Skull and Bones

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

After almost a decade, Skull and bones was released on February 13, 2024. With all of the delays, the question is…..does the game live up to the hype. Skull and Bones is your typical pirate game, with the Ahoy Mateys!!!, plundering booty, and above all else, treasure maps. When it first released, my wife and I were preoccupied at the time with birth of our second child. While in labor, we often questioned how the game would be, so we waited until another big Xbox sale came around and Voila!!! We snagged it.

Giving the time that we have had to play around with the game, Skull and Bones isn’t a bad game, but its not the best either. Ubisoft, a company that I love to play many of their AAA games, seemingly had good ideas on paper, but went about implementing them the wrong way. As much as I love pirating games, I feel there are some flaws that slightly set the game back from being great. One flaw is that people, myself included, were expecting to have some form of pirating, maybe hand to hand combat on the boats and on land from time to time, unfortunately that’s not the case.

All of the battles that take place on Skull and Bones is straight up ship warfare. For me that’s not a bad thing, however this makes the gameplay get stale quick. If your like me and kind of like some grind in your games, then its not so bad. Another flaw that hurts me dearly, is the ship leveling system. I don’t really know Ubisoft was thinking with this system, but boy does it suck. Instead of traditional xp grinding and leveling up, you level up by the what type of weapons you equip on your ship. If they are high enough they will level your ship to the next tier.

The problem with this is once you get to late end game, it kind of locks you into a particular level until you are able to upgrade your ships. It also kind of deter you from having any variety of weapons on your ship, since you want to stay locked into your level. Level does matter in this game and if decide to grow some balls and brave the seas, you will get smacked quick. As of right now, the highest level is 13. It should be 14, but giving the ship leveling system its 13. Since im talking about leveling this leads me to my next point. Upgrading ships. Honestly I dont know where I want to begin with this. The first three levels not so bad, the last 3 levels are complete utter hell. That’s not to mention what ship you pick to upgrade, will really lock you in on what materials you need the most to upgrade.

Sheesh…..with the flaws out of the way, I can get on with the pros. Combat in this game is fluid. Its probably some of the best I’ve played in a ship game for a long time. While you working on increasing your ships level you will come across different weapons you can use to make the firepower on your ship better. Although its limited, the weapons really do feel good in dogfights at sea.

Ship battles can get intense at times….

Skull and Bones at this current time do have a season pass. At first I was kind of skeptical of it, considering I’m juggling Diablo, Destiny and Division 2 season passes. My wife and I ended up knocking it out. They have some pretty unique rewards cosmetic and weapon wise for your ships. I also like the fact that they have timed events that are going on along with events that show up on the map from time. Whether its cutthroat cargo ( which nets you legendary maps) or Elite boss ships, there is something that will keep you going in the end game. I also love the fact that you can use some of the endgame currency Po8 or Pieces of Eight to buy certain cosmetics or weapons for your ship. You can also use Sovereigns as well, a currency that takes a little more effort to get but its worth it.

If you can go with the cons and live with the pros…..Skulls and Bones is a pretty decent game for people wanting a somewhat pirate adventure. Its a little rough around the edges but with a little time, it can really be another shine like No Mans Sky. I get that it took a decade to come out, but I feel too many expectations were made from developer, and too many expectations from consumers were made. If you take time out and really play it, you just may enjoy it.

AS OF NOW I RATE SKULL AND BONES

6/10