Ubisoft”s pirate game is taking a beating on the internet right now. Very few players seem to be looking forward to the new open world. One of them is me.
I have a secret and you can”t tell anyone.
I belong to a group of people who at present very rarely reveal themselves in public for fear of reprisals. That is why I have resorted to the extreme measure of disguising my face in the teaser image above. This way, no one is guaranteed to recognise me.
What I am about to tell you has social explosive power. Because in many ways it contradicts the current prevailing opinion on major internet platforms. Even in the GlobalESportNews editorial team, I am one of very few who sees things differently. But I can no longer stand by silently, I have to address it, come what may:
I”m looking forward to Skull and Bones!
So, now it”s out and I can literally see in your eyes how you lose the last bit of respect for me, how the expression on your faces changes, from astonishment to incomprehension, disgust, pity. But I take nothing back, I remain steadfast, even after the recently released gameplay trailer, which has collected a mighty lot of downvotes on YouTube:
Because even though I”m not blind to the criticisms of Skull and Bones: An Open World Pirate Game built on Assassin”s Creed 4: Black Flag, it continues to be a cause for anticipation for me, despite Daniel”s sceptic (Preview).
And because every secret society needs fresh blood at some point, in this article I will try to convince you that Skull and Bones is not as bad as its reputation. Maybe you”ll even end up on my side? Don”t worry, I won”t tell anyone!
Reason 1: I love freelancers
This may seem strange at first that I”m quoting space games here, but for me Skull and Bones is in exactly the same vein as Freelancer, Everspace 2 or Rebel Galaxy. In all three, I spent far too much time stubbornly traversing trade routes, completing bounty missions, and shooting down the same enemy spaceships over and over again to earn enough credits for the next upgrade.
This gameplay loop of earning and improving appeals to something deep inside me and provides immense satisfaction, even if I am aware at the same moment how undemanding and mindless the actual game content is.
Skull and Bones is supposed to offer a campaign that largely dispenses with prepared story content and instead offers the form of automatically generated missions that I already fulfilled by the dozens back in Freelancer. I use them to collect money and raw materials, which I put into upgrading my sloop.
What I like about this is the sandbox character, which I appreciated enormously in Mount & Blade 2: I can decide for myself where I want to go next. This fits in well with the pirate setting, since I alone, as captain, have the rudder in my hands. If Ubisoft now brings back the cool end-game super ships as bosses from Black Flag in addition to the fort attacks, then I”ll be highly motivated to spend a lot of time upgrading my ship.
Call me unambitious, but I”m totally looking forward to gradually upgrading my little raft from the beginning to a sleek frigate and then to a fat galleon. In the video, Ubisoft shows the upgrade menus already present in Black Flag, with which I can adjust values such as armour, range or firepower. That”s right up my alley – and appeals to me much more than the purely cosmetic progress in the big competitor Sea of Thieves, where I always quickly lose interest due to a lack of improvements.
Reason 2: Some of the criticism is not justified
There”s an (admittedly funny) comparison picture between Elden Ring and Skull and Bones doing the rounds on Twitter right now:
The Skull & Bones UI unironically looks like the Elden Ring meme UI where people kept adding to it until it became unintelligible. pic.twitter.com/2YvHkOciwl
– bluefootednewt (@bluefootednewt) July 7, 2022
Yes, the gameplay videos for Skull and Bones are overloaded with icons. And yes, Ubisoft”s UI designers must have attended the artist school of giant arrows and garish colours. But it”s also true: Ubisoft games have offered extensive settings for years to hide each HUD element individually. I would even go so far as to describe this as exemplary.
Clearly, in the end it has to be seen whether some ads are not essential for the gaming experience. And the fact that Ubisoft marketing thinks it”s a good idea to put a video with so many flashing icons on the net speaks volumes about the current situation behind the scenes at the publisher. Oh yes, Elden Ring is of course not a model of player leadership either, as the tweet implies.
I am also disconcerted by the many loud criticisms of the game regarding the omission of some features known from Black Flag. This is mainly about the fact that you are only allowed to walk around with your captain from the third-person perspective in a few peaceful settlements. It”s true: a bit of treasure hunting here, a bit of trading there, picking up missions and (meaningless) posing in front of other players in these social hubs mainly brings back unpleasant memories of Anthem for me, too.
But when colleague Dimi writes the following, then that”s just not a reason for me to get angry: “In this game, I”ll be sitting at my wheel 95 percent of the time, shooting at other ships and working off missions.” Yes, bravo, that”s exactly what I want from a pirate game!
I”m not an eye-patch wearing robot or an uncritical Ubisoft parrot, I understand that some people would have liked to fight battles with sabres or actively board ships in Skull and Bones. Instead, we get status bars, automatically running cutscenes and trees cut down directly from the ship:
Well, now I”ll say this: 95 percent of what happened in Black Flag aside from the cool naval battles was boring as hell for me. I honestly only remember rushing across rooftops for new sea shanties. I definitely won”t miss the annoying eavesdropping missions where I have to follow a target undetected in Skull and Bones.
Even in Sid Meier”s Pirates! there was an imbalance between the fun buccaneering on the high seas and the rather dull land missions. In Sea of Thieves, wandering around on islands based on vague clues on the treasure map is not one of my favourite moments either. But every player is different. After 20 hours, for example, I found the same old boarding battles in Black Flag super boring and would have given a lot for a button to skip them.
Clearly, in the end we will have to see how exciting it is in the long run to always just drive through the open world with the ship. Maybe boredom will set in at some point without the many side activities from Black Flag, I”ll let that stand as an argument. But I see a good chance that the pure pirate gameplay will keep me busy long enough. Also because I plan to play Skull and Bones completely on my own.
Reason 3: I can play alone
Maybe I”m the exception, but Ubisoft”s attempts to squeeze more and more multiplayer features into their open-world games over the years have always left me cold. I only tried the invasion mode in Watch Dogs for the test, in The Division I politely declined all invitations to join a group and Ghost Recon: Wildlands I played through exclusively with AI companions.
I don”t like it when someone dictates the pace of the game, when I have to show up for the raid at a fixed time, or when I”m the only co-op partner watching the story cutscene in its entirety, thus incurring the wrath of my bored colleagues.
I was therefore relieved that Skull and Bones will also be playable solo and that I can completely deactivate the shared world features with popping up player names or stupid chat messages. Hey Blizzard, you”re welcome to copy this for Diablo 4!
What I currently don”t like at all? That the graphics look practically unchanged compared to the nine (!) year old quasi-predecessor Black Flag. I understand that Ubisoft Singapore had enormous difficulties with the development, but what is offered here is no longer worthy of a triple-A game in 2022, in my opinion.
However, that”s about the only point where Skull and Bones” gameplay presentation put me off. The rest makes me look forward to this currently so hated pirate game more than I ever thought I would.
And how are you? What appeals to you about Skull and Bones, what worries you? And could I convince at least one or two of my strange view of things? Tell me in the comments!
