Skull And Bones Review
Ubisoft’s recent live-service, open-world action-adventure game, Skull And Bones, is expansive yet prescriptive, requiring players to fill in its creative voids. It’s not a game for everyone, and it requires patience to appreciate its mix of tranquil sailing and intense naval combat.
The game starts with a sea battle, but as a live-service game, there’s no pause button. So, if you’re not ready when the action starts, you might miss the introductory sequence and tutorial. The game doesn’t always involve you in its exciting moments, which can sometimes happen offscreen.
The game’s storyline is similar to many RPGs, but Skull And Bones isn’t an RPG. You play as an aspiring naval tycoon, starting with a small wooden dhow and a crew, aiming to rise through the ranks of the Indian Ocean’s underworld. You’ll interact with four pirates who give you quests in the game’s two main hubs. Your silent protagonist doesn’t have a personal stake in the world, but you’ll complete tasks for rewards like silver, cosmetics, and new ship weapons. Along the way, you’ll meet four maritime factions, each with their own ships, goods, and outposts. Major plot points like betrayals and power shifts are relayed to the player through dialogue cut-scenes.
Contracts in Skull And Bones, either primary or secondary, typically involve either combat at a specific location, delivery tasks, or a mix of both. The most challenging combat missions involve defeating a notorious pirate leader or raiding an outpost, which can be frustrating in the early game due to limited combat capabilities. Bosses are often resilient, and there is no procedural ship damage other than hitting glowing red targets. This means that your under-equipped early ships will face lengthy naval battles with slow cannon reloads and seemingly massive enemy health bars.
Feeling underpowered can lead to occasionally unfair raiding missions. These require the player to stay within a defined area next to a coastal colony and withstand waves of enemy ships. If you’re unlucky, passing ships may wander into the zone and join the fight against you, forcing you to battle against the wind, cannonballs, and mortar fire in a confined area while hoping your slow cannons can eventually turn the tide of battle. If you accidentally leave the zone while trying to distance yourself from enemy fleets and encounter an unfavorable headwind that delays your return, your crew mutinies. These instances of raids, or missions in general, going wrong due to multiple frustrating systems colliding can leave a bitter taste that occurs more frequently than desired. And the hub NPCs, who usually don’t react to anything you do outside of the main questline, will mock you for being a poor captain, which is somewhat amusing.
After about ten hours of gameplay, players should find themselves owning a medium-sized ship. It will require grinding and refining various crafting materials for a few hours but rewards players with a significantly expanded combat repertoire that brings the naval combat to a level comparable to what Assassins Creed achieved a decade ago. Now, ships have guns on all sides, as well as mortars or rockets, and even torpedoes and flamethrowers. Every direction on your ship is armed with deadly weapons, and the frustration of slow reloads is alleviated by your expanded arsenal. Add in the dynamically occurring wild weather, and Skull And Bones finally comes into its own in combat. Battling against a fleet as a nearby human player passes by and joins in, with tides over ten meters high creating dynamic obstacles to navigate, makes for memorable and exciting moments that may even stand as some of the best in this very specific nautical niche. Bad weather creates the perfect conditions, as the atmosphere, tension, and risky engagements bring this action to a thrilling climax.
While the other common type of naval mission, deliveries, is a far cry from combat, there is an enjoyable experience to be found for the patient sailor. Transporting goods from point A to B across a vast sea is about as exciting as you would expect, with no surprises in this expansive world to distract you. There are some beautiful skyboxes to admire, and the horizon occasionally looks stunning from a distance. These sections are really about finding your rhythm and sailing along favorable winds. When you hit your stride, and the appropriately soft meditative music starts playing, the experience becomes relaxing. Listen to a podcast or audiobook, and it’s the closest you can get to a Euro Truck Simulator experience in the AAA(A) sphere. If there was more meaningful impact on the world or semblance of player interaction, I might have humorously suggested this was a Strand-type game.
VERDICT
I don’t regret the time I spent with Skull And Bones. Despite my challenging journey, I remain hopeful that this game will receive the much-needed infusion of character and gameplay that typically accompanies Ubisoft’s live-service revamps. They’ve surprised me before with the second-year revivals of For Honor and Siege, and there are sufficient elements of a good experience here for them to expand upon. Regrettably, the game feels devoid of life and directionless at launch. It’s a demanding grind with sporadic adrenaline rushes, and its quintessential Ubisoft formula is an unremarkable comfort, but only for the suitable sailor.