Skull and Bones Launches to a Soggy Reception
After over ten years of development, seven years since its announcement and dozens of staff joining and leaving the project, Skull and Bones has finally officially launched. If you expected that a game stuck in development hell with no clear direction and a team that didn’t want to work on it would be less than stellar, then you’d be right. After an early access period the week before launch, the full game dropped last Friday to the opposite to critical acclaim.
Image by Ubisoft
Ubisoft’s mess of a pirate game is currently sitting at a weak 60 on Opencritic, with only 16% of critics recommending you try it out. For a game meant to be a spiritual successor to the beloved Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, that’s not the best start. The reason for these low scores ranges from a mundane story to practically non-existent storytelling. It seems that Ubisoft have managed to make a grindy pirate RPG that manages to be far more frustrating and tedious than fun.
Image by Ubisoft
It's not too much of a surprise considering the history of Skull and Bones’ release, but its still a shame to see what potential was here be squandered by Ubisoft chasing trends rather than trying to make an enjoyable product. It seems that every eye-rolling inducing gameplay mechanic from the past ten years has been rammed into Skull and Bones to make a deformed mess of a release. Whether its half baked crafting or repetitive open world activities, nothing seems to gel together here. Essentially, the consensus is that the end product takes some of the least inspired elements from other releases from a decade ago and jams them into a pirate skin when it really doesn’t fit.
Image by Ubisoft
If you are a pirate fanatic, there could be some fun had here, but when you peel back the set dressing, there’s nothing unique about this release that will have you coming back. The lack of any real personality, grindy gameplay and a dull world makes Skull and Bones one of the least exciting games of 2024 so far according to critics and fans alike- although, if you’ve followed the development of this project, that’s likely something you saw coming. If you do still want to pick this one up for whatever reason, its available now on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles.
