The long awaited release of developer Ubisoft Singapore’s pirate game Skull and Bones is finally here and we have spent a week sailing the Indian Ocean. Is this game worthy of your time, or should it get lost at sea?
Read on to find out
In 2013 Assassin’s Creed Black Flag introduced gamers to the pirating world with a few limited side missions that had you taking on sea battles in a pirate ship. The response by the gaming community was overwhelmingly positive, and as such, developer Ubisoft decided to create a stand alone pirating game. The game development process took many twists and turns in the eleven years since, and has gone from sea battle based, to land battle based, and back to sea battle based. Developer Ubisoft Singapore, with assists from Ubisoft Belgrade, Ubisoft Berlin, Ubisoft Chengdu, Ubisoft Kyiv, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Mumbai, Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Philippines, Ubisoft Pune, and Ubisoft Shanghai, has went way above and beyond anything that was created for AC Black Flag.
Skull and Bones Review – In the Beginning
Skull and Bones starts with you at the helm of your fully loaded and heavily armed pirate ship, taking on a small fleet of enemy ships. The game teaches you how to use your cannons effectively, as well as teaching you how to maneuver your ship into better firing positions. Just as you start to get the upper hand against this small fleet, a large enemy armada shows up as reinforcements and blows you out of the water. It’s a battle you are destined to lose, so don’t feel too bad about it.
You wake up floating on small piece of your destroyed ship and are rescued by two fellow seamen who are traveling in a small dhow. They make you their new captain, and you have just went from the helm of an incredible, multi-masted behemoth of a ship, down to being at the helm of a very small, single masted boat with your only weapon being a small spear. Your journey to building and owning bigger and better ships has just begun, and what a fun journey it will be.
Skull and Bones Review – The Stories
Skull and Bones has quite a few storylines to follow, but there are two that contain the main campaign and should be your main goal for completion. The first storyline involves finding Kingpin John Scurlock in the pirate hub of Sainte-Anne in the Indian Ocean. He’ll give you missions to complete, and in turn will reward you with weapons, silver, and gear to make you a better pirate. You’ll also unlock blueprints to build the bigger and better ships you’ll need in order to eventually rule the Indian Ocean.
Your travels will have you encountering other stories along the way, and eventually will lead to you to the port of Telok Penjarah, the home of Admiral Rahma. She is an exiled former Indian leader that is hell bent on revenge for being disrespected because she is a woman. Her storyline and dialogues echo throughout history along the same lines of gender inequality and being thought of as a lesser person than her male counterparts, and she has no qualms with letting you know how she feels. She has several missions along her storyline, and her rewards can earn you one of the best weapons in the game.
The black market storylines will open up to you pretty early on, and are run by two sisters that own bars in Saint-Anne and Telok Penjareh. Both bars have a hidden manufacturing area where you can make rum (Saint-Anne) and opium (Telok Penjareh). Black market missions will net you Pieces of Eight, which in turn can be used to purchase much better weapons than you can find elsewhere. These missions will have you traveling out to sea and either purchasing materials, or just sinking the boats and taking the stuff they are selling, saving you a bunch of silver in the process. You can then process the materials in either place and then deliver the product to the person who requested it.
Skull and Bones Review – Your Ships
Skull and Bones is first and foremost a game about piracy on the high seas, so sailing and sea battles is where you’ll spend most of your time. Sailing on the high seas is pretty simple, but you’ll be at the mercy of the wind at all times. If you do run into a head wind, zig zagging will help you to maintain your sailing speed, so keep that in mind. How fast you can travel will be determined by the size of your ship, and there are several classes to build as you rank up. Blueprints can be bought or earned, and will be required in order to build these bigger ships. There are nine classes of ships in all and each one of the four higher class ships has it’s own play style. Your base ship rank starts at five, but fully upgraded with high end weaponry. furniture, and armor and its rank can reach up to eleven.
Each of the four high end ships has slots for five weapons and five pieces of furniture. Furniture is added to give extra perks to your ship. Furniture can add things like extra damage to weaponry, faster reload speeds, faster weapon projectiles, higher cargo storage, and can even be added for extra hull armor. The RPG elements are pretty deep when it comes to outfitting your ship before heading into battle. The weaponry ranges from your standard cannons and up to things like flame throwers and artillery rounds. Each weapon type can also be built as a better, upgraded weapon type, giving you more damage to dish out, and in turn helping you rank up your ship. It’s an interesting system that works very well.
Skull and Bones Review – Gameplay
There are two types of gameplay in Skull and Bones: Sea battles and plundering. Sea battles will have you taking on and attempting to sink other ships, either one-on-one or you against several ships. You can play co-op with friends and any other player in the vicinity, whether they are in your group or not, can assist you in a battle. This feature can really come in handy if you are taking on a global event, and you can even send out a signal for help. With plundering, there are manufacturing ports that you can attack in order to take materials from and earn a nice haul of sliver from. You can also signal for help for these events as well, and when working with other players, your spoils will increase. The difficulty will also increase, but with the added help, it shouldn’t make it too hard for you.
Skull and Bones Review – End Game
Once you’ve reached the rank of Kingpin, you’ll unlock what’s considered the end game missions. These missions will give you the chance to take over operations at all of these manufacturing ports you used to plunder. These ports will earn you more pieces of eight for you to spend on the black market, making your ship even more powerful. Taking over every region is your goal, and isn’t a quick process. It is a fun process, though.
Skull and Bones Review – Conclusion
It’s been eleven years since Skull and Bones was first announced, and now that it’s finally here, we were not disappointed. While the game does have a few bugs that may require you to restart the game, developer Ubisoft Singapore is actively working on it, releasing patches as needed. The game looks pretty damn good both on the PS5 and in 4K running on a decent PC. We ran it on a RTX 4060 and i5-12500 without any hiccups. The game ran smooth and played well.
Skull and Bones isn’t without its flaws, but is still a solid title and very fun to play. With all of the future seasonal content incoming, we look forward to years of enjoyment on the high seas.
8
Skull and Bones review code provided by publisher and reviewed on a PS5 and a HP Victus gaming PC. For more information on scoring, please read What our review scores really mean.
