General Gaming Skull & Bones OT - A Pirate's Life for Me, update: reviews from OpenCritic posted

[Dre801]

They're probably happy to  just be done with it.

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

Beta in 2 days

 

 

[Biggie]

Doesn’t seem to be much hype for this game. I’m not a Ubisoft fan. 

[Mr.Vic20]

1 minute ago, Biggie said:

Doesn’t seem to be much hype for this game. I’m not a Ubisoft fan. 

Not surprising! Ubisoft sells most of its games to the casuals. There is definitely some cross over, but they are hardly the darling of the core gaming crowd.  

[Keyser_Soze]

17 minutes ago, Biggie said:

Doesn’t seem to be much hype for this game. I’m not a Ubisoft fan. 

 

The hype was there 10 years ago when this was a Black Flag offshoot. Since being in development limbo forever it has become more of a meme than a game.

[AbsolutSurgen]

Tried the beta for an hour. Nope. Not for me. 

[Ghost_MH]

On 2/7/2024 at 8:29 AM, Keyser_Soze said:

The hype was there 10 years ago when this was a Black Flag offshoot. Since being in development limbo forever it has become more of a meme than a game.

 

I was hyped for this game until I learned they dropped the story/campaign and it was now a live service game.

[AbsolutSurgen]

4 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

I was hyped for this game until I learned they dropped the story/campaign and it was now a live service game.

A live service game is exactly what it is.

"Now go find 5 barrels of rum and 2 planks of Acacia and come back to me"

[Ghost_MH]

6 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

A live service game is exactly what it is.

"Now go find 5 barrels of rum and 2 planks of Acacia and come back to me"

 

Yeah, but it was initially announced as having a story-rich campaign mode that could be tackled single player or co-op. That's a game I've wanted for decades. I don't think a game has really scratched that itch for me since the like Pirates remake 20 whole years ago.

 

Really trying to figure out why anyone that wants a live service pirate game would choose this over Sea of Thieves.

[Keyser_Soze]

2 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

Really trying to figure out why anyone that wants a live service pirate game would choose this over Sea of Thieves.

 

Some people just really like Ubisoft games.

[Remarkableriots]

4 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Yeah, but it was initially announced as having a story-rich campaign mode that could be tackled single player or co-op. That's a game I've wanted for decades. I don't think a game has really scratched that itch for me since the like Pirates remake 20 whole years ago.

 

Really trying to figure out why anyone that wants a live service pirate game would choose this over Sea of Thieves.

Because not everybody plays on Xbox which Sea of Thieves is on?

[Biggie]

5 hours ago, Remarkableriots said:

Because not everybody plays on Xbox which Sea of Thieves is on?

I’m not a Sea of Thieves player but I own a Series X.  That being said, Skull & Bones looks tons better than Sea of Thieves. 

[Keyser_Soze]

46 minutes ago, Biggie said:

I’m not a Sea of Thieves player but I own a Series X.  That being said, Skull & Bones looks tons better than Sea of Thieves. 

 

It's probably not and Sea of Thieves has a ton of content these days. And if you're talking about graphics SoT still has some of the best water you'll see in games.

 

From what I understand Skull & Bones is borrowing a lot of their animations from Black Flag which is a 10 year old game now. 😨

[Biggie]

4 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

It's probably not and Sea of Thieves has a ton of content these days. And if you're talking about graphics SoT still has some of the best water you'll see in games.

 

From what I understand Skull & Bones is borrowing a lot of their animations from Black Flag which is a 10 year old game now. 😨

I’m talking about fun factor you graphics whore

[AbsolutSurgen]

9 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Some people just really like Ubisoft games.

I turned S&B off and booted up AC: Mirage for 3 hours -- it's great.

21 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

It's probably not and Sea of Thieves has a ton of content these days. And if you're talking about graphics SoT still has some of the best water you'll see in games.

 

From what I understand Skull & Bones is borrowing a lot of their animations from Black Flag which is a 10 year old game now. 😨

It also looks like a cartoony last gen game.

[TwinIon]

Sitting at 62 on Metacritic. Not great.

 

After watching the Skill Up review, the conclusion is that there is fun to be had, but it's a real disappointment when put in context.

 

 

The comparisons to Black Flag are pretty brutal. Seems like it's not a complete disaster, but it doesn't live up to it's potential as a AAAA game after such a long development cycle.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

Ubisoft with a self fulling prophecy that we are getting used to not owning Ubisoft games. 
 

“AAAA” lmao. Maybe they let its budget get that big, but the quality sure doesnt match. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Game Information

Game Title: Skull and Bones

 

Platforms:

• PlayStation 5 (Feb 16, 2024)
• Xbox Series X/S (Feb 16, 2024)
• PC (Feb 16, 2024)
  

 

Developer: Ubisoft

 

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 59 average - 14% recommended

 

Critic Reviews

Spoiler

Gamers Heroes - Blaine Smith - 80 / 100

If you can stomach the rough seas of the early game, Skull & Bones has a bounty of live-service content on offer. The end-game mechanics and loot loop rely completely and entirely on the combat system that, thankfully, is one that delivers with every firing of a cannon. Taking over towns and cities, conquering trade routes, climbing the leaderboards - Skull & Bones is a thrilling ride. It's just a shame that it can take 30-40 hours to get there.

