Pre-release
In April 2025, Full Circle stated that Skate will not have an offline mode "in order to deliver on [the team's] vision of a skateboarding world". [22] This decision was criticized by users and various news outlets, such as PC Gamer and Rock Paper Shotgun , who both compared Skate to the 2014 online-only racing game The Crew , which got its servers shut down in 2024, rendering the game unplayable. [23] [24]
Luke Reilly of IGN rated the game a 4 out of 10, criticizing the game's campaign and dialogue, especially the AI companion, lack of objective variety, focus on lootboxes and incentives to buy in-game currency with real money, and the lengthy and ill-paced tutorial missions. He was also critical of the art style, noting that the city, which he deemed too small and lifeless, felt fake and uninhabited, also criticising the character design, which negatively reminded him of The Sims . To surmise, he called the game "sanitised, homogenised, and monetised", further claiming that "every part of Skate has been corporatised and Disney-fied, from art style to attitude." [25] Writing for PC Gamer , Kara Philipps echoed many of Reilly's critcisms, claiming the game felt more like it was made "by people in suits rather than people with skateboards", being especially critical of the AI companion and the city design, noting the overabundance of "empty space and an extreme lack of NPC's make it feel desolate", also noting that the inability to actually interact with other players contributed to that notion. She concluded that with its "Fortnite-esque aesthetics and the emphasis on clumsy stunts and cheesy dialogue, the game has completely detached itself from the target audience." [26]
On the other hand, Christian Donlan of Eurogamer lauded the return of the game's flick-it mechanics, claiming that they remained as brilliant as they were 15 years ago, noting it "brings the game to life", a point of view that Reilly shared. Unlike the latter, he was also fond of the city, which he claimed was clearly inspired by real-life locations such as Downtown Los Angeles and felt vibrant because of the many other skating players. He compared the game to an MMO in concept, noting that it had a similar design and structure, as it was mission-based yet lacked a clear final goal or story mode, giving the player the freedom to play the game their way. Like Reilly, he was critical of the games store and monnetization, however; he noted that the game does not push the player to invest money. [27] In a review for Metro , Damien Mason noted, like Donlan, that the parcour mechanics were a meaningful and fun addition to the game, as were the multiplayer structure and ragdoll physics, all of which were criticised by Reilly and Philipps. However, he was especially critical of the store system, noting that the selection of clothes players could by with in-game currency alone looked so bad in comparison to the ones bought with premium currency that having decent clothes became a prime incentive to invest real money into the game, fearing that centering the game on a seasonal event and battlepass structure like Fortnite or Battlefield instead of skateboard culture could prove to be a mistake. [28]
