Skull And Bones Review - Not The Pirate's Life For Me

Over the years, my expectations for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Skull and Bones have been as rocky as the Seven Seas, from riding the high waves of hope to feeling moments of despair as those same wav💦es come crashing down on the deck. Hearing about it a few years after Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, we were all eager to have a whole game dedicated to the pirate life. Everyone banded together to take on the seas, expecting ‘Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag’ without the ‘Assassin’s Creed 4’. Instead, we got… well, none of it really.

If quadruple-A means a bare-bones live-service formula designed for an expensive but lifeless world tha💜t locks you into anything you do, with only the illusion of freedom, and a big ol’ focus on digital currencies while the game takes away the actual fun stuff that you want to do… then yeah, by all means, this is quadruple-A.

Skull And Bones New Leak Teases Ship Customization

Ubisoft CEO Says Skull & Bones Is A "𒐪Quadru𝓀ple-A Game", Defends $70 Price

Ubisoft's CEO has faced criticism of Skull & Bones' $70 price tag, but says its justified as it's a "quadruple-A gam🍸e".

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I keep finding myself comparing it to Black Flag, as the inspirational predecessor, and to Sea of Thieves, as the other 🌟significant live-service pirate game we have in this world of not-enough-pirate games. In almost every aspect, Skull and Bon꧑es makes me want to put down the controller and go play either one of those instead.

Skull And Bare-Bones

skull and bones pirates stood on a ship — via Ubisoft

When you think of what you want from a pirate game, one of the first things is going to be the shipཧs and naval combat. Of course, we know this is something Ubisoft already does well, since it has featured in Assassin’s Creed since as far back as the third game in the long-running series. To that effect, the naval combat in Skull and Bones is good - that’s a default, as it’s really the on🦄e thing that we knew we could expect. Is it better than the previous implementations of naval combat in Ubisoft games, however? No, it’s equal at best, and lesser the rest of the time.

Why does the ship have a stamina bar now for f⛄ull sails? I don’t know, and whatever the reasoning may be, I doubt it’ll make me okay with it. The challenge should come from managing the ship with the environment, not managing a stat.

One of the biggest reasons the ships feel so great to use in Black Flag and Sea of Thieves is because it's an extension of your world - a means to travel, to fight, and something that you must take care of for it to take care of you. In Skull and Bones, the ship is your world. Unless you press the magic button to dock (ie teleport to one of the few towns when you’re near them) then you’re at the wheel, and you better believe that’s the only place you’ll be. You’ll forever be staring at the deck of your ship a💜nd the crew working away, knowing they’re right there, but you can’t step down and walk alongside them, go below deck, or even climb the mast. It’s just a visual asset for you to stare at while you use the plastic steering wheel in the passenger seat and play at being a pirate.

I don’t want to feel like I’m playing pretend pirates - I want to feel like I’m living that life, but Skull and Bones takes a very artificial approach to almost everything that it does.

I always loved boarding ships in Black Flag. Your crew grapples the damaged boat, and you run for the ropes as you swing across, land on their deck, and fight your way through the rival crew until they surrender theꦏir goods. In Skull and Bones, it’s a three-second cutscene, and then yip-hip-hooray, you have the loot. Then you’re back to sailing away with some crew shanties while you travel the lifeless but overcrowded world, all while your crew members shout to point things out for every few meters that you sail. “Ship! On the horizon!”. Ubisoft open worlds have been criticised for being stuffed with quest markers, but Skull and Bones doesn’t have an open world, or even the open ocean. You’re only ever treading water.

Do What You Want, But Is A Pirate Really Free?

A ship with a skull and crossbones design in Skull and Bones.

Let me just mention my good pals Black Flag and Sea of Thieves again for a moment. Part of the pirate charm that both of these games offer is the ships, as we’ve established. But what about the rest of a pirate’s life? The treasure hunting, the exploration of unknown islands, the life-and-death sword fights - these are key to the experiences of other piratical games, b💞ut are painfully absent from Skull and Bones.

Even when I did have a treasure map, you could bring it up to find the location, and then walk around an otherwise pointlessly designed area to look for the buried treasure. Do you search using a map and compass, using your shovel to find the hard edge of the chest? No, you just look at the map which is of no real help, and then walk around until you see a big glow and loud humming sound r😼ight over where the loot is, as your pirate gives the ground a quick brush with their hand before yanking a whole damn chest from the ground.

I’m not really sure how or why considering Ubisoft’s history, but the on-foot controls here - though infrequent - feel floaty and lazily refined.

As for cutlasses, flintlocks, and the desperate clashing of steel and explosions of gunpowder as you fight for survival, face-to-face with other pirates and dangerous factions - yeah, none of that. At all. It’s purely naval combat after naval combat, with uneventful but familiar travel between it all, and the occasional unpolished🐼 cutscene for good measure, telling you where you’re sailing next and who your ship will be shooting at.

Then you’re back behind the wheel once more, with the focus of progression being crafting ships, equipment, and weapons with better numbers, with numerous crafting menus and inventory management screens littered about the services found in the underwhelming settlements. Aside from this, the focus will be decorating yourself and your ship with the shiniest cosmetics, whether that be obtained in-game or through yet another Ubisoft online stor𒅌e that is present in just about every game it puts out.

There’s no good reason to recommend Skull and Bones

Microtransactions are pretty much never going to be a well-received thing, and rarely are there any justifications for it. I’ll admit it’s much better when they’re purely cosmetic, which Skull and Bones does make clear, but shoving real-world transactions with digital currency into a game that already has a heavy focus on cosmetic customisation, and costs full price, is a bit of an unnecessary burn that feels like an afterthought requirement for a Ubisoft game nowadays. That, along with the “quadruple-A” label, doesn’t sit right w🥂ith me.

What I don’t understand the most is that we💎 know Ubisoft is capable of making much better things, and in many cases here, there are specific examples of it doing 🐼so. I’ve mentioned Black Flag a few times as the core inspiration of this game, and as such, it fueled many peoples’ expectations. There’s a long list of features that a number of other Ubisoft games use to imbue the feeling of adventure, wonder, and worlds worth exploring. But there’s just no sense of adventure in Skull and Bones.

skull and bones ship wheel floating in the sea — via Ubisoft

If you want 𝔉to play a live-service pirate game where you’re free to pursue your glory, then play Sea of Thieves. If you want to feel like a pirate and enjoy all of the narrative and historical aspects that go with it, play Black Flag. Even leaving these comparisons aside, there’s no good reason to reco♋mmend Skull and Bones.

It doesn’t provide anything new, or even the basics of 💫what people want from an ambitious pirate adventure, being overshadowed by Ubisoft’s own game 11 years older. Even with the solid naval combat mechanics we’ve seen in multiple games over the last decade, it’s just not enough to carry the promise of a pirate’s life on its own. Instead, I look to the horizon in the hopes that another studio can try its hand at this lacking genre.