However, there’s some good news: Skull and Bones might be better than you expect. The game kicks off with you controlling a powerful ship in a big battle you’re meant to lose, giving you a taste of what’s to come. In reality, it’s like being handed the keys to a luxury car but only getting to keep it after driving a less impressive one for several hours. You start with a small boat and meet John Scurlock, the local pirate leader, who takes you on as his second mate. After completing a few missions and collecting resources, you finally get a real ship with cannons, though it feels more like a toy from a Kinder Surprise.
In theory, Skull and Bones has a story, but it’s pretty hard
to figure out what it actually is. The writing is forgettable, the acting is
lackluster, and the characters aren't engaging. The endless stream of similar
contracts doesn’t help either. Most of the time, I had no clue what I was
doing, why I was doing it, or for whom. I just sailed from one place to
another, moving between small outposts and occasionally larger areas I could
explore, completing tasks not to progress the story, but simply to upgrade to a
better, more heavily armed ship.
For me, the main problem with Skull and Bones is its
structure. Unlike Black Flag, which let you explore land, fight with swords,
and board enemy ships in dramatic fashion, Skull and Bones focuses solely on
ship-based gameplay. For most of the game, you’re more of a ship than a person.
You can occasionally step onto land, but there’s not much to do—just buy a few
items or maybe find a treasure chest. There's no sword fighting, pistol duels,
or dramatic boarding sequences.
The game’s focus on sailing and ship-to-ship combat limits the variety of missions. It’s clear the developers struggled to make the objectives interesting. As a result, the game feels like an endless fetch quest with occasional explosions. Most quests involve sailing a long distance (made worse by a stamina bar that limits your speed) to gather items—often by blowing up a ship—then returning to repeat the process.
The long distances you travel in Skull and Bones can be a real
chore, especially since not much happens besides occasionally encountering an
AI privateer trying to chase you. Most of the time, you’ll just set your ship
in the right direction, crank up the speed, and feed your crew to keep the
stamina meter from dropping. Yes, there’s a stamina meter that’s active even
when you’re not in combat. The ocean itself is hardly a challenge; your ship
moves smoothly across it with only occasional adjustments to the sails. Unlike
Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, which made sailing engaging, Skull and Bones
makes it feel monotonous. I often found myself watching something on my phone
during long trips, only checking occasionally to avoid running into obstacles.
This makes the game feel even more like a grind, which is a
problem since Skull and Bones already requires a lot of grinding to gather
resources for upgrading or building new ships. Early on, you spend a lot of
time collecting wood and metal for better cannons or new ships. You can gather
resources by attacking ships or plundering towns, though the latter is less
exciting than it sounds. The most tedious method involves sailing to resources
and then playing a boring mini-game where you just tap a button to collect
them. It’s almost comical to watch your ship magically collect resources like
trees just by parking in front of them.
Black Flag’s naval combat had a lot going for it. Your ship
felt heavy and powerful, not nimble. It would cut through the ocean with force,
and sometimes hit waves hard enough to slam down on the other side. This gave
the ship a real sense of weight and required skillful maneuvering. Firing a
full broadside was satisfying because you had to aim with precision, often
dealing with rough seas that blocked your shots. Timing your attacks required
patience as you waited for the right moment to shoot between the waves.
In contrast, Skull and Bones opts for a faster, more arcade-style combat. Ships are more agile, and aiming cannons is easier with a shotgun reticle and a wide range of movement. Hitting a full broadside is no longer a big achievement—it’s just a routine part of combat. The ships lack the weight and power they had in Black Flag, and the sea is more forgiving. This makes one-on-one battles feel less dramatic and epic.
There’s not much room for skill either. You can place guns and other weapons at the front, sides, and rear of your ship, with larger ships having additional options like mortars. Most fights just involve sailing in circles while your guns reload. The closest thing to strategy is rotating your ship to keep up a steady stream of fire, which isn’t very exciting. One-on-one battles can be dull, but multi-ship skirmishes are more engaging because of their chaotic nature. With cannonballs flying and ships burning, they capture a bit of the thrill of being a pirate. Positioning your ship and unleashing volleys during these battles can be fun.
You also have the chance to board enemy ships for loot, which brings to mind the classic pirate image of swinging onto ships with swords drawn. Unfortunately, Skull and Bones handles this with a brief cutscene showing your crew preparing, then fades to black. When you return, the looting is done—hardly the exciting, climactic moment you might expect.
