Like many children, much of my childhood was spent playing around as the character I wanted to be. However, baby Arielle never dreamed of being a princess locked in a tower or a cowboy upon a horse. No, what I wanted to be more than anything else was a Pirate and despite my real-life sea sickness, it’s a fantasy I still hold close to my heart.
So when Skull and Bones finally appeared on that horizon after spending years and years lost at sea, I was excited, regardless of what any filthy land dwellers had to say.
Sure, the game was delayed more times than any good pirate could count on their hook, and sure, the game went through more concepts than my dream ship would have planks to walk, but despite all that, Skull and Bones finally washed ashore, and I was excited to hop on board.
And you know what? It’s not a voyage I regret taking. And while it wasn’t without its rough patches and is a far stretch from the AAAA game Ubisoft wanted it to be, it’s just different enough, unique enough and fun enough to have me humming yo, ho, yo, ho, it’s a pirates life for me.
Let me start this review by addressing the Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag branded elephant in the room. Skull and Bones is nothing like the beloved Assassin’s Creed franchise entry.
It’s just not, and you’ll have to accept that right way if you’re going to give Skull and Bones a fair shot. Skull and Bones is also nothing like Sea of Thieves or any other pirate-themed RPG game you’ve played.
Instead of running around swinging a sword or firing a flintlock, Skull and Bones focuses on another part of pirate life: your ship. In fact, it’s fair to compare Skull and Bones to your favourite car racing title instead.
Sure, it’s still an open-world RPG. You’ll be pillaging ports and searching for loot and infamy, but the crux of everything is controlling your ship.
Either alone or alongside the ships of up to two friends or foes, you’ll be spending your time powering up your vessel in an intricate maritime game that touches on some other parts of piracy, sure, but the core lies in exploring the world by controlling your ship.
Now, I will say that Skull and Bones is a game you must commit to if you want to get the maximum amount of enjoyment. For starters, it feels super weird the first couple of hours, but once you get the hang of controlling your ship and get into the groove of only exploring the world by sailing it, the game clicks.
That click is thanks to how great the ship-to-ship combat feels, and once the upgrades start floating in, the whole navel fighting aspect comes to life, and it’s surprisingly fun even if it wasn’t the pirate game I thought I’d be experiencing.
The combat is exceptionally smooth and requires a delicate balance of strategy, aim, and frantic cooperation. Likewise, the details of crafting new ships and the variations on builds were delightful.
However, those looking for a story filled with fighting, drama and a certain level of betrayal will be disappointed. Skull and Bones is as light on story as it is focused on navel combat and exploration.
Most of the NPCs you’ll interact with on your adventures are vendors or quest givers, but very rarely will there be a story connecting any of them, and more often than not, I found myself just skipping through any conversations that did come up because they felt more pointless than world-building.
The actual meat and potatoes of Skull and Bones comes in when you start to identify the different trade routes operating and how these influence the world. That’s when the game started feeling much more like a naval economic management game, and I truly began having fun.
The Helm is an endgame mechanic that allows players to build up and manage businesses by delivering embargoed goods to different locals.
It’s an entirely new way to experience the game and build your fortune, and I had a lot of fun running the numbers to figure out where I could buy something at a low price and then flip it for a higher one.
However, after a couple of hours, the grind behind this became undeniable, and as a whole, Skill and Bones didn’t have enough verity to keep me hooked (mind the pun) for long.
It’s worth noting that it is a live-service game, so the additional content may be interesting enough to make me want to return, but that remains to be seen.
For now, I think it’s time for me to hang up my eyepatch, take off my peg leg and kick back because it’s been one hell of a ride.
