Skull and Bones A Game Doomed Since Inception
Chaotic but kinda fun.
(Photo saved from Epic Games)
Hello, my peeps, and may the algorithm bring this piece to you🙏🏾.
I had no intention of talking about Ubisoft or this game.
I’m drafting this post as I’m supposed to be going to sleep; however, this game’s story and already rocky beginning is worth getting into.
Skull and Bones is a Single, Multiplayer, First and Third Person, Open World(technically only Open Ocean), Action-Adveture game Developed by Ubisoft Singapore and Published by Ubisoft on February 16, 2024.
While it seems early to write the game’s obituary, three key things already hint at its demise: The Game’s History, Gameplay, and Current events surrounding the game.
So, without further ado, let’s get into this.
(Skull and Bones Loading Screen, Photo taken by Nia🫧)
The Game’s History
Skull and Bones began development in 2013 with intentions of being an expansion for Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag just for its naval combat.
Then became its own project after the original game engine became outdated; however, it continued to struggle to find a direction and scope, resulting in overspending.
Setting and gameplay were significant points of contention caused by conflicting ideas, management issues, and no consistent direction.
Initially, it was set in the Caribbean, then Hyperborea, then finally Southeast Asia and East Africa.
In terms of Gameplay, it began with naval exploration and ship combat only before being changed in favor of having more land exploration and combat elements.
E3 2017 release was set for Windows, PS4, and Xbox One with enhanced versions for the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X|S with a “Keepers of the Code” live service to allow players to consult on the game development.
In 2019, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot delayed the game until 2021–2022, and the company announced a television adaptation in 2019, partnered with Atlas Entertainment.
In 2020, the game took on a “new vision” and was delayed for more development time.
By 2022, the game was set to release exclusively on the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 instead of the PS4 and Xbox One, but yet again was delayed until 2023–2024.
After $200 million and a decade of turmoil, Ubisoft announced at The 2023 Game Awards that Skull and Bones would be released on February 16th, 2024, with a $70 price tag, finally bringing us to the current day.
(Fighting a Crocodile, Photo taken by Nia🫧)
Gameplay
I hope you guys aren’t too tired from our last section because we still have to get into the most essential part of the game.
In Skull and Bones, we begin with a rushed cutscene explaining our setting and goals as pirates.
Right after this, we jump into our combat tutorial.
Combat is simple enough: we steer our ships and camera with our thumbsticks, and we lead our men by, directing them to make the boat go faster while they have enough stamina.
If they don’t, you’ll slow down., Cannons are fired via the Right trigger, and you aim down your sights with the left.
There is no way to win the opening battle you fight until what appears to be the entire British fleet siege on you, destroying our ship, killing our captain and many of our crew, and we wash up on scraps and look in a reflection to customize our character.
(Skull and Bones Tattoo Selection, Photo taken by Nia🫧)
The character customization is quite basic.
The faces are preset, but you can change things like skin tone, tattoos, hair, and what have you.
After customization, two other capsized crewmates find you in the wreckage in their life raft and take you in, declaring us captain.
From here, we go to the nearest island and talk to another crew mate from the ship that wrecked. And he asks us to loot some equipment from the wreckage, and he’ll give us directions to Sainte Anne.
But he tricked us, and we then had to go back to our ship's wreckage to get directions to Sainte Anne and complete the assignment to deliver cargo on behalf of our dead captain while progressively getting stronger and bigger vessels.
In all honesty, the opening with our beginning ship not only dragged on way too long but also, during my first playthrough, was not fun, mainly because I kept getting killed by online players already in their bigger ships.
The opening area should have been more closed off or at least meant for beginning players only to prevent this from happening.
Also, the grind to even get your new ship felt a little excessive.
Thankfully, I was looting throughout the opening sequence, so it wasn't as tedious as it would have been.
(Collecting Acadia for Rammer Ship, Photo taken by Nia🫧)
Current Events
All this finally gets us to current events, specifically regarding the game’s reception.
Metacrtic sites mixed or average reviews:
PC 58/100
PS5 61/100
Xbox Series X|S 64/100
Metacritic Users 3.5 Generally Unfavorable
Ubisoft concedes the game is not anticipated to break even, considering development costs.
And sales and players are already disappointing, with Insider Gaming citing 850,000 players (including free trial players) as of February 22nd,2024 sales already cited from Game World Observer to be less than a quarter of Sea of Thieves at release in 2018.
(Receiving our Rammer Ship, Photo taken by Nia🫧)
Conclusion
After sorting through all the chaos from history to even the gameplay, I can confidently say you SHOULD still play this game… On Ubisoft+ for $18 a month or while under free trial.
To experience it while it’s active because the game is doomed to be nixed.
Also, while I am disappointed about this game, there were fun moments throughout this mess, which makes me even more disgruntled because if only they weren’t so few and far between, the game would be more fun.
Thank you so much for reaching the end of today’s post, and as always, I’ll catch you guys in the next one ;).
