Wait, hang on.
Do you hear that?
Session is very much a game where the scaffolding still shows.
Legs twist and roll through themselves with the momentum of a non-euclidean gymnast.
The board freaks out and flies off into the bushes like a frightened weasel.
The replay camera gets caught in level geometry and suffers a debilitating seizure.
You’ll encounter all these in the first hour and they never really let up.
Okay, somebody like turn the siren off now.
Short version: Tony Hawk this ain’t.
It ain’t even Skate, the stick-flippy favourite of video game skatefolk since 2007.
Here, each controller thumbstick controls a leg.
Which means if you switch stance, everything you’d normally do is now reversed.
(Actually, that sounds great.
Raven Software, you could have that one for free.)
There’s a pat-your-head-rub-your-belly sensation to this thumb devilry.
It takes time to learn.
It took a few hours of dark language and irked adjusting of options before I found the fun again.
As for the new stuff, this latest update will add two new spots.
It’s just, right now, it’s not that.
It’s reassuring to have bits and pieces still arriving, of course.
You might pull off the silkiest, most excellent set offlips and manuals.
It’s not just bugs.
Since the thumbsticks are reserved for footwork, steering is done with the triggers.
But to revert you have to double-tap a trigger.
(A cool feature!)
It’s one of the game’s big strengths.
Many of them weren’t there at release.
you could tweak the gravity, push speed, the rate at which your body rotates in the air.
you’re free to tighten each truck independently.
It’s impressive, probably even overwhelming for more casual players.
For me, I’m happy there’s a game that seeks to carve so close to the sport.
Session is still trucking to be skateboarding a la carte, for people with pre-existing technical expertise.
Or for people like me, who wear Appleyard shoes and pretend to be that.
With that in mind, I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt.
A cautiously optimistic “wait and see how it comes out”.
Yes, I did have to use Google Maps to see if that analogy worked.
What do you want from me, blood?
