Skull and Bones Review

Ubisoft’s long-awaited Skull and Bones is finally here, and in the words of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, it is a “quadruple A game”, which would be one of the first of its kind, I think. This is a huge statement, especially in the current market of games being £60-£70 they need to be able to stick the landing, and honestly, I’m not sure they did. Skull and Bones is a pirate action game that tasks you with building your pirate legacy from the ground up. After your ship sinks, you become the captain of a new ship and have to rise your way up from the bottom to become the most infamous pirate across the whole of the Indian Ocean.

Despite being a pirate game, it generally lacks the mechanics and systems to make a functional pirate fantasy. Settlements can be plundered, yet they can be just as easily traded with, and Silver is so abundant that trading is often less of a hassle. Alongside this, each settlement is owned by a particular Faction, which has surprisingly little impact on anything. Factions each sell different items, and their ships are built differently, which has some minor combat implications but no longer-term impacts. Plundering settlements or attacking their ships doesn’t affect how they see you, outside of a very short period where they’ll attack on sight, but once that’s over, they go back to being just as friendly as usual. There are just no meaningful choices to be made throughout your growth as a pirate, which ruins the potential for roleplaying and making it your own story. The story missions echo this, as there is the illusion of choice in the form of dialogue options, but this just changes the next line or two of dialogue and nothing more.

The main gameplay loop consists of sailing around in your ship, defeating other pirates and sea-farers to obtain loot and materials, to continue to upgrade your ship and weapons. There are contracts also to focus your efforts on specific tasks, such as plundering settlements, hunting down bounties, or finding and delivering certain commodities. These all also reward Infamy, which is somewhat of a universal levelling system. There are 10 levels, starting at Outcast and peaking at Kingpin. Infamy levels gate off a few contracts, along with blueprints and ship upgrades. I don’t hate this system, but it does feel a little shallow, as I’m pretty much playing a numbers game right now until reaching the depths of the endgame, where build-crafting is — hopefully — more relevant. Combat is fun, but far too close to the ship combat of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag for my liking. I don’t dislike the combat, but it’s hardly an evolution of any of the systems from Black Flag, making it feel far more dated than it should.

Certain weapons can apply status effects: Ablaze is triggered after taking a set amount of Fire damage and deals a large amount of damage over a period of time; Flooded triggers after taking Flooding damage and deals a small amount of damage over time and slows the ship down; and Torn Sails is triggered when a ship's sails take a certain amount of damage, completely immobilising the ship for a short time. These can work together really well with certain Ships and weapon types, along with different kinds of furniture. Each Ship has a passive ability, such as additional damage and effects when enemies are Ablaze. Furniture also adds additional benefits, from increased damage and projectile speed for certain weapons to boost to regeneration and healing.

The story is, quite frankly, uninteresting. It doesn’t give enough choices or options surrounding anything for me to care for, and the characters all feel incredibly basic. It simply feels like a framing device for the events and an excuse to give players content to take them to the endgame and get them used to the systems before getting into the deeper content. As I’ve mentioned previously, it never allows you to stretch your legs and have fun as a pirate, you’re forced to be the pirate other people want you to be. I also hated the time-gating, as after certain missions, I’d be told to wait for something to happen or to lay low after an event. This was a massive drag, especially when I was trying to progress the story specifically. The best simulation of true piracy comes from The Helm, where you run your smuggling operations. This consists of either stealing or buying resources which can be refined into Gin, Rum, Opium and more and then selling those to people across the ocean. The problem with this is that it's a nearly completely separate ecosystem, selling things for Pieces of Eight — which can be spent in the black market — instead of Silver. I enjoy this system, but as it stands, it's too disconnected to be worthwhile until the endgame opens up. My other gripe is that it's still the same gameplay loop, consisting of you sailing from one location to another, except in this case, you get targeted more by rogue pirates.

There are a few interesting activities currently outside of the main story, with Sea Monsters and a Ghost Ship, which can both be hunted for unique rewards, and both also have some interesting abilities. More of these will be added as Season 1 and beyond release, while also fleshing out more of the smaller systems. The endgame is designed for you to build upon your pirate legacy and flesh out your role as a pirate Kingpin. Many of the systems are built to grow your smuggling legacy and to compete and battle against other pirates or work together with them in co-op heists to grow together.

Skull and Bones is relatively fun, but it falls apart in too many areas; the gameplay is uninspired but relatively fun; the story and characters are all bland and uninteresting; and the pirate fantasy is lacking. It’s not an unenjoyable experience, but at the £49.99 price point — £69.99 if you’re on console — It’s an incredibly lacklustre title.