Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones has been in a development hell for a long time. My brief time with the Skull and Bones Beta never won me over, as it seemingly borrowed elements from many game genres without nailing any of them.
The Beta begins with you controlling your ship against some intense odds as a heap of British Navy ships surround you. Your initial goal is to sink their low-tier ships; once you have damaged and sunk two or three, you are tasked with battling a warship. The battle with the warship was much more intense, and when it was defeated, my little pirate ship’s sails were in tatters, and the boat looked like it had seen better days. Soon after, more warships came, and my ship sank.
The next part of the tutorial was instigated. Shipwrecked and floating on some scrap timber, I was rescued by the remnants of my crew. Dragging me onto a dingy-sized sailboat, I took the rudder and sailed to the objective on a small island. There, I saw many other players I could interact with, joining teams or moving towards similar goals. I decided to tackle the first part solo and headed to an NPC in the corner to receive my first mission. Leaving the small island and jumping back into the boat, the crew scouted the seas; armed with a spear and a song, we soon completed the mission. Returning to the NPC who had issued the mission, I received some verbal abuse and a small reward and was ushered on to the new part of my journey. Setting sail again, I headed into the shipwreck, breaking a door to access the galley. A quick time event proceeded the opening of the locked door, and soon I was on the warship working my way into the captains’ chambers and retrieving the map to the Pirate paradise island. Once the map was collected, I departed the ship and sailed to the new destination.
Upon arriving at the Pirate Island, I quickly headed to my first task, collecting mail. I received some items and followed the next quest to purchase a larger vessel. The vessel-building task had me journeying into the sea in my small ship and searching out timber. Once I had located the timber, it was time to harvest; this task was completed by saddling my boat near the trees and pressing a triangle, which promptly brought up a quick time event to press a button in time with the saw movements. A task that was more troublesome than I would have liked, as the timing took a lot of work to get right.
After completing the first few missions on the pirate island, I was given a freer rein to chase my tasks and had a few different quests in my ledger to explore. I chose to take on some bounties, tasking my crew with taking on some ships in the sea and sinking them. This is where Skull and Bones shines, as the ship-to-ship battles are enjoyable. The process of building a boat to take on various forms to help with combat as a solo vessel or take on a role in a fleet like a heavy damage dealer, a healer, or a heavy defensive ship. While the ship-to-ship battles were fun, the story was bland as you worked to be a pirate or fleet captain.
Navigation is intuitive even if the maps are basic. However, I felt instances that something was missing. Although the Beta had a six-hour time limit for players to test the game, I only received my invite on Thursday and had a busy weekend trying to fit in playing. I managed approximately two and a half hours of game time from the six. In that time, I completed the tutorial and ran a few fetch quests, played in a small fleet with other players, and worked on upgrading my ship. From there, I got a small sampling of the social features, the quest and bounty systems and the harvesting systems. The quest was typical and featured such quests as heading to this part of the map and gathering these resources, killing and retrieving objects from sharks or crocodiles, sinking ships and stealing their parts. The bounties were more focused on players heading to a highlighted area of the map, finding the ship or ships that needed to be sunk, and then returning and receiving their bounty.
The harvesting systems were my least favourite of the completed tasks. First, you need to have the correct tools, purchasable on the island; next, you need to sail to where they were on the map; lastly, hope that once you find the item, the indicator will appear and allow you to harvest it. I had multiple times where the indicator would not appear, and I needed help to complete the task. The harvesting is also accessed by using a button to activate the harvesting, then a quick time event to complete it. It didn’t feel fun or natural to complete the task this way, and if I had been able to leave the ship and harvest the items that way, it would have been better.
Lastly, on the social side of the game, many people were playing when I was online, and I teamed up with a few here and there. When joining or hosting a fleet, you all have your ships; enemies will be more challenging, but loot will be more bountiful. There is text communication and voice, which is very helpful when conducting battles. I built my ship around some aspects of battle, making your ship tougher; you could work like a tank, while other builds can focus on being supported like a healer, and others allow for more sniper-like tactics. This is the part of the game I liked the most, and working in small groups of three to take out other ships was fun. The combat system is interesting, like turning the vessel to utilize either side or front canons while the other side reloaded. Strategizing with others to fight the best fight and get the loot was a lot of fun.
Overall, even though I didn’t get a heap of time to play this, the game may be fun and a good time with friends or strangers. Time will tell when it will be, and I will submit my thoughts when the survey is sent out. Although I didn’t love every aspect of this game, I am sure others did, and I will be interested in seeing people’s thoughts when it is released in February.
