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[Draugoth]

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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 - 60% - 25% Recommended

MetaCritic: 64/100

Critic Reviews​

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Skill Up - Ralph Panebianco - Unscored

Video Review - Quote not available

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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.

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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.

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VIDEOS:




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[Games of Today]

They will need to make this game free to play, mark my words. lol

 

[Braag]

I hope these reviewers know that they aren't reviewing just any old game, but an actual "quadruple A" live service extravaganza.

 

[Roufianos]

Cum N Bonezzzz

 

[LordCBH]

It being a AAAA game means it’ll score in the 90’s right? Right?

 

[Ogbert]

Looks like it’s Ubisoft at its worst.

Such a strange company. There are elements of the business that clearly love games, producing titles like Prince of Persia, Battle for Atlus, Phoenix Rising and Mario and Rabbids. And even the Division 2 is a good template of how to provide an excellent GaaS title.

But then you just get cynical garbage like this. Overpriced, undercooked and unnecessary.

 

[Robb]

We should give them a year or two post launch to update the game. I mean, they only had 11 years to work on this.

 

[StueyDuck]

No one wants to be the boat. We all want to be the pirate.

How ubisoft missed that is actually incredibly impressively ridiculous

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Other companies would had canned the game already.

But supposedly if you read up about it, UBI had a big Singapore government subsidy deal on the table. So UBI probably just forced themselves to finish off the game no matter how long it took to get some giovernment money. I think it hinged on the game releasing. If there was no game released, then no money.

 

[Games of Today]

Looks like it’s Ubisoft at its worst.

Such a strange company. There are elements of the business that clearly love games, producing titles like Prince of Persia, Battle for Atlus, Phoenix Rising and Mario and Rabbids. And even the Division 2 is a good template of how to provide an excellent GaaS title.

But then you just get cynical garbage like this. Overpriced, undercooked and unnecessary.

It's like DICE and EA with Battlefield V. There is a clear intersection between what certain members of the dev team wanted their vision to be and how the corporate side wanted the game to me promoted and monetized.

 

[kyussman]

Other companies would had canned the game already.

But supposedly if you read up about it, UBI had a big Singapore government subsidy deal on the table. So UBI probably just forced themselves to finish off the game no matter how long it took to get some giovernment money. I think it hinged on the game releasing. If there was no game released, then no money.

Good to know there was a real love of the medium behind this release,lol.

 

[John Marston]

No boarding no sale

 

[Ribi]

11 years of development, i never want to hear a scam citizen comment about years again when turds like this come out and SC at least gets feedback in alpha while being developed.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

UBI continues to release the stinkers.

 

[yurinka]

It being a AAAA game means it’ll score in the 90’s right? Right?

To be AAAA just means they spent a shit ton of money making it, more than the average current AAA game. Not related to its quality or reviews score.

But supposedly if you read up about it, UBI had a big Singapore government subsidy deal on the table. So UBI probably just forced themselves to finish off the game no matter how long it took to get some giovernment money. I think it hinged on the game releasing. If there was no game released, then no money.

Most game companies get government subsidies or grants from many different countries, if that was real it wouldn't be something special.

These helps only cover a small portion of the development of the titles, often related to make more hirings on their region/country offices to boost employment there.

If Ubi would have wanted to cancel it they'd had cancelled as they did with other games they cancelled (who also got help from different governments).

 

[Carmen Winstead]

No one wants to be the boat. We all want to be the pirate.

How ubisoft missed that is actually incredibly impressively ridiculous

They are so out of touch with reality, it doesn't even surprise me anymore.

I refuse to believe Ubisoft will ever release a good game again.
They will somehow probably even fuck up that good looking Star Wars game.

 

[drganon]

Ubisoft itself is a sinking ship.

 

[Arsic]

This should’ve been a $20 title at most. I would’ve fucked with it at that price.

 

[thief183]

It is not a bad game honestly, I had a lot of fun with the beta, still not at 70euros, I'll wait a month or 2.

 

[wipeout364]

It’s unfortunate they rushed this out without taking the time to add enough content.

 

[Fake]

And they still wanna make Black Flag remake?

 

[Mortisfacio]

"How do you spend 11 years making a worse version of a game that you've already made?" -Skill Up

Dang. That's rough.

 

[SJRB]

“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.”

6,6/10, lmao HOW. What is this score?

“This game sucks” - 6/10

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Another junk game like Suicide Squad trying to delay the release of reviews until after release?

