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Enter the perilous world of Skull and Bones TM, where you play by your own rules to rise from a nobody to become the most fearsome pirate kingpin. Skull and Bones is on Ubisoft Connect, Epic Games, Playstation 5, Xbox series X|S, and Luna.
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The Skull and Bones Closed Beta is not under NDA, as such we...
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Skull and Bones Standard Edition. PC (Digital) PS5 (Digital)...
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Set sail with the Art of Skull and Bones digital artbook and...
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Skull and Bones is an open-world naval combat multiplayer...
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A FIRST YEAR FULL OF CONTENT. Immerse yourself in the...
- Closed Beta
- This seafaring RPG has a great foundation, despite feeling like a live-service first draft.
- Skull and Bones - The Complete Timeline
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- Skull and Bones Review
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By Travis Northup
Updated: Feb 16, 2024 8:22 pm
Posted: Feb 16, 2024 8:20 pm
Like spotting the first sign of shore after years adrift, Skull and Bones has finally, actually found its way to launch. Six separate delays and several different concepts that were forced to walk the plank might make you understandably apprehensive about Ubisoft’s long-brewing pirate game, but after spending over 60 hours hoisting sails and swabbing decks, I’ve had a yo-ho-whole lot of co-op fun with friends and strangers alike. The 17th-century Indian Ocean works well as avast open world to be explored and plundered, the RPG mechanics are (briny) deep with opportunities for buildcrafting alongside your fellow scurvy dogs, and the naval combat you’ll spend bucca-nearly all your time on the high seas engaging with is tactical and consistently entertaining. Predictably, there are still some major concerns common with always-online games nowadays, including performance issues and bugs aplenty, as well as a very small list of endgame activities that become monotonous and grindy in short oar-der. Skull and Bones might not be the AAAA Man-of-War Ubisoft was hoping for just yet, but with a strong start to a live-service that’s got a year of upcoming content mapped out, it’s already quite seaworthy.
Skull and Bones is fairly unique in the grand scheme of open-world RPGs in that it gives you direct control of a ship and lets you sail the ocean as you pillage ports and send enemy vessels to Davy Jones’ locker in search of loot and infamy. Alone or alongside the ships of up to two friends as a fleet, you’ll gather resources and complete action-packed heists to feed your greed and climb Jacob’s progression ladder as you power up your vessel, which is usually a blast. Though it might be tempting to compare this online ocean to Sea of Thieves, Skull and Bones actually has more in common with the Forza Horizon series. They’re both over-the-top, arcadey open-world RPGs where you play as a vehicle, except instead of racing cars with friends, you’re committing piracy in boats – a SeaRPG to Forza Horizon’s CarPG, if the court will allow it. And that laser focus on wonderfully intricate maritime gameplay and commodities/economy simulation is extremely enjoyable most of the time, even if you never get to swing a sword or fire a flintlock like in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.
The focus on naval fights works a lot better than I thought it would.
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While it’s a bit odd at first that you only ever explore the world by controlling your ship (aside from brief intermissions at the social hub), it took just a few hours for me to not feel like I was missing out on much. That’s primarily thanks to how good the ship-to-ship combat quickly becomes. After a fairly underwhelming opening meant to help you get your sea legs with the glorified hunk of driftwood you’ll call your starting ship, things really open up. Once you start to upgrade and customize your vessel to fit your playstyle, then tackle some of the more challenging areas and activities that require you to seriously up your game, Ubisoft’s strict focus on navals fights works a lot better than I thought it would.
Shave his belly with a rusty razor
Put him in a longboat till he’s sober
Stick him in a scupper with a horsepipe bottom
Put him in the bed with the captain’s daughter
Other - Tell us in the comments
Disappointingly, Skull and Bones only has the faintest whiff of a story, which focuses on two of the very few major NPCs: a vulgar English pirate named Captain John Spurlock, and a violent political dissident named Admiral Rahma, neither of whom are particularly interesting. You have a couple conversations with each of these rogues and run a few missions for them that conclude in a boss fight against a particularly mean boat, then they tell you to buzz off and do your own thing just as fast. That’s not to say there aren’t a few likable rogues and skallywags to meet along the way – like Yanita, who introduces you to the world of black market trading with all the enthusiasm and pomp of a circus ringmaster – but NPCs are little more than vendors and quest dispensers with no substantial story connecting them.
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Once you’ve established yourself on the high seas a bit, you’ll also begin to understand both trade routes and the supply and demand they influence in different parts of the world, which adds an interesting economy management minigame to the mix. You’ll even gain access to the black market via The Helm, a clever endgame mechanic that allows you to build and manage underworld businesses by creating and delivering embargoed goods, like opium. This opens up a whole new way to line your pockets, as you can ferry legitimate and illegitimate goods to and fro, buying low in one place and selling high in another, like a pirate with a bachelor’s degree in business. Later on you can even conquer coastal settlements to convert them into manufactories that generate passive income and help you obtain the most powerful equipment. Before you know it, you suddenly find yourself playing Pirate SimCity – or as I like to call it: SimSea-ty – as you manage lumber yards and farming settlements, and it’s a truly awesome playground for the endgame grind.
Ahoy, me hearties! If ye be wantin' games filled with plunder and pillagin', these be the best of the best!
Although it’s not particularly unique in the live-service space, Skull and Bones is an extremely unstable experience in this early state. I had crashes every couple of hours, pixelated textures that loaded right in front of me, and most irritating of all: constant erroneous notifications popping up every couple of seconds, sometimes repeatedly for hours at a time, clogging up the screen with obnoxious and inaccurate warnings that drove me absolutely up the wall. I still enjoyed most of my time lobbing explosives at unsuspecting merchant vessels, but shiver me timbers, that exasperating layer of jank really made it harder to love.
Skull and Bones isn’t the successor to Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag that many seem to want, and it isn’t many of things Ubisoft itself said it would be at various points in its storied history, but the seafaring RPG we ultimately got is still surprisingly good. Sailing around the Indian Ocean firing cannons, mortars, and giant ballista at your fo...
Review scoring
good
Skull and Bones is a maritime RPG with a strong foundation, even if it feels like a live-service first draft.
Travis Northup
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Enter the perilous world of Skull and Bones, a co-op pirate open world action-RPG experience, to become the most infamous pirate kingpin! Engage in thrilling naval battles, craft a variety of unique ships, forge unlikely alliances as you overcome the odds, and bring mayhem on the seas.
- Ubisoft Singapore
- Windows
Ads · Skull and bones
Skull and Bones is a 2024 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Singapore and published by Ubisoft. The game revolves around piracy and naval warfare with a fantastical setting in East Africa and Southeast Asia during the late 17th century, the peak of the historical Golden Age of Piracy.
- 2023–2024
- Action-adventure
Feb 16, 2024 · Skull and Bones - IGN. Ubisoft Singapore. • Feb 16, 2024 • •. 7. IGN Rating. - Rate Game. 4.8. 90 Ratings. Are You Playing? Rate Game. Overview. Playlists. Maps. Checklists. Reviews....
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