Helskate Preview: Chaotic, gnarly fun for those who like to be challenged

Skateboarding fans are eager and awaiting to see what developer Full Circle has in store for its reboot of the sports franchise. But, while that game is still in production and without a debut date in clear vision, skating fans are no doubt looking for somewhere to entertain themselves for the time being. Developer Phantom Coast may just have the perfect title to fit that bill, although granted this very project, Helskate, is a little different to the traditional skating games we've seen in the past.

This is because Helskate is actually an action-packed, hack and slash roguelike built around skateboarding mechanics. That might sound like a lot to digest, and quite frankly it is. You suit up as a Hades-esque protagonist and then begin to zoom through the world of Vertheim, where you flip, trick, grind and slash your way through different monsters while racking up gnarly combos in individual rooms, all in the effort of making it to a boss, which is regarded as one of the Gods of Skating. With a roguelike design, you're not expected to succeed out the gates, as you gather and amass resources that can be used to permanently improve your character and make them more effective and resilient in the face of danger.

In many ways, Helskate is just a roguelike. The skating mechanics are more for flair than a necessity. You can easily head into a level and simply hunt down the monsters before progressing to the next room, but that would take the fun and thrill out of the gameplay. Helskate excels when you look to chain together combos, be it grinding across a rail to manualing up a halfpipe, landing a triple kickflip, and then slicing an enemy to pieces afterwards. There is a reason to make your life more difficult with gnarly tricks too, as each room comes with a set of side challenges that when completed reward extra currencies, with many of these tied to combos and landing specific tricks, but some relating to collecting Helsk8 letters (like Skate letters we've seen elsewhere) or smashing objects in a level. However, and more importantly, tricking and building a combo will make your attacks better, more effective, and even give them additional benefits, such as elemental attacks, assuming you've unlocked the right perks and abilities beforehand by choosing the right rewards for completing a room.

The core idea of a roguelike is still very apparent in this game. You get progressively stronger as you continue to work through a run, but also meet more demanding and deadly enemies, and eventually reach a point where you are significantly outmatched. The idea is to use the currencies you earn from a run to acquire permanent improvements at a central hub that ultimately make each run easier, and that's clearly used in Helskate, albeit even if it isn't as important right now as this Early Access build doesn't have a huge amount of levels to progress through yet.

This is an important thing to note, as the limited content doesn't just stretch to the number of unique levels available, it includes the type of challenges you're offered, the maps that show up, the enemies you face, and even the content on offer in the hub world that's accessible between runs. Helskate feels very early in its Early Access period right now, and that also stretches to the UI design, the graphics, the performance, and more. There is clearly a lot of potential with this game, but it's going to take a while to see it grow into something more complete and worthy of a purchase.

What I do hope Phantom Coast puts a bit of emphasis on as it continues development is the refinement of the skating mechanics. There are a lot of options and ways to flaunt your skills, but the systems as they are are very challenging to get to grips with, and even feel a little too punishing at times. The manualing and grinding mechanics are far too sensitive and make completing either frustrating, the combos are lost far too easily, and as Helskate is a very, very fast-paced game, it's demanding to be able to master all the different trick combinations and inputs while simultaneously evading enemy attacks and landing offensive hits too. At times, Helskate feels a bit much and over the top, and I think the best way to frame it is that there are often too many cooks in the kitchen at once, and the game would benefit from asking the player to do less actions at a time.

But at the same time, I respect the game that Phantom Coast has created here. I can see Helskate being off-putting to a lot of folk who struggle to adapt to the almost fighting game-like mechanics mixed with the speed and chaos of a bullet hell title. It's demanding, but it has its moments and shows lots of potential. Between the complex mechanics that give the player lots of agency if they can master it, to the punk soundtrack that perfectly accommodates the action and theme, to the roguelike systems that are punishing yet offer lots of options, Helskate has a bright future. It just won't be for everyone and that's completely fine.