Skull and Bones Reviews
It is filled with some great ideas and I can see that it could have been something exceptional. Unfortunately, there’s simply not much here apart from the calming effect of sailing through a rather pretty world and several thrills that can soon become chores.
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
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.
Avast ye landlubbers! There’s enough pirate booty in Skull and Bones to fill the coffers of the entire Spanish Armada.
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
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.
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.
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.
Skull and Bones is an enjoyable sea-faring romp that has thrilling naval combat, but the grind-heavy gameplay loop can get a little tiring over time. It’d be something if there was a bit more to do on land to give the gameplay loop more variety, but with most of your progression based upon your antics at sea and grinding for resources, it doesn’t take long before you find yourself doing a lot of the same things over and over again. Did it make Skull and Bones a bad experience? Definitely not, with the naval battles offering plenty of thrills and exploration across the seas proving to be a real treat. Progression is rewarding too, whilst playing with friends makes a lot of the flaws a lot more forgivable. It just needs that little something extra to make the grind a bit less repetitive right now – hopefully it’s something Ubisoft can work on with the upcoming Year One content, because the foundations are in place for Skull and Bones to stand out as a mighty impressive pirate experience.
Skull and Bones has some fun naval combat mechanics and a largely engaging sandbox experience that's brought down by live-service trappings and a lack of freedom outside of controlling your ship. There's a lot of room for improvement, and Skull and Bones has the potential to realize its setting by reexamining the games it's influenced by.
Skull and Bones is not something I can recommend to anyone. If you want to play a good game about pirates, I suggest going back to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, released years ago. It's really interesting that a game released 11 years after its development and seven years after its announcement ultimately turned out to be worse and more primitive than the older title that inspired it. Unfortunately, though, practically nothing worked out in Skull and Bones. It's an incomplete title, full of flaws and bad decisions. Playing it was a road through agony for me. It may not be the worst game we've gotten and will get this year, but it's still disappointing.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Skull and Bones is an aesthetically displeasing, barebones pirate game lacking base fundamentals such as boarding which provides an incredibly mundane and ultimately boring experience that is far below the par compared to its inspiration from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
Skull and Bones isn’t the absolute shipwreck that many expected it to be. However, after such a long period of time waiting for this come out, never truly knowing whether or not Ubisoft had actually cancelled it, it’s hard not to be disappointed with this corporate and generic end result. This is a shallow, empty, lifeless experience, where its admittedly solid core gameplay cannot carry the rest of its disappointing elements on its own. There is still some fun to be had, sure, but this isn’t worth the current pricetag, especially with other, much better pirate-themed games available in basically every modern system you can imagine.
Skull and Bones, unfortunately, doesn't offer much more than a disappointing experience. Ubisoft insisted on a project that, from the beginning, lacked the necessary elements to result in a satisfactory final product. The result is in many ways embarrassing: it turns out to be one of the most boring games I've tried in recent years. Most of the time is spent in a never-ending search for resources to improve our boat, an activity so monotonous that the desire to return is practically nil.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
At first, Skull & Bones seemed to provide a little surprise, but the longer you play, the more frustrating it becomes. The same missions are repeated over and over and the fact that almost all of the gameplay takes place on the boat is simply not fun enough. The choice to focus almost the entire game on sailing was a mistake. The potential of Skull & Bones was enormous. There aren't that many of a major publisher that makes a pirate game. The big question is why they didn't opt for a complete pirate adventure, where you had the freedom to explore all the islands on foot and discover the secrets and treasures.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Skull and Bones has all the ingredients to be a great game but it falls short due to its soulless story mode. While the game's naval combat mechanics are top-notch and provide an immersive experience, the lack of a compelling narrative leaves players feeling un-engaged and unmotivated.
Skull and Bones falls short of being a deserving successor to Assassin's Creed Black Flag, and it also lacks substantial elements to support Ubisoft's assertion that it is the first-ever AAAA title.
When a ten-year-old Assassin's Creed game proves to be a superior pirate experience compared to an actual pirate game which Skull and Bones is on paper, that only raises questions about the true nature of the latter.