After a short wait from the open beta, it was time to continue my swash-buckling adventure as a pirate of the Indian Ocean in Skull and Bones. Because I participated in the open beta, it allowed me to continue where I left off. However, if you want to restart your journey or make a new character, you can’t. This was something that I didn’t understand as I wanted to change my character and start again but wasn’t able to; it’s the first time I have seen this in a game. Nonetheless, I jumped back into Skull & Bones and looked forward to what else was on offer in the full release.
For those who might not know, Skull and Bones is an action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Singapore. You play as a pirate during the late 17th century which is the peak of the historical golden age of piracy. Set in East Africa and Southeast Asia the game always you to play as a customisable pirate ship as well as your custom character but it mainly focuses on naval warfare at the core. You can play Skull and Bones single-player or gather up to five other players to participate in PVP or PVE elements.
I do feel a bit let down by the lack of exploration that is on offer in S&B. In terms of sailing the whole of the ocean is your ouster but sadly only several of the ports and settlements can be docked at and allow you to walk around and interact with numerous NPCs. Seeing as the game was advertised as open-world it only applies to the ship exploration not the exploration of both your character and the ship.
Right, now to move on to the main bread and butter. It’s hard for me not to compare this to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. I loved that game so much and when Skull & Bones first got announced in my head, I was like whole hell we are getting a Black Flag 2 just not with the Assassin’s Creed branding alongside it but after many delays and changes we finally got what we have today which is a RPG where the character is the pirate ship.
Image it to be like The Crew where you get wide exploration, but the vehicle (in Skull and Bones‘s case a pirate ship) is your character. It was sad to see that they stripped away the possibility to engage in sword fights, board enemies’ vessels, and even more so not being able to fire your firearms. It makes it even worse when you can get swords and guns as cosmetics on your character in the customisation and shops and you can’t even use them. It took me a good while to stop comparing Skull and Bones to ACIV: Black Flag and to take it as its own thing and once I did that, I started to get a bit more enjoyment out of it.
Navel combat is good, there are several different ships that you can unlock and even more weapons that you can add to your ships to make them truly terrifying. You can get different types of cannonballs, mortars, and oddly enough flamethrowers. I like that each ship can be built for different situations, if you wanted to build a tanky front-line ship you can, if you want to build a ship that stays far back and bombards the enemy with artillery then that’s also an option.
Another wacky feature is that you can get cannonballs that heal ships, I know, crazy right? It was nice that you had to unlock stronger weapons and ships by exploring and finding the blueprints, doing missions, and getting to the right level as it stretched out the game and made it, so you had to go explore and take it in.
When you manage to build enough infamy around yourself you will unlock the economic aspect of Skull & Bones. This allows you to set up your trade routes and access the black market via The Helm. This is another way to get in-game currency to be able to manage all your ships and needs. Settlements will also become available for you to convert to help with manufacturing and again generating income.
This is another sim-like element that makes Skull & Bones feel like a simulation game rather than an RPG. These are essential for the end-game grind because just like in the real world everything costs a fortune.
Scattered around the map are several locations that can be plundered, these can be super fun when playing with others but are difficult when done solo. You will find resource points as well which allow you to loot them, they are done on a little mini-game where you try and get the line on the gauge in the green section if you miss it three times you miss out on gaining loot. I would have preferred to be able to go on land or shipwrecks and gain treasure and loot that way but it’s a nice side game.
The location that allows you to disembark from your ship is beautiful looking but doesn’t offer anything extra in terms of gameplay features. They just offer vendors selling different things or have the odd treasure chest hidden in them, but they are that big so finding the missing treasure isn’t complicated and you could probably find it without a map they are that easy to find.
The PVP element is the true hero of Skull & Bones as it makes it go from a slow lonely slug fest to a proper pirating blast. PVP against other players and doing the strongholds/plunders is something that I feel Skull and Bones has done brilliantly. I would have liked to have been able to go onto shore but again I will have to just deal with it. It’s also good to strategies with the other players so that you take different ships to deal with the different situations that could happen.
It is frustrating though that PVP only happens under certain criteria. I can see why they have put this in place to protect players who might not want to partake in PVP but it would make the game so much more intense if it was active all the time, I mean it would be realistic.
Graphically I can’t really fault it, there were times when I’d have frame drops or a visual bug but nothing major to the point where the game was unplayable. I love the level of detail that has gone into the ports and areas that you can explore as well as the ships and your character. The true hero obviously being your ships as you can customise them quite a lot it’s just a shame you can’t walk around them to take it all in.
The first-person camera while steering the ship isn’t the best, I can’t use it for very long before getting a bit motion-sick. It’s weird normally it doesn’t bother me but something about the Skull and Bones camera makes me feel uneasy. That’s why I spend most of my time using the third-person camera. The cutscenes were very choppy which was frustrating to see in a AAA title. Even more so when you realize how long this game has been in development for.
It’s quite frustrating and kind of ruins the moments while watching cutscenes. The audio is fantastic, even more so thanks to the shanties. One thing I will note though is that your crew do shout the same thing repeatedly which can get on your nerves but after the 100th time of them telling you the same thing you just block them out. What I would say is that this game doesn’t disappoint on its map size it’s just sad that you can’t freely explore every location you come across.
When it comes to Skull & Bones there are elements of replay value. It helps the fact that it is a live service game so will be filtering new content over the next year. They have provided the road map for the first year’s content, and it does look good. If you have friends to play with as well it does make sailing the seas and being a pirate a lot more enjoyable as when playing solo, it does feel sluggish and quite mundane, even with the crew singing sea shanties. Skull & Bones is at its best when playing with others as it makes plundering, taking on Bounties, and PVP more intense and enjoyable.
Conclusion
Even though Skull and Bones have a solid foundation and a good first year lined up when it comes to the live service side of the game, I can’t help but feel let down by the final product. For the current asking price, I wouldn’t say it is worth it. You can get other pirate games that offer more than just navel battles which are half the price. Even Black Flag still stands the test of time, and you can easily jump onto this and get a more satisfying pirate experience.
With the recent announcement of Sea of Thieves coming to PlayStation 5, I can see PlayStation players leaning toward this rather than Skull and Bones. I don’t know whether it was the years of waiting for the ship to arrive in the port or the fact that this is just a ship simulated with elements thrown in, but it wasn’t what I was expecting from the game when it was first announced, and the lack of end game content is frustrating.
The lack of a solid story makes you feel like there shouldn’t have been a story at all and the fact that one of the late-game missions is to kill a dinosaur really says it all. If you are in the market for a ship RPG where you can customise your shifts to no end, sail the Indian Ocean, and engage in brutal navel combat then Skull and Bones are for you, however, if you are in the market for a full-on pirate game where it considers all factors of the pirate life then I wouldn’t hold out much hope for Skull and Bones and I’d recommend looking elsewhere for these reasons I’m giving Skull and Bones a 6 out of 10.
For having a solid foundation, promising looking first year when it comes to the live service elements of the game and its enjoyable PVP/PVE features.
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