Skull and Bones surprised me. I didn’t have high hopes for this game, but that’s because of its turbulent history. A decade of development and a complete reboot doesn’t inspire much confidence, but this game Ubisoft has created is surprisingly consistent. It’s a big, sprawling multiplayer pirate action experience that lets you realize your dream of becoming a notorious swordsman, and it does it well in many ways. However, Skull and Bones is also a game with a metaphorical title, because that’s not what we should expect from a full-price AAAA game (as Ubisoft’s CEO claims). This is a game that is essentially nothing more than a skeleton without the flesh that gives it life.
The beta may have blinded many people. Sure, this beta revealed some vulnerabilities in Skull and Bones’ helmet armor, but it also offered a lot of content to chew on, which no doubt led many to believe that the full game will offer much, much more. But it is not like that. What you see and experience in the first few hours of Skull and Bones is what you get for the rest of the experience. You must learn to swallow endless, repetitive contracts (which translate into the endgame with the Helm Smuggler system), all in an effort to gain resources to upgrade your ship, and in the name of bringing shame to your reputation throughout world essentially increases. Indian Ocean. Additionally, the minimal narrative depth introduced in the beta becomes an even bigger problem as the game progresses, to the point where I believe Skull and Bones no longer has a story. It’s so poorly executed and so ineffective in presenting story information and compelling characters that you should know from the start that you won’t find anything worthwhile here in that regard.
In short, Skull and Bones has no worthwhile story and the design of its missions is downright abhorrent. Yes, I realize this is a pretty wild start to this review, so let me take a moment to focus on a more positive point: the ship’s gameplay. It’s not realistic, but it’s also not so arcade-heavy that it feels more like a spaceship combat title. It’s a kind of strange limbo where ships are fundamentally slow and awkward to control, but at the same time you can launch your ship and fire cannonballs almost indefinitely. All of this comes together in a system that is real enough to develop immersive qualities, but free enough to make it entertaining to spend hours on the open sea and engage in strategic battles.
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The fights are also exciting. You must use your ship and the environment to your advantage by adjusting your ship’s position to deploy a different arsenal of weapons while keeping an eye on enemy reinforcements or even incoming weather conditions such as devastating storms and waves that can disrupt battles. Fights. However, the damage systems aren’t very good and using different types of weapons doesn’t have any real impact. Essentially, if you pay attention to targeting the ship’s weak points, the rest of the fight will take care of itself, which begs the question of why there are multiple damage resistance attributes to explore. All of this could be better explained if Skull and Bones had a useful and functional tutorial system, but that’s not the case. In fact, the game is so obscure that at no point does it tell you that the wind affects your ship’s movements or how best to use the wind to move around the world.
Speaking of open world: Ubisoft is back with Skull and Bones. As we have seen so often (and so many times) in Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and other franchises, here we are dealing with a large but boring world. You are free to explore the area as you wish, but there really isn’t much worth visiting. Unless you’re interested in mining minerals, chopping down trees, picking fruit, interacting with cities, raiding shipwrecks, or docking in a port. I can almost guarantee you won’t, because aside from docking, every part of the game takes place on your ship, meaning all of these additional activities add little to the immersive nature of Skull and Bones and are presented merely as mini-games. very easy. However, at this point I will contradict myself. The docks, the only accessible part of the game, are the worst parts of Skull and Bones. If you are in the field, you will be taken to an operations center where only the same salespeople are located at different locations. Ubisoft could have saved a lot of effort and resources if it had removed the walking elements and instead set up the docks as a simple menu group that you can access from your ship. What I can say for this game is that the ability to attack any ship you encounter on the open sea is fantastic, and since there is a wide variety of factions and ship types, you can expect a slightly different type of attack every time Battle. distinguishable.
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Another problem arises here. The progression in this game is off. Not only will you receive missions that are five levels higher than your current ship, making them almost impossible to complete, but you will also experience instances where random NPC ships are several levels higher than you. Skull and Bones wants you to upgrade your ship or buy a new one to overcome this situation. The problem, however, is that more powerful and higher tier items require a higher Infamy rank or resources that can only be found in more dangerous areas. Ultimately, you’re stuck in a frustrating cycle of boring, low-level bounties or crazy raids into terrible areas for better resources until you reach the endgame, where you’re expected to complete the same bounties and events over and over again. to get “Premium” coins and purchase truly rare weapons and equipment. As far as “crazy escapes” go, it has to be said that many ships won’t notice your presence until you attack them first, but there are privateers and NPC pirates who will mow you down without a second thought, and when that happens, you have two possibilities; Respawn at the last dock you visited (which could be thousands of units away) or respawn nearby, which is most often within aggro range of the same ship that sank you, meaning you probably to be sunk again…
To this we need to add the multiplayer elements. Skull and Bones is primarily playable solo, but the best resources and most challenging activities (which reward the best loot) require overcoming allies. It can involve fighting giant sea monsters, plundering menacing fortresses, sinking notorious pirate lords, taking on global events and even going on treasure map hunts with PvP elements. Whenever you take on these activities, you’ll need friends, otherwise they’ll be virtually impossible to complete unless you’ve spent hours building and designing a much higher tier ship. They’re some of the most entertaining activities, but they’re grueling, and I wouldn’t be surprised if most players avoided them altogether, especially since the game does a terrible job of explaining pretty much all of its multiplayer elements.
It’s not just poorly implemented systems that cause problems. Skull and Bones also constantly bombards you with notifications and warnings that are never explained and pop up incessantly, covering half of the HUD and screen. There are many strange bugs and issues that affect the gaming experience such as: Such as quests not progressing correctly, textures appearing, dialogue options never appearing, and quests also not completing, many of which require exiting the game’s main menu to complete. Overcome them…not to mention the crashes. But even these problems are minor compared to Skull and Bones’ biggest flaw: it has too little content to be considered a $70 game. Considering that there are also many opportunities for microtransactions, the lack of content is scandalous. Half of the map is unavailable and if you enter the cloudy area the game will force you to return. There are only about seven or eight ships to build, and the weapons are mostly the same, just with slightly different visual aesthetics and stats. If you like playing dress up and consider fashion to be one of the central and important elements in games like Destiny 2, then you will definitely have a great time with Skull and Bones. But the most astute consumer will undoubtedly view this game as something that should be worth, at most, half its current retail price.
I have to say that I don’t think Skull and Bones is as bad as other live service titles we’ve seen in the past. Assuming it survives for a few years, the introduction of various new content could have a positive impact on the game, enriching its world and making the gaming experience less monotonous and monotonous. There are basic elements that work and have a lot of potential, but at the moment Ubisoft hasn’t given them much of a foundation since everything around them is bad and doesn’t live up to the expectations of a AAA production (or AAAA, as Ubisoft’s CEO believes appears).
If you have the desire or curiosity to buy Skull and Bones, I would suggest waiting until the price drops, it is added to a cheaper subscription service than Ubisoft+, or until more content is added as part of Live Design. Or better yet, play Sea of Thieves again. Rare’s hacking adventure is currently much more immersive, with more exciting gameplay, story and exploration, and the game was announced after the original release of Skull and Bones and is still available for almost six years! Without a doubt, Rare remains the most notorious and undisputed pirate in the digital waters.