Try Hard Guides - Erik Hodges - 8 / 10

Skull and Bones offers the promise of adventure on the high sea. While the game focuses a little hard on its naval warfare mechanics, they are nonetheless exciting and don’t grow old quickly. Though a bit grindy, Skull and Bones should offer hours of entertainment and many customization options to those looking to set sail into its waters.

Merlin'in Kazanı - İlkay Eren Kartal - Turkish - 75 / 100

To summarize, we have a pirate-themed ship game that looks great and has great mechanics.

IGN - Travis Northup - 7 / 10

Skull and Bones is a maritime RPG with a strong foundation, even if it feels like a live-service first draft.

Hobby Consolas - David Rodriguez - Spanish - 69 / 100

Skull and Bones isn't an unmitigated disaster, but it ends up throwing a lot of its potential overboard. The problem isn't that it's a game-as-a-service, but that its design falls short. It has highlights and good ideas that make it enjoyable, but if this is AAAA, then let Davy Jones drag us all into the abyss.

PC Gamer - Shaun Prescott - 68 / 100

Combining moody and gratifying ship-on-ship combat with shallow live service trappings, Skull and Bones is great within the claustrophobic parameters of what market forces allow it to be.

XboxEra - Jon Clarke - 6.8 / 10

It may not be the “AAAA” game Ubisoft touted, but with a solid enough foundation, a decently planned bevy of seasonal content ahead of it, and the uniqueness of making the ship and gear the focus, it may be finally on the right course after all.

GAMES.CH - Joel Kogler - German - 67%

While Skull & Bones is far from the worst game ever made, it completely fails in conveying its vision of becoming a legendary pirate captain. Instead, it chases every conceivable gaming trend from excessive crafting, battle passes and hands-off story telling and leaves next to no impact whatsoever. Even among Ubisoft titles, often mocked for their bland sandbox approach, “Skull & Bones” seemingly perfected the blandness with a sparse few highlights when environment, multiplayer and ship combat all click into place and reveal a wealth of untapped potential.

Cerealkillerz - Nick Erlenhof - German - 6.6 / 10

Skull and Bones feels like an online mode from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, but in a bad way. The sea battles are really fun at first and look really great, but unfortunately it remains a monotonous and dull grind. There's not much to do, there's no gameplay away from the ship and everything else just plods along. There is definitely potential somewhere, but there are plenty of more fun alternatives in the pirate genre.

AltChar - Asmir Kovacevic - 65 / 100

When a ten-year-old Assassin's Creed game proves to be a superior pirate experience compared to an actual pirate game which Skull and Bones is on paper, that only raises questions about the true nature of the latter.

But Why Tho? - Kate Sanchez - 6.5 / 10

As a whole, Skull and Bones is a very fun game, one that I genuinely couldn’t put down once the battles began. But that fun is uneven at best. Despite its long development cycle, the live-service element that is felt deeply throughout the game isn’t microtransactions. It’s emptiness.

Gaming Age - Matthew Pollesel - 6.5 / 10

For a niche audience, Skull & Bones may be a GOTY contender. But for everyone else, it’s hard to imagine the appeal. Skull & Bones is a grind-heavy game with not a lot of payoff, unless your idea of payoff is being asked to grind some more.

Press Start - James Wood - 6.5 / 10

While its ship customisation revels in aesthetic delights, little else here allows for the kind of pirate fantasy we've been waiting for since 2013. Despite some early promise and admirable endgame ideas, Skull and Bones charts a fairly unremarkable course through its gorgeously empty ocean.

Softpedia - Cosmin Vasile - 6.5 / 10

Skull and Bones spent seven years in development, but still feels like an unfinished beta version that was released way before it’s time. And while many expect this kind of patchwork from Ubisoft, it is still a reprehensible industry practice that is in no way fair to the players, who despite all the warning signs have waited and hoped for the game’s release.

Atarita - Alparslan Gürlek - Turkish - 60 / 100

Skull and Bones unfortunately falls far short of the bar set by Ubisoft's great service games like Steep, Riders Republic and The Crew Motorfest. Even though the theme is well done, it's far from being fun at the moment.

CGMagazine - Philip Watson - 6 / 10

Skull and Bones is finally here, but tedious game systems and a grindy time investment to get anywhere may be too rich for some to go on this voyage.

Entertainment Geekly - Luis Alvaro - 3 / 5

With its visually stunning world, engaging gameplay mechanics, and the promise of evolving content, “Skull and Bones” charts a course many will be eager to follow. Yet, the true measure of its legacy will be how it grows and adapts in the treacherous waters of game development.

