Helskate – Tony Hawk has been unintended in Valhallu. Review

Not defined

Played on PC

There are not so many projects devoted to skatership culture, and even games, where a dashing action has been added to the execution of tricks and driving along power lines, and at all at all (excellent rollerdrome perhaps, and then we are chasing the quads there, and Do not dive). And it was the unusual genre combination of Helskate that attracted my attention-the concept of the skate explosion-river sounded very intriguing, and the reviews from early access were mainly praise. Only now there is a nuance: that which is quite excusable to the project in Early Access, no one will forgive in a full release. And it is on this bump that Helskate stumbles and falls deafeningly. However, you still have to get to this bump …

Well, rushed!

⇡#Anton Falcon Pokatushki

A slightly awkward, but quite charming entry Helskate introduces us to the main hero of the game, Anton Falcon (the reference to Tony Hawka was not particularly hidden). He is a simple skater from Vertheim, who strives for simple skatership things: recognition, glory and opportunity to wipe his nose to Garland, the arrogant lord of Vertheim. But in the way of the hero, an insurmountable bar in a million points, a humiliating defeat right in front of the local lord and a skate broken in half, becomes to embodiment ambitions. The latter serves as a catalyst for awakening in Anton of lurking power, which will help him achieve the desired heights. But for starters, it is necessary to prove your coolness in many races over and over again.

Each arrival has a typical zerg structure and borrows different elements in colleagues in the direction. But the two main sources of Helskate inspiration are especially clearly. Say, the mechanics of increasing total complexity synchronously over time in the party are clearly spied on the Risk of Rain series. The principle is this: the longer you are in the race, the more difficult the general process is that the enemies are strong, apply more damage and get more powerful abilities. And in order not to encounter a completely dentisting challenge, it is worth pushing.

Powerful Ommage era – a huge green arrow indicating the direction

The general process, pumping, progress and a reward system in the races are clearly resonated with Hades and other similar projects. The development of the hero consists of permanent improvements, which can be issued for resources obtained on sorties, as well as from the strengthening dot during the races themselves. The first category includes, for example, a tattoo: Anton can fill, say, a heart that increases the maximum health supply, or lightning, which will increase the affordable supply of jerks. And you can also improve the current skate or buy a new one, which will provide the hero with a new weapon with a different principle of use – for example, rapid shurikens, or, conversely, a more thorough heavy hammer. But no matter what weapons, you make, success will largely depend on the assembly inside the race.

There are many different improvements in the course of the sorties: here are the elements of the wardrobe that will add spontaneous power to the attacks, and the VHS cassettes, which will screw an additional effect to a certain trick like the launch of homing missiles or tornadoes. Also in each arena, additional sources of skaters were scattered: stickers and magazines. Having glued on a skate, say, “eagle eye”, you will increase the chance of a critical attack, the “happy locust” will increase the damage from poisonous attacks, and the “hooligan fighter” will contribute to increase the defeat of health above ninety percent. The gloss can both increase the levels of tricks in a certain category, and increase the number of points for a specific movement.

Between battles, we are able to show off in a test in front of Garland. If we win, we get a valuable award and the displeased grunt of the Lord of Vertheim

To increase bonuses from tricks is a fundamental need, because in almost every arena the main goal will always be a set of a certain number of points. With each new level, the threshold of passage increases, and in order to keep up with it, it is necessary to properly go into the performance of grains, flips, manuals, grabs and slides (including the walls). And even better – to learn how to perform long combo, consisting of different tricks in order to evenly increase both the basic number of points and their multiplier. This part of the game is perfectly embodied: movements of varying degrees of complexity are quite represented, and the process of studying, testing and combining captivates.

The combat system is not a sophistication, it is not an example: a light attack, a heavy attack, a jerk. There are no intricate deadly combinations, and the fights are not offered, but in combination with the speed and the need to maintain a series of tricks (defeating enemies, you get a temporary shield for the combo), the fighting brings a certain share of fun. And also, at some point, they open many fundamental problems of the game.

