Session: Skate Sim - Abandoned Mall DLC Review

Session is a game I jump back into a few times a week to just unwind and attempt to nail down some realistic lines. Now, I’ve got a whole new area to skate and spend way too long in the replay editor, as the Abandoned Mall DLC has just released! Assuming you’ve skated every hidden spot in the main game, found all the secrets of those radical Ninja Turtles, and cleaned out the in-game shop of their DIY objects stock, is this new content worth a return to perhaps the most realistic skateboarding game out there? Let’s find out!

First off, just like the Waterpark DLC before it, you’ll find the Abandoned Mall map (known in-game as the “Phat Nugget Mall”. Incredible name, I know!) under the “Extra Network” map selection screen. “Fun” fact: one of creā-ture Studios’ QA testers — known on YouTube as JL Nightmare — actually pushed for it to be named Mongo Mall, and I genuinely can’t decide which one is better?

Anyway! Upon loading into Phat Nugget Mall, you’ll spawn on a first-floor walkway, with the whole strip of playground stretching away in front of you. At a quick glance, you’ll be able to spot countless rails and escalators to grind, some dangerous-looking gaps, and a few objects scattered about just waiting to be ollie’d over. The full size of the map isn’t huge; it’s rather narrow, and although there are a lot of great objects to skate, the length of the map can be covered in around 30 seconds.

Still, quality over quantity, though, and I have to admit that this quickly became one of my favourite areas to skate. The place is packed with kinked rails, manny pads, and banks to get creative with, and that’s even before you’ve opened up the object dropper! Starting off on the first-floor walkways, there are some fun gaps to try and trick over (be careful not to fall!) that will make even the simplest of tricks look impressive. There are also a few quarter pipes against the back wall and many, many staircases to get you down to the ground floor.

The ground floor is where things truly open up, featuring wider spaces for longer lines or getting creative with moveable objects. This area is where I ran into a few issues, though, such as certain wooden boards placed over stairs being slightly too high, leading to an instant bail should you want to ride down them. This, as well as one particular ledge that just seemed to instantly cause any boardslides I attempted to stop dead, can be mildly frustrating when you’re in the zone, but they were far from game-breaking. The rest of the ground floor is filled with curved benches, hubbas, and so much more. The map is very much like the rest of Session, grounded in reality and full of objects you spot that make you go. “Oh, I have to get a trick on that!”

Its design is great; graffiti daubs every wall, the fluorescent paint of the now-derelict arcade area, even the lighting — with the skylights casting rays of light into the mall — looks impressive. Those who may want to turn this ramshackle building into something more modern, however, will be very pleased with the almost 40 new DIY objects to play around with. That’s an impressive amount (not counting the free objects included in the latest patch) and are some of the most interesting pieces you’ll find in the game. Sure, the graffiti and debris are still there, so it’ll never look completely refurbished, but who cares when you’ve created your very own Tampa Am?

I would have liked to have seen some new missions, challenges, or a new pro skater (such as Chris Cole featured in the Waterpark DLC), but for the price, it’s a very good map to just experiment in, with some of the most enjoyable gaps in the game thus far. Add in the huge number of new DIY objects, and this isn’t too bad for the asking price. With the constant updates and improvements coming to Session, there’s a lot of fun to be had if, like me, you can spend hours filming a clean-looking line to show off online.