Geeks & Com - Marc-Antoine Bergeron Cote - French - 6 / 10

Clearly, Skull and Bones has suffered from years of development and numerous changes of direction. The handling of the ships is well done, but everything around them is much less so. The in-game phases are very repetitive, and boarding and pillaging are nothing more than identical cinematics. The very principle of the experience is to go back and forth until you reach the end of the main campaign. Not to mention that the technology is not worthy of a game marketed in 2024 at this price.

Infinite Start - Josh Garibay - 6 / 10

Skull and Bones is finally a real, fully-launched product after several years of troubled development. While some components manage to pleasantly surprise, like ship buildcrafting and general ship-to-ship combat, the jankiness on the technical front, the exhausting live service components and the slim yet grindy endgame leave a lot to be desired. As always with live service titles, we can look towards the next year of seasons and additional content to see how it develops, but for now Skull and Bones is a middling recreation of the pirate fantasy.

Nexus Hub - Sam Aberdeen - 6 / 10

Skull and Bones has fun naval combat and great ship customisation but it's buried by tedious quests, grinding and a shallow endgame that feels unfinished in its current state.

Seasoned Gaming - Alex Segovia - 6 / 10

I wish Skull and Bones was the pirate extravaganza it could and should have been. But other than some fleeting ship combat, if you want to get the real pirate experience, look elsewhere.

Digital Trends - Jason Rodriguez - 2.5 / 5

Skull and Bones turns the Golden Age of Piracy, one of the most exciting periods in history, into a mundane and plodding experience.

GamingBolt - Ravi Sinha - 5 / 10

When it's not annoying with the lackluster story and mission structure, Skull and Bones is tedious with its end game grind and activities. Bland and repetitive, it's simply a drag to enjoy.

Kakuchopurei - Lewis Larcombe - 50 / 100

Skull And Bones' sailing and naval combat are solid and well-made from the get-go. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to carry the entire game and its insane "quadruple A" price tag. Whether it's the lacklustre storytelling, the shallow gameplay mechanics, or the uninspired multiplayer, there's no denying that Skull and Bones fails to live up to the hype. And as players lower their anchors and bid farewell to this ill-fated voyage, one can't help but wonder what could have been if only Ubisoft's higher-ups and management had dared to chart a course less travelled.

Zoomg - Sadegh Tavazoyi - Persian - 4.5 / 10

Skull and Bones has potential but the result is disappointing. the gameplay gets boring after the first hours and the game fails to deliver story wise.

Dexerto - Jessica Filby - 2 / 5

As much as I wanted to enjoy it, Skull and Bones feels like an underdeveloped, unpolished, and unnecessary game that was better left on the cutting room floor. With awkward quests, little incentive to explore, and far too many problematic features, it’s left us wondering how this took 11 years to release and how quickly it’ll drown in its own seas.

PC Invasion - Aidan Lambourne - 4 / 10

Instead of a "gritty pirate game," Skull and Bones is a looter shooter on the high seas that keeps stepping on its own toes.

I hope future seasons will transform it into a game that's good for more than novelty ship battles.

PCGamesN - Cheri Faulkner - 4 / 10

Skull and Bones promises the pirate adventure of our dreams and falls far short thanks to a sparse storyline, lack of personality, and gameplay that oscillates between frustrating and boring.

NoobFeed - Azfar Rayan - 30 / 100

There was so much potential for Skull and Bones to be a fantastic pirate MMORPG, but it is not even close. And due to the lack of meaningful content, Skull and Bones has the potential to be the most disappointing full-priced Ubisoft game that I have ever played. Our money seems to be going toward what seems like a free-to-play game that managed to squander an AAA developer's resources.

Skill Up - Ralph Panebianco - Unscored

Video Review - Quote not available

Stevivor - Hamish Lindsay - Unscored

Ultimately, I don’t really know who Skull and Bones is for. Diehard pirate nerds may get a kick out of the more “realistic” nature of things as opposed to Sea of Thieves, but after nearly 6 years the latter certainly does most things better. For the MMO, looter shooter gang among us (i.e. me) there’s just not enough meaningful here, and for there’s no depth there for the RPG crew either.

gameranx - Unscored

Video Review - Quote not available

 

[5timechamp]

This will be another Suicide Squad as in being a game that inspires folks to go play its presecessor

[Keyser_Soze]

Hmmm, lower than I thought it would be but not beyond salvation. Ubi likes to stick with their games, this could turn into something good if they keep it around.

[Air_Delivery]

Another live service game? Sweet just what I wanted!

 

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

Skull And Bones Hasn't Yet Reached 1 Million Players, Even With Its Free Trial - Report - GameSpot

WWW.GAMESPOT.COM

---

It's not exactly been smooth sailing for the Ubisoft game.

Quote

Apparently people have decided it's not a pirate's life for them. A new report states Skull and Bones has only seen about 850,000 players total since launching last week--and that number includes free-trial users

[Mercury33]

If it survives I feel like this will be pretty good in a year.

[Ghost_MH]

On 2/11/2024 at 2:04 AM, Remarkableriots said:

Because not everybody plays on Xbox which Sea of Thieves is on?

 

Good news, Sea of Thieves is coming to PS5.

[AbsolutSurgen]