Skull and Bones has been in development for a long time, but is the pirate adventure worth the wait? Or should it walk the plank? Here’s what we thought of it at Soundsphere Gaming.
The highly anticipated pirate action-adventure game, Skull and Bones, has just been released after the best part of a decade of delays.
The creator of the game, Ubisoft, has reportedly spent $120 million on the production of the game, which led the CEO of Ubisoft to dub it a ‘’Quadruple A game’’, although, this description hasn’t been heard before for a game release, and some fans are arguing they’ve invented an entirely new description for a game, just to charge £70 for a copy.
Players can team up with friends to pillage, plunder and fight against different factions, with the ability to create a trade empire and dominate the seas.
The price point, is the first problem that a consumer comes across. With massive games available for free, such as Fortnite, or on cheaper, paid subscriptions such as Xbox Game Pass, it seems there is less patience for these price points than there used to be. Previously, a game release would be worthy of its £30/£40 cost, due to the fact its new, its unavailable through other means and the game is completed.
The game itself, is basic, and lacking in ways for the player to actually do anything, such as boarding a ship and interacting with others. To board an enemy ship, you must press a button, which activates a cut scene and adds slightly more loot. You would expect, for the price of the game, a little substance when playing, not just pressing buttons for the sake of it.
The main hub of Skull and Bones, St Anne.
Before playing the game, I would expect to be in control of the boarding of ships and other things, similar to Sea of Thieves, but in the case of Skull and Bones, it doesn’t seem to prioritise the player doing anything, which leaves the player feeling bored and disconnected.
The games doesn’t really rope you in and leaves a lot to be desired in the actual storyline. The islands are boring and similar, the NPC’s (non-playable character) are all hollow, without any backstory to them and the lack of content upon release is nothing but shambolic. Although, it must be said there are some positives in the island design, such as easy accessibility and simplicity, although most islands are not interactable, which is another thing that makes the map feel empty.
When I bought the game, pre release, I expected an epic story that would grip me in, and I would not want to stop playing, similar to that of Red Dead Redemption or Grand Theft Auto, but this was not the case, the story Is vehemently linear, and there is no point in which you feel you have made a difference to the story when playing.
Players can edit and upgrade their ships.
On the other hand, I found the combat in the game to be at the very least, encouraging. It is fairly simple and slick, but just puzzling enough to engage the player. The ship building, and designing is also a strongpoint in the game, although the lack of ships is one of the biggest flaws in the game.
I find the combat ‘’encouraging’’, as there isn’t enough there for it to considered great. The foundations of the combat are good, but with options lacking in weapons, types of combat and even ships, it leaves the player feeling lost once they’ve passed a certain point in the story.
The game is certainly not lacking in one thing; beauty.
For a game that took the most part of a decade to make, you would expect a long, engaging story where the choices you made affected the story, even slightly. But it was not, I completed the story in a matter of days and built and upgraded the biggest ship in the game. The lack of options on the game is truly unforgivable, with no large ships, no crew customisation, and no freedom to do anything differently from the next player.
This sort of game, would have been celebrated by the community, if it was cheap and made by an indie developer on a shoestring budget, due to the ocean size gap in the market for a game just like this. But, it was neither of those things, it was expensive, boring and in my opinion, uncompleted, which will, inevitably, leave consumers feeling robbed.
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