Skull and Bones Reviews
I had hoped that Skull and Bones might have been an underdog, and I had wished it had come out and surprised me. Unfortunately, it is undercooked and lacks direction.
Skull and Bones is not only not the "quadruple A" promised by Ubisoft, nor is it a game capable of bringing to life the pirate dream of all those who have ever dreamed of being able to command a black-flagged ship.
Review in Italian | Read full review
After about twenty hours of gameplay we wonder why they finally released a game that won't even manage to break even and put Ubisoft through even more promotion costs
Review in Greek | Read full review
Despite being in development for so many years, Skull & Bones offers fewer gameplay mechanics than the naval battles of past Assassin's Creed games. Yes, it does what it claims to do, but the turbulent development process unfortunately prevents it from getting any sympathy votes.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
In short, net of reversals made by future updates, the dawn of "quadruple A" stocks does not seem to be all that promising.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Skull And Bones is a game that has glimmers of fun that show what it could have been. The game is competent but not worthwhile in its current state.
Avast ye landlubbers! There’s enough pirate booty in Skull and Bones to fill the coffers of the entire Spanish Armada.
Skull and Bones falls short of expectations, particularly in its lackluster narrative and repetitive gameplay loop. The exciting ship combat, deep customization, and visually stunning world can't fix the emptiness you feel when sailing the high seas.
Skull and Bones does what it set out to do quite well. Combat is fun, the upgrade system is rewarding, the environment is engaging, and the sound design is phenomenal. But everything that it doesn’t do sticks out like a sore thumb. A next-to-non-existent narrative, repetitive one-trick missions, and a lack of anything pirate-related other than sailing a ship hurts. To its credit, I enjoyed my first twenty or so hours more than I thought I would. But it’ll take a significant, focused effort from Ubisoft to maintain interest over the years to come.
Skull and Bones is a dull exercise in checklist progression, spiced here and there with some impressive sailing.
Skull and Bones is a pirate naval warfare game that is open to criticism in the areas of navigation and exploration systems. In spite of this, Ubisoft's title can be played and provides moments of adrenaline during battles or assaults, which are exciting and fun.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Skull and Bones nails its ship combat and sailing so wonderfully it becomes a highlight amongst generic gameplay loops, bare bones story, and chore-like endgame tasks.
Years of development yield a little tension with spectacular sea fighting while playing. In the end, however, this looting offers too little variation to keep fascinating. The story and the main character also do not know how to commit to you because of absent development. Furthermore, live service elements and hated micro-transactions make cannon food from Skull and Bones. Ubisoft should have sat down again to sit around the drawing board or have this title sink.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Skull & Bones exists in the space between GaaS and MMO-lite at launch. There's fun to be had, as long as you recognize that this is a looter shooter more than a pirate game.
Unfortunately, that doesn't leave Skull and Bones with anything that it can really claim as one of its strengths. Its ship combat is weak, and for all intents and purposes the on-foot gameplay is nonexistent. What little story the game has is threadbare at best, and it gives the player no good reason to slog through the grind. It is saddening, as the game could've been something great, especially since there aren't a ton of pirate games out there. However, there isn't much about Skull and Bones that I will remember a year from now.
Skull and Bones may have survived the turbulent seas of its long voyage to release, but the end result is a game that's barely kept afloat by its solid sailing mechanics, while the uninspiring content, underwhelming presentation, and poor multiplayer design punch far too many holes in the hull.
The looming question now is support. Is Ubisoft’s roadmap for this game going to generate the kinds of quality content and community excitement needed to sustain a player base? Live-service games are a crapshoot at best, but it’s clear there are things in the works. Speculation runs rampant on reddit that we’ll be getting more dynamic PvE events like monster hunts, and that the really cool stuff is coming. But, like so many other good ideas for Skull and Bones, it doesn’t actually exist yet.
Despite the clear effort that went into build diversity and satisfying naval combat, Skull and Bones’s core gameplay loops simply aren’t enough to stop this ship from sinking. Mindless grinds, tedious busywork, and a complete lack of any meaningful gameplay hooks outside of the core combat result in an experience that feels incomplete despite the plethora of Ubisoft checklists that there is to work through in your time at sea. If you’re someone who enjoys tinkering with builds and doesn’t mind grinding for materials in a constant pursuit of that next upgrade for hours on end, then you may find something to like here. Otherwise, this is a voyage into tedium-induced insanity that you can definitely afford to miss.
Overall the game is Decent, but with the amount of years it took to make, we both expected way more from the game. While the game invites players to explore the beautiful but treacherous Indian Ocean during the Golden Age of Piracy, if it weren’t for the Online Servers, this game would likely be one you’d see heavily pirated, just like the Golden Age of Piracy the game is set in.
It's a charming game with a pirate theme and plenty of mechanics, but it does feel repetitive after a while.
Review in Turkish | Read full review