Way back in 2013 (yes, more than a decade ago) Ubisoft announced Skull and Bones, an open world pirate simulator that had a lot of people excited. However, nobody expected to wait for for such a long time. We get that AAA game development is long and arduous, but this one took things to a whole new level. Years went by, and it felt like a release date was never approaching, especially with every new Ubisoft showcase showing something else but it.

The development of Skull and Bones is an interesting one. A game that has changed direction several times over the years, ranging from an Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag spinoff, to a PvP, multiplayer-only, naval warfare experience. Now it is finally out in the wild. The wait is finally over. Is this the grand pirate dream game that everyone was hoping for? Or is it just better to stick with Sea of Thieves (a game that, mind you, was announced years after it, and is already five years old)?

So just what is Skull and Bones exactly? Well, if it’s not clear with how different the game has been every time it has been showcased over the past few years, it is an always online shared world experience. Think of The Division, but instead of a special unit, you live out the “ultimate” pirate fantasy. You play as an unnamed pirate. After a job gone wrong, you are rescued on a small shipping boat. Your goal is to make a name for yourself and become a pirate legend. There’s some other stuff which happens afterwards, but it’s not worth talking about. It’s just not worth bothering.

The story is as barebones as it can possibly get which is kind of a trend for these type of games. “Go to area and do X”, do that enough times and you can progress through boring cutscenes that really don’t add much. There’s no real interesting characters to talk to as the games story feels more like a game tutorial than anything substantial. It is more of an extended tutorial to the core gameplay loop.

Much of your time in Skull and Bones will be commanding your own ship. Sailing the high seas in search of treasure and infamy. Comparisons to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag are really easy to make here; they are both pirate games from Ubisoft after all. However, while Black Flag is a single-player action game and Skull and Bones isn’t. They both have very different approaches to the pirate life.

I generally found the mechanics to be straightforward enough to make it enjoyable to sail around for a while, but not as complex as some would like. At times, it was a genuinely relaxing experience as I moved across the massive open world. And when I mean massive, I really mean it. The first time ripping through the open seas to travel to a different continent was amazing. Then, all of a sudden, you are over it, as sailing becomes more and more of a chore, the lack of complexity in the sailing mechanics means you will get over it very quickly. One of my few deaths whilst exploring the world was when I was just staring at my phone instead of paying attention to a giant wave that was approaching. Don’t text and sail.

Thankfully, combat does fare a lot better, leaning more into arcadey territory than realism. Your vessel can have weapons equipped on the front, back, middle and both sides, and by moving your camera in that direction you take control of them for that entire direction. It’s a little bit weird and removes all sense of realism but again, once combat kicks off, it can be a lot of fun. At key parts in a battle, you may be able to fire the muskets to stop repairs or board the ship for extra loot. Which is just a pre-scripted animation that only servers to disappoint.

Thankfully though, this is actually only a minor gripe I have with the core gameplay loop, as naval combat here is almost constantly exciting. Especially in the higher levels, as you start taking on more and more high level ships and engage in co-operative content with other players and showcases the true potential of Skull and Bones. However, once again, this doesn’t last long, as its overall gameplay loop just isn’t fun.

A big part of the gameplay loop is gathering resources to build better equipment that will allow you to climb up the ranks. May that be crafting upgraded weapons, increase your resistance to damage or even craft new ships all with their own perks and advantages. To do this you will need to gather blueprints that can be bought at outposts or earned through a variety of contracts. Then once you have the blueprint you need to gather all the materials and bring them back to the blacksmith. It’s a grindy progression system that makes Skull and Bones feel more like a job rather than an engaging gameplay loop.

Servers in this game are limited to 20 per instance and it seems to do a good job matching you with people around the area. This can lead to some amazing moments as multiple people pile in for epic larger scale battles, but in the same case can cause problems since resources are instanced base as well as the state of outposts. Got a bounty to turn into an outpost? Well you better wait because someone just pillaged it. This is alongside the occasional server issue and the fact chat still doesn’t work. These are relatively minor annoyances however and I expect these to be fixed relatively quick. Getting into co-operative gameplay is easy enough and if you are looking for a more competitive element Skull and Bones does deliver a twist on The Divsion‘s Dark Zones.

