At the beginning of June, the studio Roll7 made a presentation of her new project OlliOlli World, within which journalists and bloggers could familiarize themselves with a playable demo. This is the third game in the series, which began its life on the PlayStation Vita.
How can a franchise be described OlliOlli? Imagine a 2D variation Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, which was combined with simplified mechanics from the series Trials… A character on a skateboard moves from left to right (or from right to left), trying to get to the end of the track and overcome obstacles, gaining as many points as possible and fulfilling additional conditions. If the skater falls, he is thrown back to the checkpoint, taking off some glasses.
All control is tied to the stick. Pounding on one of the buttons (“A” on the Xbox controller), the character accelerates. By deflecting the stick to one side and letting go, you can jump and perform one of the tricks. If, while jumping, you deflect the stick and hold it again, the character can ride along the railing (grind). Players need to keep an eye on the track, avoiding falls and making combos.
In the case of OlliOlli World, Roll7 decided to jump over its head. The game has moved to 3D, although the gameplay can be described as a 2.5D platformer. This made it possible to make the tracks more branched – in some places the road splits and allows you to choose a different route, revealing additional secrets or a simpler / more difficult obstacle course.
Visually, the triquel cannot be called a breakthrough. The developers use fairly simple character and object models and cell shading technology. This is often used in games based on cartoons (Adventure Time, The simpsons etc). What Roll7 did exactly was the landscapes. In some places, the camera zooms out, allowing you to enjoy the panorama while the character rushes along the track or glides along the railing at high speed.
The story in OlliOlli World is pretty simple and unpretentious. The main character becomes a member of a small team of skateboarders of all ages and begins to explore a large island, divided into several zones, along the way completing tasks from partners.
The developers expect that the player will replay the levels several times. Often, a location provides for several routes and a bunch of different tests. For example, you need to destroy the balloons scattered across the territory in the form of cats, break the record of a fellow skateboarder in points, get to the finals without reloading from the checkpoint, and so on. If you deviate from the main route, you can find additional characters that will open access to more difficult tasks on the global map.
The basics of control have not changed – jumps and tricks are performed using the stick. There are also additional elements, such as billboards, on which you can also slide. In some places, ramps have been added, due to which OlliOlli World forces the player to switch to another “track layer”, starting to move in the opposite direction.
When everything is working out as it should, OlliOlli World feels like a great little recreation game. The problem is that there can be control problems that can piss the player off even more than the challenging obstacle courses in Trials.
In the demo, most of the problems were caused by the trail sections with billboards. The game does not quite correctly read the deflection of the stick, so the character, immediately after the jump, can begin to slide on the surface, not having time to gain the necessary height to overcome the abyss. At some point, we even got stuck trying all possible options for pressing the stick. In the same situation, the character can normally overcome an obstacle or go to a checkpoint.
It is also confusing to switch “track layers” using ramps. In some places it is necessary to jump over an abyss, at the bottom of which you can see asphalt. But you can’t jump – you need to get to the ramp, otherwise the game will send the skateboarder to the checkpoint.
Perhaps we just didn’t have time to get used to the controls. Or just let the roots of the series know about themselves. The first two parts of OlliOlli were released on mobile devices – it’s easy to imagine that instead of deflecting the stick, you need to swipe and tap on the screen.
OlliOlli World turned out to be a pretty fun little game. The demo can be completed in a couple of tens of minutes, and when everything works out, the player begins to feel the rhythm and enjoy performing longer and longer combo chains. Hopefully the billboard issue will be resolved by release.
OlliOlli World will be released this winter on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch. At release, Roll7 says players will be able to customize their skateboarder’s looks and tricks, share sandbox-created tracks, and challenge friends in the Leagues.
See Also: Sony: The Morbius Movie Is Not In The Cinematic Universe
