Helskate was not a game that was on my radar, so when I got the opportunity to check it out, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The game is described as an action skateboarding roguelike, which is exactly as you picture it.
If you like roguelikes and skating, this game combines the two in a fashion that draws comparisons to the early Tony Hawk Pro Skater series of games. The game starts with the protagonist, Anton, who is chained in a small room from the ceiling; there is no explanation leading into this. Anton suddenly transforms, revealing a feathered arm, talons, and a wing. With a spin and a tug, Anton busts free of his holdings, and the game begins; after each death, you restart to this position and location. Grabbing the skateboard, you skate from these confines and bust through a large window into an abandoned mall.
Exploring the mall, you’ll find three gnarly people. Two have stores set up, and the third is your cameraman named Footage. Leyla’s tattoo shop adds boosts to Anton; these include additional life and recovery. Ginny Verve sells and upgrades weapons and boards, three of which are currently available. Of the three choices, there is a sword, claws, and a big hammer. Each gun and board can be upgraded, and all are useful in their own ways.
Skating to the far end of the mall, we discover a hell-mouth, a literal mouth that leads to the Vertheim underworld. This underworld is made up of a series of skate parks with objectives and enemies to overcome. This is also where the fun begins, and the roguelike elements come into play. After entering the hell mouth, Anton arrives at the first skate park, arriving in style by busting through a giant window. Rolling down the ramp, I discovered some sponsored gear floating; interacting with it gave me the choice of one of three garment items that assist with attacks. These garments are upgrades to the characters’ fighting ability and take on multiple forms, including headwear, shirts, pants, gloves, and shoes. Only one item can be attached to each slot; they can apply a multitude of status effects on enemies, including fire, poison and explosions and can even alter tricks to add attacks like missiles from performing a kickflip.
Once the garment choice is made, you then take your board and weapon into your run. You are touring the various stages of Vertheim and defeating a variety of enemies using the three basic attack and defence abilities. There is a light attack, which has a slight tracking to attack the nearest foe; a heavy attack that does more damage and varies with each weapon; and then a charge or dodge ability, allowing a fast movement away or into enemies. The shoulder buttons control these, or you can do it with a mouse and keyboard. It is suggested on the start-up screen to use a gamepad, and after trying both methods, it was my preference.
The other side of Hellskate is, of course, the skating itself. The core gameplay and skills are easy to learn and a bit tougher to master. Avid fans of older Tony Hawk games will feel right at home with the game’s skating tricks and skills. The game works with all the controllers I have at home, including my main peripherals, an Xbox or PS5 Controller, and even the Steam Deck. The game’s control scheme is set up to make life easy, so by working around the buttons, we get a feel for the game. Starting with the face buttons, the bottom button is for ollieing, the left is for board tricks, the right is for hold tricks, and the top is for grinding. The left joystick or d-pad controls movement, while the right is for camera controls. This control scheme worked brilliantly, and I enjoyed how fluid the game’s skill mechanic manoeuvred. Landing from a hold into a manual and combining it into a grind, repeating to rack up massive points, was great; it was always devastating when an accidental landing or combo was broken by crashing. There are some excellent competition levels where making the most of the points run is paramount, and beating the God of Vertheim Garland is very satisfying.
The level designs are good even if there are some small annoyances like access to areas, but this gets fixed with skill unlocks. There are also a couple of stages with gaps that can be hard to traverse. Overall, though, the levels are thought out enough that skating and battle can be completed, and large scores can be reached.
The music also evokes old-style X games like Dave Mira BMX, Tony Hawk, or SSX, with lots of punk and rocking titles playing in the background. The style and visual choices made for the game look excellent, even on smaller screens.
HelSkate is a very promising title with plenty of room for growth. The game is amazing for an early access game and worked well on the Steam Deck as well as my PC. The level designs were fantastic and only had some annoyances. The accompanying music and playlist hit those nostalgic feelings and often had me bopping away while playing. The controls were tight, and once I got more time in the game, it was shown bright. It has become a favourite to pick up and play on my Deck while travelling. I can’t wait for the full release with more stages and gear. It will be a sight to see, I am sure.
(Review code provided to Explosion Network.
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