After all the delays, trailersand start-and-stop hype cycles, Ubisoft’s highly (?) anticipated pirate sim Skull and bones is in beta phase. The game was supposed to come out in 2018 and then 2019, but at least now there’s an open beta and your progress will carry over Skull and bones when it releases on February 16th. So while it’s not technically the actual retail game, it’s a good way to see it Only what all the years of development have produced. I want to tell you that this epic saga ends happily. Oh…
Skull and bones was announced back in 2017 with a release date of 2018. The history of this game, its many delays and its difficult development were well documented My city and elsewhere, so I won’t repeat it too often. But basically this game started out as a DLC/spin-offf Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (also known as the Pirate). Then it turned into a standalone game that took almost a decade to complete. Now, in February 2024, I can confidently tell you what Skull and bones actually is: The corporate sector with pirate ships.
Okay, that’s a bit reductive, but honestly, if you’ve played an open-world MMO looter shooter The corporate sector or it DC based sequelYou will know it Skull and bones and its core gameplay loop. You create a character, start in a small, enclosed area, learn the basics, walk through a public hub populated by other players, complete some quests, leave the starting area and enter the main world – which is based on the same basic formula. but on a larger scale with more systems.
As well as The corporate sector, this public hub is a safe zone where you can’t hurt anyone, which is strange in a game about pirates who we’re told are dangerous but who act a lot more like teenagers in high school – insulting and laugh at you when you attack them first arrive at the first big port in the game. At one point an NPC threatened to gut me like a fish, but buddy, you can’t even jump into those walkable areas. I’m not worried about a stabbing.
Sailing the seas and chopping wood Skull and bones
Walking is not the reason anyone is here. Outside of these safe zones, there are NPC ships that you can attack and board in a battle that feels snatched away Black flag– which is fine, since the ship combat in this game was excellent. This is what people wanted! A whole game based on the popular pirate ship action Assassin’s Creed Consequence. That’s the whole reason this game exists in the first place, to meet this demand. You are all here to become pirates! Sail the seas and capture enemy ships, looting loot and riches as you plunge through the ocean waves. Well, I’m sorry, but you need to cut down some trees first.
Yes, Skull and bones is primarily a game – at least in the first few hours – about gathering resources, chopping down trees, and crafting things. And you don’t cut down trees or collect coconuts by walking up to them and hitting them; Instead, you pull your ship to shore and a strange mini-game begins. You then need to determine the timing of a moving cursor as it crosses the colored zones on a gauge. It doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t really make sense. And the promise of living the life of a pirate is definitely not kept. At one point I felled one too many acacia trees and my crew shouted at me that the ship was overloaded. I don’t remember this in any of my favorite pirate movies…
After completing some of the fetch quests and building a small but sturdy ship with cannons – I called it The Pimple – I set out to board a few ships to complete a contract. Exciting! This is the pirate action I wanted. I found a medium sized ship, fired some cannonballs at it and saw a notice to enter the ship. I pressed the button and my crew threw hooks at the enemy ship. They connected! A cutscene played and I pulled the ship into my ship and then… I got some coconuts, some pieces of iron, some silver and some mechanical gears.
I couldn’t fight. I had no influence on boarding. Just a quick cutscene and some resources that I’ll use to craft more things in town once I figure out which of the 20 merchants there can craft what I need.
Was Skull and bones worth the wait?
Maybe I could excuse this boring resource management and lack of exciting pirate gameplay if the game looked great and had impressive digital water. But even the sea in it Skull and bones isn’t much special; It’s a shame because you spend a lot of time looking at it. Compared to Sea of Thieves and its beautiful water that looks good to drink (Editor’s note: Do not drink sea water), Skull and bones“H20 is a filthy mess.” Visual artifacts are everywhere in these waters, and pop-in is also a problem, with trees and rocks looking like they were lifted from a PS2 game until you get close enough (sigh) cut them off.
At some point I looked for a blacksmith. He asked me to buy some clothes so I would look more like a pirate. I did that. Then I returned to him and was rewarded with a monkey to put on my ship and enough “infamy” points – a system that measures how well known you are in the world – to rank with the pirates city to be popular. (Where did he get the monkey? I don’t know.)
As I walked back to my ship to bring on board my new monkey reward, the salty crowd that had previously insulted me were now cheering my name. All I had done was fell a few trees, sink a few small ships, and put on a hat. Nevertheless, they were enthusiastic. I… not so much.
I’m glad I finally played Skull and bones after all this time. It’s good to have a degree. Seeing the body, as they say. But I’m not sure how much time I’ll spend on the open sea come February 16th.
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