Honest review/state of the game

[Yeet]

Honestly i am kinda disappointed reading most of these discussions which just devolve into unproductive insults, so here are my 2 cents on the state of this game and what its supposed to be.

First off most of the criticism is about realism which is easily fixed by just playing Naval Action instead. Skull and Bones is marketed and supposed to be an arcade ship fighting game. This system works, there are realism lite systems in place like slower sailing against the wind and amount of cannon ports according to the size of the ship, but its mostly arcade. It is almost like Pirates of thr carribean - not exactly realistic but definetly fun.

Second, alot of people said that there is a lack of content or the game is slow.
There is definetly no lack of content and the content that has been released over the now 3 seasons has been great so far. We got alot of boss battles, great endgame fights and new PvP opportunities. PvP is still fully optional and you can decide for yourself if it is something you want to do or not. Regarding if the game is slow or not, the tutorial (which is the first 1-1.5 hours) definetly is slow, but the game picks up the pace immediatly after. The campaign is ok, the story is good especially scurlock.
The main focus is on the endgame tho, in which there are plenty of boss battles and fort attacks to do.

Third and probably the most often talked about: yes this is not Black Flag 2. And it was not supposed to be. It is an arcade ship fighting game, which could be compared to a PvE, PvP Age of Sails version of World of Warships with a story campaign, open world and bosses.
This game is not marketed as a Black Flag 2 and it is not supposed to be.

I bought the game on ubisoft on launch and have plenty of fun with it. Its a great game if you play it for what it is - an arcade ship fighting game set in the age of sails time period.

If anyone has any questions regarding the game or doesnt know if the game is worth it, there is a demo where you can test the game for 6 hours on ubisoft or wait a little until the demo is released on steam.

[Zmidponk]

The only real problem with your review is you say that Skull & Bones isn't supposed to be Black Flag 2 and was never marketed as such. This is only true if you basically treat it as if Ubisoft hit a big reset button in, say, 2020, and therefore ignore anything that had come before. When it was first announced in 2017, it was done so by making heavy reference to work done on Black Flag, and it even actually started development in 2013 as more or less a multiplayer expansion to Black Flag. As a result, plenty of people were expecting an evolution and improvement over Black Flag. Thanks to the development hell it has gone through, including several changes of direction and scope, the end result is actually a game where, if you look very, very carefully, you can see a few improvements in the actual sailing over Black Flag - but absolutely anything outside of that has been severely restricted, or eliminated entirely (and that's including things like boarding actions).

Now, to be fair, if you do manage to eliminate or disregard any expectation of this being a Black Flag MMO or Black Flag 2, or anything of that nature, and go into it fresh, it is a reasonably decent game (and significantly improved since beta), so it's worth the £20 I got tempted into paying for it, but it certainly isn't the 'AAAA game' that Yves Guillemot claimed it was.

[Yeet]

Originally posted by Zmidponk:

The only real problem with your review is you say that Skull & Bones isn't supposed to be Black Flag 2 and was never marketed as such. This is only true if you basically treat it as if Ubisoft hit a big reset button in, say, 2020, and therefore ignore anything that had come before. When it was first announced in 2017, it was done so by making heavy reference to work done on Black Flag, and it even actually started development in 2013 as more or less a multiplayer expansion to Black Flag. As a result, plenty of people were expecting an evolution and improvement over Black Flag. Thanks to the development hell it has gone through, including several changes of direction and scope, the end result is actually a game where, if you look very, very carefully, you can see a few improvements in the actual sailing over Black Flag - but absolutely anything outside of that has been severely restricted, or eliminated entirely (and that's including things like boarding actions).

Now, to be fair, if you do manage to eliminate or disregard any expectation of this being a Black Flag MMO or Black Flag 2, or anything of that nature, and go into it fresh, it is a reasonably decent game (and significantly improved since beta), so it's worth the £20 I got tempted into paying for it, but it certainly isn't the 'AAAA game' that Yves Guillemot claimed it was.

This is completly correct. But looking at how often Skull and Bones got scrapped and started development again, it could have also been an Moba ship game at some point. Since the latest direction they went was strictly arcade naval combat this is the one i reviewed as there is no point in judging a game based on an initial approach to development that has nothing to do with the current game. I can understand being disappointed with a change of direction though.

[Tikhar]

thinking about buying this game but I have a few questions that I havent really seen answered too clearly, if you dont mind me asking.

is the game pay to win? i see that theres a sorta premium currency kinda thing going on and im wondering if it makes a big difference to be a wallet warrior or not

is the pvp essential? do i have to fight other players to make significant progress or can i play it singleplayer only, and will that affect endgame?

is the community decent? i dont wanna get dogged on by a group of like 5 ships. also im wondering if i need to team up with other players if theres destiny-like raids.

[Yeet]

Originally posted by Tikhar:

thinking about buying this game but I have a few questions that I havent really seen answered too clearly, if you dont mind me asking.

is the game pay to win? i see that theres a sorta premium currency kinda thing going on and im wondering if it makes a big difference to be a wallet warrior or not

is the pvp essential? do i have to fight other players to make significant progress or can i play it singleplayer only, and will that affect endgame?

is the community decent? i dont wanna get dogged on by a group of like 5 ships. also im wondering if i need to team up with other players if theres destiny-like raids.

Pay to win is non existant in Skull and Bones. There is a premium currency for skins but this is only visual. Every player gets free access to all the ships, armor and weapons in the season pass. If you missed a season, you can grind the weapons of the last one too for Po8.

PvP is entirely optional as you can get Po8 by farming the new Boss chests pr just doing delivery missions for the helm. Takeovers or Treasure hunts are PvP and give big amounts of Po8 but are entirely optional.

You can play the entire game singleplayer. The lategame bosses are made to be fought in teams but i have never seen a boss that i have fought alone as many random players will join to help.

The community is decent so far in my opinion. No insults or unfair behaviour. I always found somebody to do missions with. I think most of the community are in their 20s to 30s so the game is mostly populated in the evenings. If you want you can add me and I can help beginners get started when i have the time.

[haxo]

what exactly does end-game look like? i heard it's extremely grindy to get end-game stuff or something? like grindy in what way?

[PURE MALICE]

UBI SOFT, nuff said to know NOT WORTH IT EVER

[Yeet]

Originally posted by haxo:

what exactly does end-game look like? i heard it's extremely grindy to get end-game stuff or something? like grindy in what way?

Endgame revolves around world events and Boss fights, with the option to PvP if you are interested in that. World events and Boss fights have good diversity as you can raid forts, fight Boss ships or hunt monsters.
To get endgame stuff you dont necessarily need to grind too much, this only becomes relevant if you want to do a specific build for minmaxed stats and evem this is manageable with a 40 hour job.

[forcecomdr]

What "end game" isn't grindy to some extent? I'm not there yet, pretty new to the game, but i could see it getting repetitious. There's only so many things you can do on a ship.

The biggest knock i can make on the game at this point is it has the typical Ubisoft "WTFamidoing" interface. But to be fair, i've never played an Ubisoft game that did have a good UI.
That being said, i'm enjoying it thus far. Totally worth $24.