Skull and Bones takes away everything desirable from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, leaving a tedious live-service game that’s usually a burden.
Twitter: @richardwakeling on February 21, 2024 at 9:26AM PST
Skull and Bones doesn’t leave a positive first impression. Considering its problematic development, this isn’t unexpected; it’s hard to approach Ubisoft’s newest product without significant skepticism. Nevertheless, after six delays, several discarded ideas, and 11 years in development limbo, the game’s initial hours don’t showcase Skull and Bones’ best features, instead highlighting its worst elements. The slow inclusion of combat does marginally improve the situation, particularly when you get to customize your ship and weapons, but this isn’t sufficient to pull it from the abyss of average. Don’t worry about scurvy; this sword-fighting adventure is plagued with a severe condition of live-service dullness.
Skull and Bones starts off by ensuring you can interact with NPCs and cut down trees. If your notion of being a sea pirate involves the kind of resource-collecting found in numerous survival games, then you’re in for a treat. Indeed, this aspect isn’t as problematic as it sounds, even if mining stones and felling trees seems odd when you’re trapped on a pirate ship deck. The main issue lies in this being the first instance of the game’s insistence on making you carry out mundane tasks. There is some terrestrial activity, but it mostly involves conversing with sellers and quest providers, with the occasional hidden treasure included. Skull and Bones might have been born out of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, but the only commonalities between the two pirate games are in their naval combat.
You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
By clicking ‘enter’, you agree to GameSpot’s
Terms of Use andPrivacy Policy
Now Playing: Skull & Bones Everything To Know
It’s challenging to express the game’s dynamics without comparing it to Black Flag, inspite of the 11-year span between the titles. The satisfaction of launching a flurry of cannonballs into the side of an enemy ship is the apex of Skull and Bones’ maritime exploits. Yet it lacks many elements that made Black Flag uniquely enjoyable. Black Flag was a high-energy, action-packed adventure that left no moments of pause while you controlled the broadside cannons, mortar, flaming barrels, and swivel guns of your vessel to volley thunderous bombardment against adversaries. You’d navigate around giant Man O’ Wars by expertly modifying your ship’s sails’ speed to produce adrenaline-inducing moments. Skull and Bones offers more depth than Black Flag, with various ships at your disposal and countless customization possibilities allowing you to equip your ship with rockets, ballistas, fire-bursting contraptions and more. However, it doesn’t quite equalize in terms of excitement.
Unfortunately, combat in Skull and Bones seems disjointed. After your vessel fires a cannon volley, you’re forced to bide time for a tediously long cooldown phase before you can activate the weapon again. Although it’s possible to manipulate your ship to launch the forward or rear cannons, the ship’s speed is lethargic, akin to a lumbering giant. Adjusting the sails is an equally slow process and ultimately dampens the spirit of the battle. Some might argue that this slower pacing aligns better with reality, but given the presence of ghostly vessels and colossal sea beasts sharing the same waters, not to mention cannons possessing recuperative capabilities, it’s evident that realism wasn’t the game’s focal point. When the enemy ship is critically damaged, you can sidle up to it and trigger a cardio-bound cutscene of your crew preparing to attack. This approach secures bonus loot but remains an automatic process, diminishing the scope of direct player interaction expected from boarding. While this aspect is understandably designed this way due to the multiplayer nature of the game (where boarding might leave you exposed), it certainly dilutes the thrill element. Overall, while the combat doesn’t register as horrendous and has its captivating moments, it falls short when compared to a game that’s over a decade old and soon grows monotonous.
Even though it can be tasking, it’s not unusual to have sailing on open seas as a regular activity. You’ll find your ship has finite resources which challenges you to strategically manage your ship for optimum movements. You need to have enough food stored to replenish from time to time. Interaction with the wind can either increase your speed or slow you down, depending on its direction. This mechanism contributes to an experience that might not be fulfilling as one has to constantly deal with the unfavorable wind conditions. All these, making sailing feel more of a task than an exciting adventure.