You can also attack land-based targets in Skull and Bones,
such as towers, forts, or towns. Plundering a town involves fending off enemy
ships and destroying defenses while a small dinghy slowly fills up with loot.
It’s a bit odd that the game has you protecting a tiny dinghy with your massive
ship, but it does create a humorous visual.
The Indian Ocean is full of pirates, both AI-controlled and real players. While AI ships carry valuable loot, you’ll also encounter other players who are taking on contracts and causing trouble. Although it would fit the pirate theme to allow players to raid each other, player-versus-player combat is limited to just three types of events, with two of them also featuring AI ships. Outside of these events, you can’t damage other players’ ships. This makes the seas relatively safe for navigating and protecting your cargo, but it also dampens the overall pirate experience.
In addition to PvP, there are co-op events where you team up to hunt giant sea monsters, raid AI convoys, or take down high-value targets. You can call for help in these events, but there’s no way for other players to confirm they’re joining you or to teleport to your location. This means you might head to an event only to find no one shows up, especially since in-game chat is still not working on PC. I often found myself calling for help, sailing to the event, and discovering that no one was coming, or arriving only to see that the other player had left.
There are also some odd multiplayer issues. For instance, during certain events, you might be pursued by high-level AI ships while trying to deliver cargo. This can be problematic if other players, who are lower-level, also get caught up in these high-level battles. I experienced this early on when I left port and was quickly overwhelmed by a powerful AI ship that destroyed my small boat. These examples highlight some of the rough edges in Skull and Bones.
There’s also a strange issue where players not involved in a
PvP event can still damage players who are in the event, but those engaged in
the event can’t retaliate. I once saw a group exploit this by having a friend
stay outside the event and attack everyone inside to help their ally. It’s a
significant oversight.
As we wrap up this review, let’s talk about the endgame content and live-service elements of Skull and Bones. First, the pricing: it’s a full $70 game with additional microtransactions. This is particularly tough to swallow considering the lower price of Helldivers 2 and its more affordable store prices. For now, the microtransactions are only for cosmetic items and don’t affect gameplay, but they are still quite pricey.
The game plans to offer a year of free content, with a roadmap available on the official website. This includes more legendary pirates to hunt, additional world events, new mission types, and an expansion of the existing endgame content.
One of the endgame features is The Helm, a black market where you deal in high-quality rum and opium. At its core, endgame involves gathering raw materials like sugar cane, refining it into rum, and fulfilling orders. This process is complicated by the fact that fast-travel is disabled and high-level AI ships will chase you. Later, you’ll also compete for control of manufactories, face off against powerful pirates, and climb leaderboards. These elements tie into seasonal resets, which can wipe out progress like control of manufactories.
While the endgame content may seem uninspiring and dull, there is actually a lot to do. Skull and Bones might be one of the most content-rich live-service games at launch, offering a substantial amount of content from day one, unlike some other recent live-service games like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
For me, the gameplay in Skull and Bones isn’t engaging enough to keep me hooked like Helldivers 2 does. I’m not sure if Ubisoft Singapore can address these issues through their planned updates. More mission variety might help, but it won’t fix the fundamental problems with sailing and combat, which are enjoyable but lose their appeal after a while. I’ll probably check back in six months to see how things have progressed.
That said, it's worth noting that the fact Skull and Bones emerged from over a decade of development struggles without being a total disaster is impressive. Despite numerous reboots, it’s not a complete flop. The game does offer some enjoyable moments, especially during hectic combat and when teaming up with others to take down a powerful enemy ship.
However, it suffers by comparison to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, which is 11 years old but still excels in sailing and naval combat. Skull and Bones struggles with its identity, mixing single-player, multiplayer, co-op, PvP, and live-service elements in a way that feels disjointed. It often feels like a solo game with some awkward multiplayer features and an added live-service layer.
If Skull and Bones had been priced more affordably, it might have been easier to recommend. Given the significant investment Ubisoft has made and the expectation that they might not fully recoup their costs, it's not surprising they priced it at $70.
In the end, Skull and Bones is a decent pirate adventure that could appeal to some players, especially with a year of free content on the horizon. There’s fun to be had in ship battles, town raids, and upgrades. However, for most players, it may only be worth it if the price drops.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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