Skull and Bones Reviews
It can be difficult to square the decade-plus Skull and Bones development cycle with its lack of features in some areas, but this isn’t the wreck many expected it to be. The game’s naval combat is simple yet engaging, its world is striking, ship customization is satisfying, and there are plenty of varied things to do, even if most of them don’t involve getting off your ship. Skull and Bones can be repetitive and it doesn’t exactly capture that devil-may-care pirate lifestyle, but keep expectations in check and there’s fun to be had sailing these pleasantly predictable seas.
the risk of being repetitive or boring in some situations, the insipid narrative and a perfectible technical sector work against it, yet not everything is to be thrown away because Skull and Bones has potential, I can perceive it while I sail its seas juggling between PVE clashes and other players who, like me, aspire to the title of pirate king. Unfortunately, the problems during development end up being reflected in a live service which, despite the intriguing pirate setting, in the current state of things appears incapable of standing out from the crowd to rival the giants of the genre.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Skull and Bones delivers boatloads of explosive tactical action, with players playing the part of pirates in an impressive oceanic world. Its 17th-century naval battles are best-in-class, with developer Ubisoft Singapore building a firm foundation for future voyages. But with no real story to speak of and little in the way of variation, repetition inevitably sets in. While not the spiritual successor to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag as some might have been hoping for, Skull and Bones is never-the-less an incredibly unique, reactive game well worth checking out.
As much as I wanted to enjoy it, Skull and Bones feels like an underdeveloped, unpolished, and unnecessary game that was better left on the cutting room floor. With awkward quests, little incentive to explore, and far too many problematic features, it’s left us wondering how this took 11 years to release and how quickly it’ll drown in its own seas.
Skull and Bones went through a tortuous development and on many occasions it seemed that it was never going to arrive and would remain in the drawer of forgotten games. However, Ubisoft has done everything in its power to make it come to fruition, although it is noticeable that in its decisions there have been cuts that have taken away some features.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
If you were looking for a spectacular adventure focused on a single player or similar, that is something you will not find in this product. On the other hand, if you were prepared to receive this game knowing that it is just a service, then you may have a good time, since the hours of farming are not going to end soon and it has ideas that are not bad at all.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Unfortunately, Skull and Bones is marked by continuous fluctuations in quality. Its open world is quite vast, but also a bit empty, its pirate atmosphere is successful, but the narrative component is very uninteresting.
Review in Italian | 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.
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.
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.
Skull and Bones is a dull exercise in checklist progression, spiced here and there with some impressive sailing.
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.
Considering the game's notoriously troubled development, Skull and Bones is definitely not as bad as it could have been. With many of its tweaks to the naval combat pioneered in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, the game is often fun, particularly with a friend. However, those moments of fun are often hard to find, and are buried under boring travel, glacially-paced harvesting and looting, and a rather shallow world to explore. If you're a fan of other multiplayer live-service titles and are looking for a new kind of game to check out with friends, Skull and Bones certainly brings something new to the table that Destiny 2 and The Division 2 do not, but it is not all smooth sailing.
When it's not annoying with the lackluster story and mission structure, Skull and Bones is tedious with its end game grind and activities. Bland and repetitive, it's simply a drag to enjoy.
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.
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.
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.
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
Perhaps Ubisoft's most mediocre new IP launch to date, eliciting neither excitement nor offence.