Session. Skate Sim

 PC
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. CD-Action
    Feb 7, 2023
    85
    Session: Skate Sim is the best skateboarding game right now. It’s difficult, it’s challenging, but it offers unbelievable possibilities for a video game and is very realistic without going overboard. I’ve been dreaming of something like this for the past 20 years. If you like skateboarding, you must play it.
  2. Movies Games and Tech
    Nov 14, 2022
    80
    Session: Skate Sim is a game any skating enthusiast will love, and any curious gamers ought to try. Once you accept the inevitability of failure, it becomes a great example of the satisfaction that comes from perseverance.
  3. Shindig
    Oct 12, 2022
    80
    If you’re after an authentic skate sim and don’t mind some rough edges, Session: Skate Sim absolutely nails it. No other game has captured the feel of skateboarding quite like this, and the steep learning curve baked into the unique control scheme—frustrating as it can be at times—only helps sell that idea. Because, hey, skating is hard, but the excitement that comes with it makes all the falls worthwhile, and that’s what Session gets spot on.
  5. Hooked Gamers
    Oct 11, 2022
    80
    Session: Skate is not a game I recommend anyone pick up that is looking for a casual experience to jump into once in a while. Instead, it's a project that needs (and rewards) a substantial investment of time to internalize and commit to muscle memory the unconventional controls and game "feel". While it has its flaws and frustrations, the simple fact is that there really isn't anything else filling this niche in the market right now, and, fortunately, fans of the genre will likely find a lot here to like.
  6. Gaming Age
    Jan 17, 2023
    75
    Session: Skate Sim is true to its name: it’s a true-to-life skateboarding simulator, so if that’s all you want to do, it’ll more than deliver.
  7. Vandal
    Sep 28, 2022
    75
    The core gameplay and the feeling of skateboarding is incredible, but the mission design requires a lot of work. If you are a skater in real life or a hardcore fan of the sport, you’ll enjoy. If you’re not, at least wait for some patches to make it more accessible.
  8. Gamer Escape
    Oct 11, 2022
    60
    Unfortunately, I feel that while it’s a very good *simulation*, it isn’t a very good *game*, and I can really only recommend this to the hardcore skate fans who don’t like all the arcade-style skate games out there. While I did have some fun with it, there was just way too much frustration with even basic elements that shouldn’t be as difficult to understand as they were.
  9. New Game Network
    Oct 3, 2022
    60
    Session: Skate Sim is undoubtedly a love letter to skateboarding enthusiasts that embraces the realistic aspects of the sport, but it might not appeal to everyone with its convoluted control scheme, and it still needs more polishing.
  10. NME
    Sep 23, 2022
    60
    As rewarding as it is challenging, Session: Skate Sim is the best skateboarding sandbox available. However, it’s by no means perfect – due to very poor tutorials, it’s hard to recommend this one for casual players.
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  1. Mashable
    Sep 17, 2019
    Nailing my simple sequence reminded me of something else: that feeling you get when you beat a difficult boss after trying and failing over and over. You know, like in action games like Dark Souls or the more recent Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice — games that require you to master their systems and controls in order to progress past their unrelenting enemies. Once you do master them, at least for the moment, that feeling of success is electric...That feeling was my main takeaway from my hour-and-a-half in the room with Session. That and the passion I felt from developers Houde and Da Silva. [Early Access Impressions]
  2. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    Sep 17, 2019
    Session feels back-to-front: so unblinkingly focused on the technical side of riding a skateboard that it’s overlooked everything that makes rolling around on a board actually fun. There’s plenty of room for skateboarding games less arcadey than anything with a Tony Hawk face on it, but this early version of Session is a bleak, sterile thing, and one that only serves as a painful reminder of my own lack of talent in most physical activities. [Premature Evaluation - Early Access Review]

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 19 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 19
  3. Negative: 7 out of 19
  1. shrekt
    Dec 3, 2019
    2
    The game is trash.

    As robomartion has already said, intuitive controls established in the Skate franchise have been totally thrown out the    The game is trash.

    As robomartion has already said, intuitive controls established in the Skate franchise have been totally thrown out the window to incorporate a convoluted, messy control scheme. I understand what the developer was trying to do, but it does not translate well.

    I really wanted to get into Session and I keep going back to it, but you know there's a real problem with a game when the controls - which are essentially the game - drive a player away.

    Tl;dr - You might as well learn a kickflip-noseblunt irl because it'll take as long before you can land this in the game.    … Full Review »
  2. robomartion
    Oct 22, 2019
    5
    REVIEWED IN EARLY ACCESS
    With a control scheme that sounds great in theory, in practice far too often fails to prove itself as an improvement    REVIEWED IN EARLY ACCESS
    With a control scheme that sounds great in theory, in practice far too often fails to prove itself as an improvement over the now standard control scheme such as what we saw in Skate. Needless to say it frustrates far more often than it delights, and not only because of the steep learning curve.

    Even after nearly 10 hours of gameplay and having come to some sort of affinity with the controls, even able to pull off some fairly complex tricks and lines it is safe to say I would have dropped them for Skate's controls in a heartbeat. They frustrate far too often and fail to add anything meaningful other than complication for complication's sake.

    In many areas Session actually takes a step in reverse from Skate, that is if you consider the controls an improvement, as the input for tricks are buffered (meaning they receive your input before they happen on screen, like a fighting game) and are not physics based but animation driven. These two things are a hint that Session isn't quite the realistic skating simulator it says it is.

    Session is a brave new vision for the skating genre that ultimately fails to live up to its promise. It has beautiful graphics and the beginnings of an intricate over-world full of real life locations, and even and challenging and rewarding gameplay - that is, when you can muster it to do you what you want - and so the potential for a hit game is here,

    Muster is perhaps the perfect word to describe the gameplay, because as you can try and tell a horse to do what you want, you will never truly have control of it, just the semblance of control - as is the control of the character in Session. Rather than controlling him, it seems as though he is some sort of human puppet, that you control through fine tugs on invisible cords, that just quite doesn't do exactly what you want, just a close representation of it.

    With a high barrier to entry and controls that make you question that they are of any benefit far too often, and after a year of unimproved annoyances such as wonky animations, slow pushing, slow turning, a plethora of seemingly easily fixable bugs, and a lack of true physics for the board and grinds, without a significant overhaul of some fairly core elements of its inner workings, I just can't see Session living up to the hype.    … Full Review »
  3. jj350
    Sep 28, 2022
    0
    This game has been ruined by the latest 1.0 update. The controls are now awful and the game is buggier than ever. Buy Skater XL instead.
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