. The original map still has this problem, and fixes have come to a complete stop. But that doesn't stop Easy Day from releasing an annual map of the same exact park with different decals. They also decided to implement a Valve-esque verified user generated content pool, but forgot that the appeal to Valves workshop implementation is that it is regularly updated. I took a year break from the game, and then I decided to dust off the cobwebs and download the verified user generated maps. To my surprise, a good amount of them where still labeled as beta files, when the 1.0 version had already been released on third party hosting websites. Only 1 new map had been added within that year and it is unplayable on the alpha branch that allows for mod compatibility. I usually don't expect a dev team to keep an alpha branch updated, but when you tease a content update with a trailer on the official YouTube and then just don't release it for 2 years, I think the least you can do is listen to the community and update the branch of your game that majority of them use due to their own mismanagement.
It pains me to write all of this because I know that Skater XL could have been something really special. With the community drying up and content being drip fed only when the publishers run out of money, there isn't really a reason for me to play this outside of a 15 minute stint whenever I need to pass the time. My friends stopped playing before multiplayer got officially implemented (probably because it took over 4 years). I need to repeat that if you are a skate simulator fan, you are much better off emulating the old EA Skate games or picking up a copy of Session. While the gameplay of Skater XL can just never be matched (I'm serious guys two stick skate controls are the FUTURE of the genre), Skate 1-3 and Session are feature complete, beautifully designed , and just respect you as a consumer. All traits which Skater XL lacks.