Helskate Review (PC)

If, by some random miracle, Sunset Overdrive, Hi-Fi Rush, and Thirsty Suitors were to be the three recipients in some form of freak accident that somehow wound up with the edgy trio merging into a standalone product, then the result would look a whole lot like Helskate. That’s honestly the best way I can describe it, and I’m not entirely sure if I’m getting early Pro Skater vibes from it, or a sense of originality that I’m unable to graze with a razor-sharp bread knife. It’s a weird concept — a product that just so happens to revolve around skateboarding, demons, and a candy-popping series of back alley brawls, but it’s also one that I, weirdly enough, recently felt inclined to unravel, if only to see all of its oddities in action.

Helskate is, in ways, a skateboarding game above all else, and one that delivers a comic book-style coating with a mixture of hack-and-slash combat and a roguelite progression system. And if you think that’s weird, then wait till you get a load of the Gods of Skating. Yeah, we’ll also need to touch base on those flesh-deprived so-and-sos at some point over the next several minutes, too.

Anyway, before we dive any deeper into Phantom Coast’s latest skate-centric IP, it is worth pointing out that, at the time of writing, at least, Helskate is still in its Early Access phase, which means there are still several screws in need of a tweak or two. If, however, you’re wondering whether or not to sample the waters before jumping in at the deep end, then be sure to read on for a few more details.

Welcome to Vertheim

Helskate is many, many things, but a love letter to Norse mythology, however, it most definitely is not — hence the setting, Vertheim—a tongue-in-cheek play on words that draws from the World-Tree branch of Valheim. Conflict of interest aside, Phantom Coast’s skateboarding IP does feature its admirable share of hat-tipping markers, including a web of kickflip-loving titans known as the Gods of Skating (don’t ask), as well as an entire open-ended realm of winged creatures and suburban demonic dwellers. The only thing it’s really missing, of course, is Odin. And that’s a shame, truly; Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 had Benjamin Franklin, for crying out loud.

To put you in the picture, Helskate is an action-skateboarding beat 'em-up game in which players are invited to plunge into the aforementioned world of Vertheim—a seemingly harmless suburban city that just so happens to foster a small army of menacingly tough enemies and titanic deities. It’s your duty, as a fledgling deck-wielding brawler, to submerge into the streets, and challenge the Gods of Skating to their own game of S-K-A-T-E. And by that, I mean grinding up their backsides and giving them a big ol’ slap round the cheek with a throwing star.

There’s a trick to all of this, though: when you die, you have to rewind the clock and skate all of the same obstacles again, only with better gear, and even more moves to showcase. The ultimate goal, in a true roguelike fashion, is to carve into the demonic world, rack up a whole bunch of points, and develop your character enough to be able to carve even deeper in later attempts, as well as skate the grungiest depths of the underworld. Simple enough, right? Right.

Skate and Die

It is worth pointing out here that Helskate was built by the same set of hands that fashioned Tony Hawk’s Underground way back when. And I’m just going to come out and say it: it shows, if not in its wacky art style, then in its every button prompt and combo. The point is, this is, even with a roguelike twist, a love letter to Tony Hawk’s Underground and Pro Skater — so much of one, that it practically emulates all of the same tricks, combos, and score systems. And so, if those button layouts are still looming over your head after twenty years, then there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to put them to good use here.

Of course, if you’re looking for a lifelike skating experience that borrows elements from the likes of Skate or Session: Skate Sim, then you’re going to be a little disappointed with what Helskate has in its casket. For the record, it isn’t a realistic game, nor is it one that aims to make skateboarding seem like an uphill struggle that’s almost impossible to master. In other words, it’s a relatively painless, action-packed process, and it does all in its power to make you execute mind-blowing combos with little to no prior knowledge of the process.

Skating set aside, Helskate is also reliant on its combat system—an unruly design that allows you to switch between melee and ranged weapons as you cruise between regions of the underbelly of the suburban arena. It’s quite the banquet, if anything, and not to mention, unlike anything any of us have ever seen before.

Devil May Skate?

It’s certainly no secret that Helskate is, more or less, a tribute to some of the older, memorialized cult skating games out there. And it doesn’t pretend to be anything more than that, either, which is commendable in ways. The fact that it includes tasks that vary from collecting S-K-A-T-E letters (or H-E-L-S-K-8, in this case), and unearthing certain collectibles to help boost your character’s stats, essentially fortifies our previous statement that this is, to a certain extent, a love letter, only with several additional verses and a new lick of paint embellishing the borders.

Of course, there is the roguelike blueprint to touch base on, too—a system that allows players not only to die and repeat their same mistakes, but also acquire an in-game currency to splash out on new upgrades, cosmetics, and general stat boosts. Again, it isn’t anything we haven’t seen a hundred times already, but its newfound association with the art of extreme sports is definitely an innovation that’s all rather new and exciting. And so, for that, we’re happy to give a dozen or so points to the devs — if only for attempting to breach vast new borders that have yet to find a market.

In addition to all of the above components, Helskate also provides a genuinely hard-hitting score that’s both thematically accurate for its genre, as well as reminiscent of its sources. In other words, it’s almost as if Activision permitted Phantom Coast to utilize each and every sound effect and punk-rock track in its arsenal — and that's, you know, fine.

Verdict

Helskate isn’t your run-of-the-mill skating game, that’s for sure. In fact, it’s much more than that, and I can’t help but applaud its creators for combining two elements that, in all honesty, probably shouldn’t work. And yet, for all the while I chose to scoot around town and slay a demon or twelve with a web of throwing stars, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the world I was invited to be a part of. In the strangest of ways, I was almost reliving my childhood memories, particularly when it came to thrashing out top-shelf combos and mindlessly mashing buttons to generate combos that I couldn’t even label.

To cut a long story short, if you, like me, have been spending the past twenty years hounding the folks over at Activision for a well-overdue remake of the Underground series, then you’re likely to find Helskate a worthy appetizer to fulfill those needs. If, however, you’re after something that specializes in full-fat combat and RPG-like progression, then you might be barking up the wrong tree. It’s a skateboarding game, clear as day, and one that pours all of its efforts into capturing the necessary ingredients to create nostalgia fodder for a specific audience. Its inclusion of combat is a neat addition, for sure, but to label it as anything other than a glamorized skate ‘em up would be an exaggeration.

When all's said and done, Phantom Coast has clearly made the effort to tap into something that hasn't quite been memorialized, let alone established yet. And while it is, in its current state, perhaps, a little all over the place and without any real torchbearer of its own, it's also something that we can't help but applaud, either — if only for trying something new.