Skull and Bones preview: Black Flag without Assassin’s Creed

Those declared dead live longer. And since its announcement in the summer of 2017, Ubisoft’s live service pirate game Skull and Bones has definitely been one of those games that you really didn’t expect anymore. Several postponements, a development restart in 2020 – and allegedly another one the following year when the managing director of Ubisoft’s Singapore branch had to resign because of the abuse scandal – repeatedly took the wind out of the project’s sails. Since then, Skull and Bones has apparently finally gotten on track and is scheduled to be launched on November 8th, 2022.

As part of a comeback stream that lasted about half an hour, we were allowed to look at some new scenes from the game and found out: Unfortunately, you don’t necessarily see Skull and Bones’ many restarts and revisions. While the pirate fantasy and ship combat are enticing, the game lacks the features and unique selling propositions to sail past Sea of ​​Thieves or the almost ten-year-old Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag.

The premise: … but you’ve heard of me!

You start your adventure as a castaway in an open game world inspired by the Indian Ocean and shared with many other players, in the middle of the golden age of piracy. Since there will be no classic story campaign, the only goal of the game is to make your name and become the most feared pirate between Africa and India.

Your reputation replaces the classic experience bar and gives you access to more difficult contracts as well as blueprints for larger ships, thicker weapons and stronger armor. At the beginning you only have a rickety nutshell, the dhow, available, which logically cannot accommodate a powerful crew or many cannons.

So instead of raiding merchant ships and messing with pirate hunters, the focus in this phase of the game is on mere survival. You defend yourself against hungry hippos and crocodiles with the spear from your boat, materials for building larger and more stable ships are obtained via a timing mini-game when you sail next to an island, or as flotsam floating around in the ocean.

What an interesting looking island! Unfortunately, you are not allowed to explore them.

Source: Ubisoft

The gameplay: Not for landlubbers

In case you didn’t already guess it from this description: The gameplay in Skull and Bones (buy now €99.77) takes place exclusively on the ship, going ashore or swimming in the ocean are not possible. Although you control your captain in the third-person view through the rather small-looking ports and outposts, you only pick up quests there, build new equipment for the ships and greet other players with gestures, similar to Destiny 2.

If you are still traveling with the small dhow, sharks and other predators pose a real danger.

Source: Ubisoft




You are also not allowed to move freely on your ship, instead you switch camera perspectives between the steering wheel, the lookout and the crew members who operate your weapons. Conversely, of course, this also means that the cool boarding maneuvers of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, for example, in which you swung onto the opposing ship’s deck with a drawn saber and killed the crew, will not be possible. Boarding, looting and robbing settlements happens in cutscenes or passively in the background while you mainly maneuver and cannon. Still, Skull and Bones aims to offer nothing less than the best ship combat in video game history.

The Ships and Battles: From Nutshell to Galleon

The ships are divided into different classes that allow for different playstyles and should be chosen depending on the mission objective. If you drive the big pots, you will logically transport more loot, but you will be traveling more slowly. Battleships offer more space for armaments but are more difficult to control, Navigation ships are quick and agile but have little storage space and armour. Speaking of nimble: As in the mental Assassin’s Creed predecessors, the wind doesn’t always just blow forward here, which is why you should align yourself accordingly for higher speeds. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear any atmospheric sea shanties in the presentation.