As soon as you perform a quota on points, you have to converge with a mini-boss

⇡#Cool trick, performance – so -so

Helskate is a really perky game, but she has enough problems. For example, for a full release, it is weakly polished – here and there there are small bugs or graphic roughnesses, which, although not critical, spoil the overall impression. It is annoying when a series of tricks breaks due to the fact that Anton, instead of sliding along the wall, simply falls through the building; Or when, from contact with the enemy, our hero suddenly flies into space (giants from Skyrim convey greetings).

In principle, most of the project flaws lies precisely in the combat system. More precisely, in the battles themselves-primarily due to the fact that Helskate is terribly poorly tuned to the camera. It is worth starting the battle, how it begins to wind it wildly, so much so that it can literally rock it. And if you use fixation on one enemy, then get ready for crazy pirouettes prospects, in comparison with which the behavior of the camera from Dark Souls in battles with large opponents will seem to be a standard of stability.

Nothing will restore health as effectively as a fragrant hot dog from a dubious cart

By the way, Bosses in Helskate are also a significant problem. The battles with them turned out to be a very unsightly and incomprehensible mess, in which it is quite difficult to even just navigate, not to mention reading enemy attacks (this is partly relevant in relation to ordinary opponents) or an understanding of opportunities for an increased onslaught. Yes, even the basic principles of such clashes are decided frankly lousy. Say, the battle with the show, a giant skeleton on a monstrous skate, passed as follows: the boss constantly jumped from Anton to a venerable distance, and so often that I only managed to get, Sean already made a new jump, not even allowing the slightest opportunity to inflict damage to himself. An absolutely dishonest and tiring battle, during which there was a distinct impression that he was not tested at all.

By the way, sometimes damage is not registered in principle. This was especially striking during the fights with mini-bosses when using a heavy attack. And sometimes-and this is already a question to set up a balance-a mini-boss can be killed from almost two strokes, and you don’t even understand how this happened-either the total power from the next sticker jumped like that, or it was a bug. In any case, not one of the mini-bosses poses a real threat, and as soon as you understand the basic principles of Helskate, it will hardly take you at least one race for more than twenty minutes (ten of which will take a stupid battle with the Sean). And then another problem turns out – the game quickly, very quickly for a slide, exhausts himself. It is not interesting to pass the same levels over and over again, it is not interesting to monitor the development of history, and the entire park of tricks, techniques and abilities will be along and across the hours in five hours, if not less.

Different tests are scattered on the locations, during which it is necessary to type points for speed, to bring down surveillance cameras and perform other optional tasks

And this, in combination with a depressing technical condition and annoying gameplay deficiencies, creates confidence that the developers were too hurrying to leave early access – Helskate does not look and is not perceived as a project in a full release. It’s a shame, because there is definitely potential. I sincerely hope that the game will not be abandoned and yet they will bring to mind.

Advantages:

• Swift and dynamic gameplay with an interesting combination of action and skate arcade;
• The skatier part turned out to be what you need.

Disadvantages:

• A lot of bugs, albeit small, but, in aggregate, spoiling a general impression;
• A disgustingly tuned camera that often gives the motionless somersault;
• The gameplay is exhausted quite quickly, including due to flaws in gaming design.

Graphic arts

Stylization for arcade projects of twenty years ago turned out to be pleasantly nostalgic. But there are still several complaints about the general visual execution: somewhere the locations look too, among ordinary opponents, at least one memorable or original individual will be unable to meet, and the readiness of objects at the levels should have worked better.

Sound

The basic sounds of driving, strokes and abilities are present here, but the audio design does not have enough accents, depth, juiciness – all that you expect from the game of this direction.

But the Helskate playlist is trying to correspond to the selected aesthetics: the classic breakdown for skate games, the Bodny SKA-Punk and even a little rappor for skate games. There are among the tracks both really “swinging” things and completely unspoken compositions.

Single player game

Dynamic skate explosion-rocheck, replete with technical and gam-design shortcomings.

Estimated time of completion

One race will take no more than twenty to thirty minutes, and you can get enough of all Helskate content in four to five hours.

Collective game

Not foreseen.

General impression

The arrogant and rapid skatier action-roche-alas, damp and abundant in short-works in the basic gaming aspects that prevent it from fully enjoying it.

Rating: 6.0 / 10

More about grading system

Video: