Skull and Bones Reviews
Skull and Bones offers the promise of adventure on the high sea. While the game focuses a little hard on its naval warfare mechanics, they are nonetheless exciting and don’t grow old quickly. Though a bit grindy, Skull and Bones should offer hours of entertainment and many customization options to those looking to set sail into its waters.
Ultimately, I don’t really know who Skull and Bones is for. Diehard pirate nerds may get a kick out of the more “realistic” nature of things as opposed to Sea of Thieves, but after nearly 6 years the latter certainly does most things better. For the MMO, looter shooter gang among us (i.e. me) there’s just not enough meaningful here, and for there’s no depth there for the RPG crew either.
Skull and Bones feels like an online mode from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, but in a bad way. The sea battles are really fun at first and look really great, but unfortunately it remains a monotonous and dull grind. There's not much to do, there's no gameplay away from the ship and everything else just plods along. There is definitely potential somewhere, but there are plenty of more fun alternatives in the pirate genre.
Review in German | Read full review
Skull and Bones is a maritime RPG with a strong foundation, even if it feels like a live-service first draft.
To summarize, we have a pirate-themed ship game that looks great and has great mechanics.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Skull and Bones promises the pirate adventure of our dreams and falls far short thanks to a sparse storyline, lack of personality, and gameplay that oscillates between frustrating and boring.
Instead of a "gritty pirate game," Skull and Bones is a looter shooter on the high seas that keeps stepping on its own toes. I hope future seasons will transform it into a game that's good for more than novelty ship battles.
Combining moody and gratifying ship-on-ship combat with shallow live service trappings, Skull and Bones is great within the claustrophobic parameters of what market forces allow it to be.
While its ship customisation revels in aesthetic delights, little else here allows for the kind of pirate fantasy we've been waiting for since 2013. Despite some early promise and admirable endgame ideas, Skull and Bones charts a fairly unremarkable course through its gorgeously empty ocean.
Skull and Bones is finally a real, fully-launched product after several years of troubled development. While some components manage to pleasantly surprise, like ship buildcrafting and general ship-to-ship combat, the jankiness on the technical front, the exhausting live service components and the slim yet grindy endgame leave a lot to be desired. As always with live service titles, we can look towards the next year of seasons and additional content to see how it develops, but for now Skull and Bones is a middling recreation of the pirate fantasy.
There was so much potential for Skull and Bones to be a fantastic pirate MMORPG, but it is not even close. And due to the lack of meaningful content, Skull and Bones has the potential to be the most disappointing full-priced Ubisoft game that I have ever played. Our money seems to be going toward what seems like a free-to-play game that managed to squander an AAA developer's resources.
While Skull & Bones is far from the worst game ever made, it completely fails in conveying its vision of becoming a legendary pirate captain. Instead, it chases every conceivable gaming trend from excessive crafting, battle passes and hands-off story telling and leaves next to no impact whatsoever. Even among Ubisoft titles, often mocked for their bland sandbox approach, “Skull & Bones” seemingly perfected the blandness with a sparse few highlights when environment, multiplayer and ship combat all click into place and reveal a wealth of untapped potential.
Review in German | Read full review
With its visually stunning world, engaging gameplay mechanics, and the promise of evolving content, “Skull and Bones” charts a course many will be eager to follow. Yet, the true measure of its legacy will be how it grows and adapts in the treacherous waters of game development.
Skull And Bones' sailing and naval combat are solid and well-made from the get-go. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to carry the entire game and its insane "quadruple A" price tag. Whether it's the lacklustre storytelling, the shallow gameplay mechanics, or the uninspired multiplayer, there's no denying that Skull and Bones fails to live up to the hype. And as players lower their anchors and bid farewell to this ill-fated voyage, one can't help but wonder what could have been if only Ubisoft's higher-ups and management had dared to chart a course less travelled.
If you can stomach the rough seas of the early game, Skull & Bones has a bounty of live-service content on offer. The end-game mechanics and loot loop rely completely and entirely on the combat system that, thankfully, is one that delivers with every firing of a cannon. Taking over towns and cities, conquering trade routes, climbing the leaderboards - Skull & Bones is a thrilling ride. It's just a shame that it can take 30-40 hours to get there.
For a niche audience, Skull & Bones may be a GOTY contender. But for everyone else, it’s hard to imagine the appeal. Skull & Bones is a grind-heavy game with not a lot of payoff, unless your idea of payoff is being asked to grind some more.
I wish Skull and Bones was the pirate extravaganza it could and should have been. But other than some fleeting ship combat, if you want to get the real pirate experience, look elsewhere.
Skull and Bones is finally here, but tedious game systems and a grindy time investment to get anywhere may be too rich for some to go on this voyage.