There was quite a lot of commotion surrounding this game. It was supposed to take over the pirate games market, which Sea of Thieves has been ruling over for quite some time. Ubisoft is not a company you can trust entirely on their word, as the Assassin games have been hit-and-miss sometimes, and not all their productions were quite up to par (hi, Watch Dogs fans!).
Nevertheless, the warmly received Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and high hopes for Star War: Outlaws made this an even more anticipated title than ever before.
So, is it the first game in the history of the universe that is not a triple but a quadruple-A title? Will enemy ships finally sink? Is this the Ubisoft game that will challenge the narrative? Let’s find out!
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What Is Skull and Bones?
Are you a fan of intense naval combat but also enjoy gathering resources endlessly with no luck? How about diving into deep customization options, only to be inexplicably ignored by a blacksmith? If this sounds like your kind of adventure, then you're in luck!
Overall, it’s an ambitious pirate adventure where you can find a buried treasure, explore the high seas, team up, or go solo – there is a lot going on in this game. And we will tell you all about it.
The first thing that comes to mind after sailing through some truly wonderfully animated seas is that – they really did not fulfill the true pirate fantasy.
Now, don’t get us wrong, it’s not like this game does not have what it takes to be the ultimate pirating experience. But, as it turns out, there is much greater potential in this title that the creators just did not explore fully.
Pirate Fantasy
On paper – everything seems fine! We’ve heard from Ubisoft about countless hours of playtime, multiple games with open worlds, and trade routes going all over the world! Well, it was supposed to be a quadruple A game, making you never want to play Sea of Thieves again! It’s a pirate’s life as it was supposed to look like? It happened…but not entirely.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start with the beginning. First, you need to create a character to embark on a wonderful journey. Here is where Skull and Bones begins. Even the basics of the game are creatively introduced with a narrative; you start by destroying an enemy ship to get the hang of steering and shooting. Next, you land on the beach with only a small ship for you to utilize and a pirate-owned island to understand other mechanics, like ship upgrades, armor crafting, and such.
…That Feels Like a Choir
Well, not entirely. But there are a lot of problems when it comes to this beautiful fantasy. The game is tedious at times. The main goal is pretty simple – climb the ranks by doing multiple tasks, many different missions, resource gathering, and…a lot more. It’s tough to make it enjoyable if you gather some wood from an island, and you can see this wood, but there is no way of collecting it. So that’s that. And it’s a shame because the handling of the ships feels pretty fun, and it does not have the Sea of Thieves problem of “THERE IS TOO MUCH WATER ON THE SHIP.”
As the goal is to become the top of the world of maritime rogues, you need to find ways to impress your contemporaries. You have the charismatic Captain John Spurlock, fascinating Admiral Rahma, and plenty of other characters you will meet on your journey to the unknown. You don’t have to go through the main quest, though, as it’s rather an addition to the overall journey as a pirate. Especially considering the fact that those are not the people you would actually fight for but NPCs that you will probably remember as, well, NPCs.
Story Time!
We cannot shake off the fact that the story in Skull and Bones was not the developers' first priority. It’s just, well, not that interesting. Considering how great and wonderful the world we are experiencing is, the “go there, kill x, come back” missions from the not-that-memorable characters are definitely not something we would expect from a game like this.
It’s the Modern Warfare III problem, where you have everything surrounding the story being the top of the top, and there is a good game there somewhere; it’s just so hard to get to it behind the mediocre storyline. The main problem is that there is no clear reason why we should fight to finish the storyline. Is the world ending? Definitely not. Will we change the pirating experience for all? Nope. The reason for doing those missions is solely the fact that you got those missions, and they need to be done.
In our perfect envisioning of this project, we saw a grand narrative where the lone pirate infiltrates the Marines or the world finally hears our name as we scream it from the top of some hidden island. Maybe some betrayals, bloody weddings, lots of brutality, and some treachery on top of that. We wondered if it would be possible to make the players cooperate with strangers in order to finish the mission. Maybe some final raid where a hundred or so players would need to fight against a giant fleet of the Marines. But there is nothing like that in there. The main story quests are rather forgettable, and you just wait to get back to the ship to do some real gaming.
It’s All About Combat!
And – here is where the game excels. The whole game was definitely built with fighting in mind. Combat is one of the most fun elements of the game, and it’s the reason why the endgame is just a start for many players.
As most of the action takes place at sea, it’s no surprise that they polished this to perfection. If you want to destroy a bigger ship, you need to coordinate it with your friends, see what the best ways to attack the enemy are, and determine if you have enough firepower to do so. Sometimes, you need to sacrifice one of your friends’ ships in order to attack from the other side and ultimately win the whole battle. Shooting is only one of the elements of combat and definitely less important than overall strategy.
In the between period when you are not fighting with other ships, it’s all about developing your own! Sadly, it’s not intertwined with some interesting activities, but rather – it’s a resource grind where you collect what you need and then get some more just in case. You are not limited to the ship battles, though, as you can fight with the sea creatures as well or even try to take on the fortifications.
Of course, it’s not the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag kind of situation, where you can get on a ship, fight with your fellow pirates, and take off when necessary, as you are pretty much glued to the flagpost. Even when you are taking on the bases, it’s mostly done from the ship perspective as well.
In the end, when you are fighting on the high seas, it’s extremely satisfying. Like nothing you’ve ever played before. And there have been little to no games that understood the concept of strategy in this kind of action game, just as this one. But overall, there is quite a lot of repetition, especially with resource gathering. With so much potential, we feel like they could do a bit more with this concept. Raids would be a great thing. Planned events another. Something to break away from this concept of always having to the “go there, kill this” missions that we are way over at this point in the golden age of gaming.
