Session: Skate Sim

Developed by: Crea-ture Studios

Published by: Nacon

Release Date: September 22, 2022

Fair warning, if you’re looking for a technical review of the game from someone who’s a skateboarding veteran, this isn’t it. This might seem trivial for any other game, but for Session, being a skater or not can change the way you perceive the game. If you’re not a skater but love skating games, then read on.

I’ve never skated in my life, in fact, I can’t even ride a bike, let alone do a kickflip on a skateboard, but I love, like really love, skating games. I never knew why I was so fascinated with skating games, probably because Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games presented skating as this cool, punk rock activity that combined teen angst and teen rebellion with a sports videogame full of combos, high scores and chaining crazy unrealistic tricks while rock music plays in the background. Tony Hawk games are stylish, arcade-y, and not at all grounded in reality.

I used to play American Wasteland nonstop as a child, but then when the Xbox360 came out, I discovered EA’s Skate 2, and my mind was absolutely blown. After getting used to pressing X to jump and square to kickflip, we now had to flick the sticks to do tricks! How awesome was that? The game was also more mature than the Tony Hawk series, and since I was older, I felt that it was the right game for me. It took a bit of learning to land cool tricks, the story took itself seriously and wasn’t raunchy, the overall atmosphere of the game was more chill, but you could also do some outlandish tricks if you wanted. It was the most realistic skating game that would exist, it felt like what skating would be like in real life, if that makes sense.

I repeat, I’m not a skateboarder – only for now though, who knows? This is as fun as skating games will get, definitely.

The Ultimate Skate Killer

Then I played Session a few months back. Booting up the game for the first game, I was a bit disappointed. After hearing so much of the game, I thought this would be the ultimate Skate killer, but I can’t even land a simple kickflip, and grinding is a mess. But then it clicked, and suddenly I was pulling line after line of cool street tricks. Not as crazy as Tony Hawk’s 960 triple shuv flips or whatever they are called (again, I’m not a skater), but they felt like real skating moves. In case you didn’t know yet, Session uses dual stick controls, so in order to flip your board, you need to control the right foot with the right stick and the left foot with the left foot, which is confusing.

Apparently, these controls feel intuitive to real skaters, so I’m glad that I was able to learn them and master them. It gets easier, and much more rewarding, but the learning curve can be off-putting for some people, and that’s okay. I’ve played too many games in my life where I hated the first few hours, but they ended up being my favorite games after 100 hours.

And Session is a great new favorite for me, and after swearing that I would never pay for a DLC ever again, I ended up buying the Schoolyard DLC for it on release, and then I bought the Abandoned Mall DLC, and then I bought the Paris DLC…If this doesn’t tell you what an awesome game Session is, I don’t what will.

Pure Skating Fun

Okay, so Session doesn’t have a “cinematic” story mode, it doesn’t have a level up system, no combo scores, no progression or interesting unlocks, there isn’t much of a compelling motive to actually play any of the missions in fact. That’s why it’s important to emphasize the SIM part of Session: Skate Sim, it doesn’t even feel like a finished game. If you want a game where you can just pop in the disk and play for a few hours just for the sake of having fun, then this is for you, but it’s one of those games where you have to create your own fun. The in-game video editor allows you to create some amazing footage, if you’re into that. I’m not, and I still have a ton of fun every time I play the game.

The DLC Maps: Paris, Schoolyard and Abandoned Mall

The official maps of Philadelphia, San Francisco and New York are filled with rails, stairs and plenty of gaps to grind, jump and trick. They’re not a full recreation of the cities, but rather a mashup of certain famous spots that are part of skating history, which I also know nothing about.

However, after buying the DLC maps, I never went back to the base game maps. The DLC maps are superior in every way, even though they’re smaller. It’s the fact that they’re so densely packed that makes them a joy to skate around, almost every line in the schoolyard feels smooth since the next rail to grind is always a few steps away.

If I had to rank them, Schoolyard takes the first place, with Paris coming in second and the abandoned mall in third. I haven’t yet tried the waterpark DLC, but I hesitate to since I don’t hear much good things about it. Having been to Paris several times in real life, I loved skating with the eiffel tower in the background and grinding the rails at the trocadéro square.

The Performance on The PS4

I’m still stuck with a PS4 unfortunately, but if you’re currently going through a transition in your life like me, or if you simply don’t feel that you don’t need to throw away 500$ on a PS5, then you’re in luck, since I’ll tell you exactly how the game runs on a base PS4. It’s not as smooth as I want it to be, but it’s not so bad either. One of the main reasons why I love the schoolyard DLC so much is because it runs the smoothest of all the maps, including the base game maps. Stuttering, frame drops and a certain weird ghost-like effect that happens to your skater’s feet is one of the many technical problems of the game.

At one point, I had too many unfinished missions and apparently that can cause a problem where every time I grind a rail, the game would become a slideshow and stutter like crazy, it was only fixed after I finished some of the missions, which was hard to do considering that the game was constantly stuttering. I only figured out what to do after looking up the solution online.

While it’s not a PS4 issue, the game also feels unfinished because of the horrible UI. The game’s UI is one of the worst I’ve ever seen in a game. The missions are also frustrating, as you never exactly understand what they want you to do. I’m familiar with some of the terms since I play a lot of skating games, but I’d imagine that someone who’s not would have a lot of trouble figuring out the tricks required for every mission.

There’s also no grabs and no inverts, which is a damn shame for a skating game, even if the game focuses on street realistic skating, it’s strange playing a skate game where you can’t pull off a melon grab.

Overall,

I can’t help but recommend Session to anyone who’s played a skating game, it’s an extremely fun game despite all of its MAJOR flaws. The controls are responsive, fluid, and intuitive despite the steep learning curve. At the end of the day, it’s not rocket science, it’s just a videogame and you’ll be able to master its controls even if you’re not a skater.

Take my score of the game with a big grain of salt, I’ve poured hundreds of hours into it and I still play it daily, that’s why I didn’t want to write this review, as it’s hard to criticize something you love, but it still needs to be done. The game’s included on PS Plus, so if you already have a subscription, you can try it out, and if not, it’s super easy to find a cheap copy of it somewhere, just go into it expecting a game that’s not as polished as other games. Even compared to other simulator games, like Snowrunner or House Flipper, Session lacks in a lot of aspects, but goddammit it’s fun.