This time five years ago, skateboarding games were in a rough place. The last major skateboarding game was the truly awesome Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 and EA’s skate series had been dormant since 2010, despite enthusiastic fan demand for a new entry. Around that time Montreal-based developer Cré-Ture Studio first showed off Project Session, which seemed to take off the skate itch. In the five years since, things are starting to look up with Tony Hawk’s triumphant return to Pro Skater 1+2 and a new skate on the way. Despite this, Sessions: Skate Sim manages to create its own unique take on the skateboard genre.
Realism is the name of the game in the session. While the Skate series was certainly more realistic than Pro Skater’s, it still had a fun pick-up-and-play nature. to be blunt, session is Tough: You probably won’t have fun for the first few hours after taking it (something the developers themselves admit). The game is controlled with a left and right stick corresponding to each foot, with moves performed in real life (so you pop up and bring your front foot to the side for kickflips etc.). However, once you understand it, it is extremely satisfying. The game also offers you a selection of modifiers like pop height and gravity to make things easier or harder as you like.
The game’s mission structure is surrounded by forgettable story dialogue in getting to a place, performing a trick or a route. Missions have a habit of being poorly explained, apart from being unable to re-read the text box explaining what you need to do. And rarely are the inputs required for specific moves shown during these signals. For better or worse, sessions are a sport for the hardcore skater. While its dedication to realism is impressive, the disappointment is most likely to be overcome in the early hours.
Source