We’ll Get Them Next Time
Oh yes, the missions. Let’s talk about them briefly as well. In the endgame, it’s all about climbing the ladder of the Kingpin ranks. Two previously mentioned heroes are giving you missions, and they’re all pretty much the same. Although it was a great concept on paper, we feel like it can run out of steam pretty quickly.
Why is that? Well, because it all boils down to – “buy low, sell high” mechanic. So, you need to transport one type of goods from one place to another. Another way of getting higher in rank is to take over the factories where you will be making your products.
In order to get even more factories, hence – being higher in the ranks, you need to participate in the PvPvE activities, as all the other players would also like to reap passive income from them. The fighting in the seas, getting better ships, and becoming a magnate on the Indian Ocean are great, but then you need to go back to the same missions again. The Ubisoft creators announced four seasons, so we are hoping that they will be able to shake things up a little bit when it comes to creativity and mission creation.
An interesting mechanic that can be great in perspective is hunting. If you played Dark Souls, you probably know it. You appear on the map of another pirate, and you need to eliminate enemies as they appear in order to get a treasure. The map is usually full of opponents, so it will be pretty fun to wreak havoc on the seas. This kind of game style shows us that there are people who have some kind of idea of what would be good for this franchise, but they are unfortunately slowed down by some other ones who are definitely not in the business of making a strong foundation for the mission selection.
Develop…If You Can Afford it
Regarding ship development – it all looks great at first glance. There are plenty of new toys that you can add to it, and the amount of stuff in this game makes it a maritime RPG of sorts. You especially see it in the end game, where you can get new ships quite often, and open seas are full of resources you can utilize to make your ships even greater.
But there is a catch. Although we get rewards pretty quickly at the beginning, it feels like there have been some odd developmental decisions in the process. Skull of Bones feels like they are really trying to implement the carrot-and-stick strategy to the fullest. At some point, new items are not progressively more expensive but are more expensive. To the point where getting new weapons is a giant problem, and getting new things is an extremely hard task of grinding, grinding, and some more grinding at the end.
We feel like this is salvageable, though, as, especially the end game, shows promise of a better title; it’s just that the excellent sailing is not that much fun when you have to go around the island to find a plant or something. Tedious is the name, and Skull and Bones is the game.
It’s Beautiful! It’s True!
So, how does it look? In the end, the game’s aesthetic is sometimes what makes people want to play it in the first place. And let us tell you – this game looks extremely beautiful. It’s full of sea creatures and beautiful lands, flourishing with greenery (that you can’t gather for some reason), and the open ocean is something to awe at!
When it comes to the quality of production, Ubisoft definitely delivered. We feel like it was probably the best-looking water we have ever seen. It’s the same kind of graphical shock we had when we saw the first Far Cry game. We were like – how is it even possible to animate so many molecules at the same time?
Although, it’s sometimes a bit tiring to travel so long distances! Of course, it’s not Ubisoft’s “fault” per se, as the map is pretty giant, to be frank. But when you need to take the long way, you may encounter unexpected problems, and no one likes them. Especially at the beginning of our journey, when the first ship we have at our disposal is “meh” at the most. Here is where the game excels, though, when you can count on friends to escort you to the right place. Or – you can opt for the fast travel options for a few coins. It may be wise to do so, as there are plenty of people just waiting for you to crawl out and show your goods to them!
Coming back to the visuals and the feel of the game once more – it’s just a blast to look at the ships and what’s happening on them. People are singing, drinking, and having fun; we get to see storms coming from way down, have time to prepare, and see the difference in the mood when the waves are getting stronger. It’s an interactive masterpiece that is just almost a full release. It's one of the best-looking games in the last decade, for sure. Open world with so many potential pathways – what can go wrong?
There Are Bugs on Our Ship!
As it turns out – quite a lot. Although Ubisoft claims that they have extensively tested the game before its release, one thing remains clear – never trust what developers say to you. It’s not a “live service first draft,” but a third or fourth, maybe? It’s another game from Ubisoft that is having problems at launch, and we feel like it’s the minimum that the game would, you know, work if they wanted it to prosper. Otherwise – what’s the point, honestly?
In the beginning, players were disconnected from the servers; there were no rewards for battles – it can be pretty discouraging, to be honest. We hope that this will not get the same treatment as otherwise fantastic Outriders, that were just borderline unplayable at the launch, primarily online with friends.
Additionally, the Skulls and Bones are filled with bugs like messages not appearing or appearing in numbers that are overwhelming, filling your ears with the most annoying song in the world. And the mission resetting is something that we just can’t get over with. You play it for half an hour, and you just can’t give it back. The least of your problems is when you can actually restart the game, and that’s it. But there are instances where you have to restart the whole quest. And that can be pretty annoying, to be honest.
Overall – the game needs an update or two to be playable fully. With the first live service model season coming our way and the Philippe La Peste – The Plague King – now up for grabs, we feel like it should probably be fixed pretty soon. Fortunately, Ubisoft is rather good with their updates, so the only thing that we are worried about is – if the second season will happen.
Skull and Bones Review – Is it Worth it?
Short answer – yes. The game looked awesome, and we had some tremendous fun while swimming and fighting with other ships. The only downside is that it’s so repetitive, and the story does not engage you in one bit! You just skip the cut scenes to get to some combat. Is it worth the time? Yes. Will the next seasons be better? We hope so! There is at least a triple-A game in there somewhere; it just needs to find its voice! A cautious recommendation from us! Let us know what you think, and we will see you in the next one!