You gotta love the confidence in their "artistry".

 

[Zimmy68]

I meant to post this here.


Skull and Bones broke JorRaptor. I can't remember him giving a Ubisoft game a bad review.

 

[CherryFalls]

You cant make people walk the plank either?

This game just seems like a mediocre arcadey game withe pirates as a dressing.

 

[Mephisto40]

Pirate ship battle simulator 2024

 

[j0hnnix]

Really had fun with this during the beta, once I get my time in and finish suicide squad I'll probably buy this.

 

[Ar¢tos]

Ubisoft will be blaming players and reviewers for the game's failure very soon.

 

[NuclearDiarrhea]

"Due to the lackluster sales and critical reception to Skull & Bones, we have come to the conclusion that no one wants to play pirate games anymore, and so we have decided with a heavy heart to cancel the Assassins Creed IV Remake" - Yves Guillemot, probably.

 

[Kurotri]

I'm just glad it's over.

 

[diffusionx]

It's funny how two terrible gaashit games with 8+ year development cycles launched within weeks of each other. One of them is already forgotten.

 

[SidViscous]

They legally had to release this game before March or pay a government grant back. What a waste of everyone’s money!

 

[Ogbert]

Another junk game like Suicide Squad trying to delay the release of reviews until after release?

You gotta love the confidence in their "artistry".

So, I’m prepared to be the chap that everyone points and laughs at regarding Suicide Squad.

The game has definite flaws and absolutely deserves the criticism, but I’ve put the best part of 50 hours into the game and it’s still an enormous amount of fun.

It got reviewed for what it wasn’t rather than what it was. Perhaps that’s fair, but there’s a fun game there, it people are prepared to take it for what it is.

 

[Mossybrew]

So, I’m prepared to be the chap that everyone points and laughs at

No it's ok, you can be like that guy that kept bringing up Forspoken in a bunch of unrelated threads and saying how it was actually really good, except with SS instead.

 

[MasterDerico]

Quadruple A!

 

[Ogbert]

No it's ok, you can be like that guy that kept bringing up Forspoken in a bunch of unrelated threads and saying how it was actually really good, except with SS instead.

Nah.

You’re ok.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Quadruple A!

I had to look this up as I thought the quadruple A shit was a joke. Turns out it's not...

 

[MasterDerico]

 

[MrRibeye]

Finally they can move on to something else.

 

[proandrad]

Hopefully this is the final nail in the coffin for AAA gaas games.

 

[VolticArchangel]

Sea of Thieves PS5/Switch is gonna bury this trash in the Nevada desert along with the E.T. carts.

 

[Bond007]

When it comes to this game - suddenly Sea of Thieves is relevant? lol

 

[StreetsofBeige]

It's funny how two terrible gaashit games with 8+ year development cycles launched within weeks of each other. One of them is already forgotten.

I totally get it that's not the same kinds of products, but in 8 years..... wow were talking early 2016.... my company has launched an average of one new brand per year with tons of products in each, as well as new products in existing brands.

In the last 8 years, our region has probably released about 300 new products if I had to guess. And each brand has its own marketing campaigns too.

 

[Holammer]

I expect a quadruple A failure.

 

[Bkdk]

This game has been in very prolonged development hell, brt Ubisoft finally just have to let it ship and get cut their losses before sinking even more money in. Oh and I see some of the character design as well, hard to tell what species they are and what gender they got. It’s frightening.

 

[Saber]

"How do you spend 11 years making a worse version of a game that you've already made?" -Skill Up

Dang. That's rough.

Not rough, its ridiculous. Skill Up just say right, how the fuck a 11 year development game in 2024 is incredibly outdated in comparison with a game that isn't actually focused on that since its an AC game? Its insane, this game its just the representation of people accepting things being delivered and fixed years later.

 

[Bojji]

When it comes to this game - suddenly Sea of Thieves is relevant? lol

SoT wasn't marketed as AAAA game (and looked much better).

 

[Tomi]

How low can Ubisoft go?
this is big disaster, this company needs new managment asap, and first of all Guillemot needs to leave TODAY!

 

[Games of Today]

I meant to post this here.


Skull and Bones broke JorRaptor. I can't remember him giving a Ubisoft game a bad review.

WOW! What a fucking travesty of a joke! It's worse than I ever thought!

THEY PUT PISTOLS IN THE GAME THAT YOU CAN'T USE!

What the fuck is that! Hahahaha!