Helskate (PC) - Preview | Phenixx Gaming

In a world of demons and monsters, you play as Anton Falcon, the greatest skater of the Helskate. At least that’s the intention of Phantom Coast’s Tony Hawk’s with Rogue-like combat and a whole lot of Hades-inspired story elements. In reality, there is a slight disconnect with the lack of momentum required to move around – 3D Sonic, anyone? With nothing more than a push in a direction and X, Y, or B, you’re off doing tricks as you normally would, almost. If you’re used to tying combos together through chained grinds or throwing yourself up ramps to kickflip the moon, Helskate isn’t for you, yet.

From an easy-to-miss announcement, Helskate released into Early Access last month, proving itself to feel like a proof of concept. Story-wise we’ve got the first chapter, “Escape from Vertheim.” It is about now that you’ll notice there is a whole lot of demon and monster-based iconography, with Anton himself possibly being a reference to Abezethibou, the fallen angel from the pseudepigrapha Testament of Solomon. It would seem that heaven (or hel) is indeed a halfpipe, one which asks you to demon slay, score points as you normally would, and spell “Helsk8.”

As you expect with Rogue-likes, there are some upgrades such as themed weapons and passive upgrades too, this time through some tattoos and boards. Being the early-access period, there is a limited number of options, three of each. With each run out in the Helskate you collect coins, gems, and crafting components, all of which contribute to your progression as you face off with Garland – not the Judy kind. Anton’s goal as he lets the wing and board take over him is to go skate at the beach.

At least I think that’s his goal, as he states it a hundred million times in his quiet interactions with a total of five other characters. For the life of me, I’ve tried changing the in-game volume to better reflect a decent mix, something comparably comfortable to listen to against everything else I’ll play or listen to using the same headphones, same volume, same everything. It doesn’t work. I have every in-game slider at 100%, something I hardly ever do as I usually put the music at 20-40%, and even at 100% I’m struggling to find “We’ve got Pro Skater soundtracks at home” at a decent energetic level.

The soundtrack to Helskate itself isn’t terrible, though you’d be hard-pressed to find fans of Horndal, PSF, Twin Pigs (lots of Twin Pigs), Spøgelse, Exil, Sticky Baby, Baby Jesus, and The Inseminoids. Each of which has less than 10,000 monthly listens on streaming platforms, many of which have fewer than even 2,000. It all has that energy of Skate Punk/Noise Punk, but there is very little I’d say will be as memorable twenty years down the line as we’ve seen with the Pro Skater, Underground, or arguably American Wasteland soundtracks.

“It is an unfair comparison!” From presentation to feel, Phantom Coast invites the Tony Hawk’s comparison to Helskate with that heavy Hades story influence. The comparison isn’t a bad thing, but when there are comforts that people are used to within this realm, the comparison is to highlight what might be missing in this Early Access release as of now. I’ve already mentioned the combos, something that is possible. It is easy enough to hit the 150,000 objective in some levels, but it is how you get these combos that is odd.

Where in a Pro Skater you’d double tap X, Y, or B during a grind, Helskate doesn’t allow for this and instead, you need to come off the rail to clip back on with a different type of grind. You can argue it is for realism but Anton has a wing coming out of his back and there are a whole lot of monsters to fight. The best way to tie combos together (as I’ve found) is flat ground tricks as if you’re Rodney Mullen, but again without momentum, you are constantly moving which is a benefit and a curse.

It is best to try and pull yourself away from the creature comforts you know, at least for now, as it all feels familiar but just different enough to feel odd. Of course, some of that change has to accommodate the combat, which is very Rogue-like. Yes, that’s the genre, but I’m speaking more about the tropes you’ll find within the genre. It is light, it is quick, there are flashes of style, and there is something about it that’s enjoyable. At the same time, I don’t feel I have a lot of feedback.

This returns me to the audio issue I have, as I have to rely on thin health bars above heads and hope whatever I’m hitting is dead in a minute. Numbers flashing up be damned, I’m more likely to feel an impact when I hear it (if I can hear it) than I am to see numbers across the screen with the one ranged attack. It goes both ways, In the first fight with the Grindwyrm Prime (the boss before the big boss) I died twice because very little tells you other than a small bar in the top left. In the second fight I hardly took a hit and it was a breeze.

With only three boards available from the shop currently, you have three options for weapons. To unlock the two beyond your starting board you need specific crafting components, some of which aren’t in abundance comparable to others. Effectively there are a whole bunch of currencies: You have gold, scrap, gems, plywood, and more. Some are rarer than others, but generally in a couple of runs you’ll have a bit of everything and a lot of others. I think the balance going forward is going to have to be addressed, as there is plenty of space for other boards/weapons, but it is skewed for the three available.

I think it is also worth noting the performance at the time of writing, which on a 30-series RTX at 1080P hits 60 comfortably, most of the time. Running every effect and preset as high as they’ll go, most levels perform as you’d expect, even with several effects of monsters or other AI on the screen. The one problem I have had in general has been Shawn, the final boss so far in this first chapter, as I’ve seen dips to 30s and highs in low 50s. It’s not the worst-case scenario, but I’d hardly call it preferable either.

Neither would I say are several bugs, glitches, or general oddities of Early Access. The one I think that’s most prevalent is maybe a lack of animation when you do mess up a combo or something to identify why you might have screwed up; currently, it is a logo that comes up or the score counter at the bottom turns red. In my experience, it seems to be on a whim that you’ll have a mess up. I’ve tried landing tricks as straight as possible, not attempting anything too odd close to landing, and sometimes even keeping the balance meeter level hasn’t stopped combos being broken.

I’ve not even gotten to the instances of falling out of the world reliably, certain story elements where characters aren’t supposed to be where they are, and some other things. I can cut most of it up to Early Access teething problems, but when it includes elements of gameplay going missing and never returning, That’s beyond a little problem. I think it is what we in the business of playing games (yes, that is a joke) would call a major problem.

The more passive upgrades that you maintain when out in the Helskate are your tattoos, something that costs one of those pesky currencies you collect. Not only do you get tattoos, but you can upgrade them to be more powerful. A minute ago I said I died twice to the Grindwyrm boss, that’s because one of the tattoos you can get allows you to be resurrected and presumably perform a Christ Air soon after. After the story element that removes it and suggests it will return, many runs into the Helskate later I’m still waiting for Leyla to stab me with ink.

I have my complaints with Helskate, though most of them are due to its early nature at this point. I feel I’m saying this a lot right now, but Phantom Coast has laid out the groundwork for something fantastic that blends two of my favorite gaming experiences. Sure, there is some roughness right now, and quite frankly that’s understandable, but I don’t think I’d be the only one to say I wouldn’t trade a skating-themed Hades-like story with gameplay plucked straight from the PS2 era.

From look to feel to overall presentation, Helskate is everything I wanted it to be, though requires a touch of polish. I also wouldn’t mind a bit of accessibility, as remapping controls on a controller seems impossible, and reverting to Y/triangle as the back button still feels odd. You can play and remap on a keyboard, but you’d have to be on the good stuff to think that’s a great idea. There is a lot of promise in Helskate, and I can’t wait to see what the next several months of development bring to Phantom Coast’s Rogue-like mix of skating and fighting.

A PC preview copy of Helskate was provided by Phantom Coast for this review.