The saga of the development of Ubisoft’s “Skull And Bones” is a long and grueling one, spanning over a decade at this point. I remember Rare’s pirate game “Sea of Thieves” still being fairly new at the time when this game was first announced. At the time I thought this would be a AAA quality game that will take what made everyone love “Sea of Thieves” and make it better and more mainstream. After years and years of waiting, often feeling like the game was seemingly dead, we finally heard inklings it was coming back with a new release date, and then a delayed release date, and then another. I honestly can’t keep count with how many times this title was delayed, but for a game solely based on a mechanic that was featured in “Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag” it’s clear this release was meant for an older period of time in gaming, as it’s not as solid of a game I was hoping for with a title that had a decade long production.
In “Skull And Bones,” you play as a pirate who has just been sunk. The British Navy has destroyed your ship. So, you’re starting from scratch with a very small crew and start a new pirate expedition. With your own customizable character, it is now time to start building up your reputation by accomplishing tasks throughout the Indian Ocean and make a name for yourself. Going in I was very much looking forward to completing bounties and fighting giant fantastical sea beasts, but after a little while I started to notice the type of grind the game is offering. Some tasks given to you can be pretty interesting and are quite varied in what they can be. You may be tasked to raid enemy forts or try to pin two different factions against each other. Hunting down ships that have particularly excellent booty is also quite fun.
An issue I have is that it requires a ton of grinding. I know it’s an MMO RPG, but getting supplies to make your ship better is not as fun when it feels too stretched out. “Sea of Thieves” was right there to copy from and they knew how to keep the level of fun high. Your character levels up by doing tasks and in doing so unlocks improved ships which you will need to craft. Although, every time your ship sinks you end up losing all your crafting materials if they weren’t properly stored. The game forces you to run to so many locations to get things done, it really does feel like a pirate simulator, for good and bad. Perhaps being a pirate isn’t all that it’s cracked out to be, because a lot of these grindy tasks can really boggle down the potential fun this game can offer. To be a little more positive, the ship battles themselves can be rather fun. There is a varying degree of fighting types your ship can be. You can add a metal pike in the front of your ship so you can ram an enemy head on to try and sink them. Adding long and short style weaponry is also available, with several types of upgrades for those as well. Walking around off the ship is fairly brief. When you are up on your feet running around you are mainly just going to a specific location to buy and equip upgrades. Sometimes if you have a treasure map, you’ll also be walking around trying to dig out some treasure, but aside from that you are primarily on your ship. I was hoping they would have incorporated more of the swashbuckling sword fight action mechanics that were in “Black Flag.”
A friend of mine, who I was playing with, also pointed out something interesting, which was the pay system. You accumulate all this wealth but it feels like there isn’t too much to spend it on. It would have been kind of neat if you had to pay your shipmates a decent wage, they are pirates after all, they want their silver, I’m sure. Perhaps if you don’t pay them, they could pull a mutiny on you, which would make for another immersive dynamic to this so-called pirate sim. Food items also often felt rather pointless to collect. I really wanted to like “Skull And Bones,” and for the right player, many of my issues may be non-issues and they’ll love it. At this point and time, I think “Sea of Thieves” is still a much better time to spend. Hopefully in time the developers could right this ship and start taking player feedback seriously. There is a lot going on in this game, but not much of it feels that it isn’t fleshed out to its fullest potential.
7/10
For more on Skull and Bones visit https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/skull-and-bones
Related: Nick Navarro Reviews
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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