You are allowed off your ship but unfortunately this is very much limited to town hubs, the occasional outpost or treasure map finds. If you are coming into this game expecting the full pirate experience you may be disappointed. There is no boarding enemy ships, no sword base combat or even ranged attacks with your pistols. All you do is talk to people and explore really small instanced zones when looking for treasure. Imagine whilst pillaging an outpost you could switch between on-foot and ship based combat, managing the two distinctive gameplay styles. Or even in multiplayer with one person holding off the approaching fleets whilst the other grabs as much loot as possible. There are limitless possibilities here and none of it is really explored.

There is a character creator but it’s absolutely god awful and I had to hide my character away with a mask to really see him. Instead your main character is your ship and customisation is for the most part, excellent. Outfitting your ship with a variety of weapons on each side of the ship. Giving them unique functions and adding a lot of personality with so much to chose from. That’s not to mention an extensive cosmetics.

Skull and Bones is also very much a live service game (once again) as such the day one offering is rather slim. There are of course microtransactions. Ubisoft sent me a code for the games premium edition that does include some extra bits and bobs that I feel like should be in the standard, especially for the steep base asking price. It’s also worth noting that whilst there are store items none of them are pay-to-win, it is entirely on the cosmetics side which could have easily been exciting rewards for endgame content.

Now onto the microtransactions, because of course the worlds first AAAA game has them. You do get 500 gold right upfront for booting the game up and this is to get you looking into the store. There’s not much you can get other than the starting bundle. To go a little bit into the pricing model the “Bloody Angel” bundle which includes ship colours, flags and a figurehead costs 1,200 Gold. Going into the gold prices and it costs £3.99 for 500 gold, £7.99 for 1,100 gold and you can see the problem right away with the prices. At the base price of £50 for the standard edition I cannot defend this in anyway.

Skull and Bones will also be doing a seasonal model. The games first season hasn’t yet started as such I can’t speak to the quality of it. However, from the roadmap laid out we can expect additional endgame activities as well as the dreaded battle pass progression. Hopefully Skull and Bones can avoid the pitfalls of games like Destiny 2 or Diablo 4 with it’s plethora of FOMO content and abhorrent additional paid content on top of the paid content. If Ubisoft listen to the feedback of the community the potential for something great is there, it’s just not there yet.

There is an uneven presentation here. Whilst sailing generally looks really good with convincing enough water and amazing views. First time arriving at new major outposts was genuinely exciting, as was traversing the seas in dangerous conditions as waves come crashing down on you. It’s when things start getting up close the illusion shatters. With horrendous texture work, plenty of pop-in and some of the worst character models I’ve seen in a major release. This was running the game at max settings with DLSS on high quality mode. Thankfully the game does run extremely well even in high intensity combat.

As for the sound design you can’t have a pirate game without some sea shanties and oh boy does Skull and Bones deliver on this. With over 20 sea shanties for your crew to sing. Elsewhere sound design is pretty solid with some awesome sound effects during combat. The only downside really is the mediocre voice acting in a story where I can’t remember a single characters name that isn’t John Scurlock and that’s only because every character talks about him.

Skull and Bones isn’t the absolute shipwreck that many expected it to be. However, after such a long period of time waiting for this come out, never truly knowing whether or not Ubisoft had actually cancelled it, it’s hard not to be disappointed with this corporate and generic end result. This is a shallow, empty, lifeless experience, where its admittedly solid core gameplay cannot carry the rest of its disappointing elements on its own. There is still some fun to be had, sure, but this isn’t worth the current pricetag, especially with other, much better pirate-themed games available in basically every modern system you can imagine..

Graphics: 6.0 Sailiing the high seas is convincingly gorgeous, but whenever the game does something else, it looks dated.	Gameplay: 6.0 Sailing the seas and engaging in naval combat can be exciting but everything else lets it down .
Sound: 8.0 Whilst the voice acting is very dull, the rest of the games sound is fantastic, including the much needed sea shanties.	Fun Factor: 3.0 For me, I found Skull and Bones to be an absolute slog. Moments of excitement are way too few and far between. This wasn’t worth the decade-long wait, not by a mile.
Final Verdict: 5.0

Skull and Bones is available now on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070, Ryzen 5 3600X and 16GB RAM.

A copy of Skull and Bones Premium Edition was provided by the publisher.