Before getting to the stage where you can sail in the vast seas, resources have to be gathered to upgrade from initiating with Dhow to an actual ship. This is relatively straightforward as long as you have enough Acacia wood to construct your ship. After this, a considerable proportion of your time would be committed to gathering resources for upgrading your ship. For instance, to get a new cannon, you’d have to purchase its blueprint, gather the necessary resources for its construction either by sinking merchant ships, finding them around or buying them from vendors. These resources are indicated on your map to aid your search. Nonetheless, repeating this activity over and over makes the experience tiring and slow, even though it supposedly improves the quality of your ship.
Potentially, the only difficulty that one might face is from other players. Skull and Bones is an open-world game and can either be played alone or with two more players. You’ll occasionally encounter other pirates, but interaction with them is limited unless a Player-vs-Player event is in place. However, you get to help your fellow pirates in sinking enemies and all parties get the loot. It is in these moments of shared struggle and celebration of victory on the seas, that one can savor enjoyable experiences.
Other interactions happen during the gathering of resources. The availability of resources is linked to the game’s servers and not the player’s character. It can thus happen that one arrives at a location only to find it devoid of resources because another player had gathered them all. This would happen rarely though, thanks to the recent reduction of the resource respawn time from 60 minutes to 30 minutes. Despite appearing to be a minor aspect, the design choice reflected in this experience underlines an area of inadequacy for Skull and Bones’ online elements, which can often be frustrating.
World Events are co-op activities that sporadically emerge on the map. These activities often involve combat with enemy vessels or particularly challenging ships, and defeating these triggers unique rewards. Sending out a distress call to other players on the server is a possibility during these events, however, others can only respond by physically arriving at the event’s location. Fast travel is possible, but it requires the player to be on land and to have already unlocked a near enough fast travel point. This barrier excludes instant response to distress calls, making co-op feel disjointed.
Cutthroat Cargo Hunt encounters similar drawbacks due to Skull and Bones’ multiplayer mode. This PvP event requires players to seize important cargo from a merchant vessel and transport it to a specific outpost. It starts as a small-scale combat and escalates into a thrilling pursuit as one player tries to escape the others. The mode is entertaining, but I encountered several challenges. During my first attempt, AI ships from another event attacked me, and once revived, I was left far behind other players.
The subsequent attempt exposed a further problem linked to group dynamics. When in a group, joining a PvP event doesn’t bring your group members along. This means players can still interfere with the game even if they are not part of the event. I battled against two players, one involved in the event and one not, who collaborated for triumph. The player not part of the event could disrupt other players and offer healing supplies to their teammate, making the mode impractical if being played with exploit-minded opponents.
Contraband delivery missions, also known as Helm missions, are introduced halfway through the game. Players can acquire sugar cane and poppy either from liaisons or by sinking Rogue faction vessels, which then allows them to produce rum and opium to exchange for Pieces of Eight – a distinct in-game currency. To trade these illegal items, players must transport them to outposts. This deactivates fast travel and causes numerous Rogue faction ships to begin pursuit in an attempt to claim the goods.
The problem encountered is the frequent attack from high-level ship gangs targeting all players, particularly those with a delivery contract. This issue notably affects new players, who often can’t leave the starting outpost without being destroyed. Ubisoft is currently developing a patch to address this problem, but the issue severely impacts the game’s functionality.
The primary campaign includes quests focused on destroying specific enemy ships or gathering and delivering resources to varied outposts. Sometimes, you might be required to attack a fort or settlement by destroying sturdy guard towers and waves of ships. However, the mission design lacks creativity. The ultimate goal is acquiring enough Pieces of Eight to buy high-end gear. But accomplishing this requires continuous time management, from conquering manufacturers, delivering orders every hour to spending approximately 40 minutes every three to six hours collecting your Coins of Eight. Despite its high demands, the return is minimal, making it a tedious process.
Skull and Bones occasionally have its highlights, but these moments are few and far between. The best aspects of Black Flag have been removed to accommodate monotonous live-service components and an underdeveloped multiplayer experience that leaves you feeling removed from other players. While some issues will likely be addressed in future updates, the game would require a complete overhaul to remedy its core mechanics and reliance on dull, repetitive tasks. After an 11-year wait, the result is disappointing, with Skull and Bones dangerously close to being confined in Davy Jones’s Locker.
