Happy Tuesday Gamers,

The Skull and Bones open beta was released a few days ago and initially I was excited to jump into it after seeing the invitation via email. I had my eye on this game from a few years back, probably around 2018 or so, and its been pretty under the radar ever since. Recently though, after seeing the newest trailer for the game, I have to admit Skull and Bones caught my attention once again. Unfortunately, the beta was much more underwhelming than I had expected and I left the experience wondering why parts of it were designed the way they were. Here are my first impressions.

The Beautiful Packaging…

The Skull and Bones beta got its hooks into me rather quickly as I became very immersed in the combat tutorial. After quickly being shown the sailing navigation controls, you are dropped into a skirmish with multiple enemy ships and the combat is engaging although pretty simple. I was immediately blown away by the water graphics and sound design. From the popping of the cannons and crew members yelling out enemy ships positions, to the gorgeous lighting effects over the surface of the water, it was an immersion feast. Initially the experience seemed high quality, but after the tutorial skirmish ends, things begin to change.

The Bad and The Ugly

Shortly after the combat tutorial you are presented with your character customization like most games do when starting your adventure. Again, the visuals really shine here, as all the character models feature lifelike facial details. After you finish up with your new captain persona, you are then rallied together by your surviving crew members. Then a small training / looting area opens for you to explore and fend of sharks from your small boat. From here you are tasked with a “busy work” mission of collecting resources to build items you need to progress. Since I already had the items from exploring the training area the mission was over instantly and I was off to the next part.

Next, you need to search a local shipwreck. Once there, I was shocked to find you can’t actually leave your sea vessel willingly. The game only transitions you into the next space by cutting to a black screen and then you appear in the new playable area in third person. What made the experience worse, was that the game forces you to play these odd timed minigames (with no forewarning) in order to progress through to open a new area. This same mini game is littered throughout the game as it is used for collecting some resources within the world, and it is unsatisfying to say the least.

After watching the trailers I was expecting to see a fully accessible open world. They showed the playable characters being able to seemingly walk around in lots of different areas and it gave the impression that it was a fully open world. IT’S NOT. Skull and Bones is such a frustratingly limited experience but it continues to give you the illusion that you can just go anywhere and play as you wish. Once you disembark in Skull and Bones you’re free to navigate the very limited NPC areas (which act as hubs) where you can purchase other resources, collect side quests, and customize your appearance, however, these smaller bite sized areas were mind numbingly frustrating to play through. For some reason your walk speed is insanely slow and you can’t really explore much of anything. The layout was also confusing as there are multiple shops for different things and the everything looks the same. Another confusing aspect of the game was that constant reminder to have your pirate dress up better for the job. Now I don’t mind having customization options, but you spending your hard earned silver on cosmetics seemed more like a waste as you need the same currency to build better ships.

The ugly cherry on top of this frustration sundae was the STAMIA bar for speed boosts. I was genuinely annoyed by this feature and truthfully I was going to just turn off the game after seeing how much it got in the way of sailing. To clarify, you cannot freely explore other islands in the world, and you also have a limiting stamina bar constantly forcing you to slow down when speed is supposedly dictated by WIND. This doesn’t make sense. This mechanic actually hurts you twice as much when you have a timed objective, especially when you’re hit with wind that goes against your sails and slows you down. In those moments you get stuck and you have to wait for the stamina boost bar to refill to pick up speed again, and this could mean you failing the objective. I was baffled by this backwards mechanic as it simply makes no sense being there.

Closing Thoughts

This was a tough one to get through. I felt like this game was very close to being a competitor in the open world pirate game arena. Something to rival the quality of Sea of Thieves, but it’s definitely not. Not by a long shot. And that’s disappointing, especially considering that there are so many great elements here. The graphics, the ships, and open sea combat are all fantastic to see and experience, but sadly, all of that is held back by questionable and simply backwards mechanics. Truthfully I feel Ubisoft needs to take a second look at that they’ve made and consider renaming this game to something else entirely. Perhaps something like: Vintage War Ship Simulator, as a simulator title reflects more accurately what this game is; a very limited sailing only experience in which you collect resources to build more ships.

Throughout my beta session, I could not help but feel misled by everything I’d seen from the trailers. While there were few parts I enjoyed overall, I’d have to say, if this is the foundation for the main game, I will NOT be purchasing this title. The game is officially launching this Friday on Feb 16th (just 3 days) and I highly doubt they will make all the fundamental changes needed to make this the triple A title that it should be. Going forward I would advise extreme caution with this game as it is nothing like what was shown in trailers in terms of actual gameplay. The experience is much more limiting than I would have liked and its such a shame. I believe the artwork and concept are so wonderful here, but the sailing needs to be updated, and outside of sailing, everything needs to be overhauled entirely, as there is literally nothing else to do.

This post was challenging for me, as the game does have real potential, they just added some weak features that kill the whole experience. If you were looking to get into this game, please consider seeing some reviews before you buy just to get a second opinion on it and don’t get snared by the enticing trailers. Based on this beta experience, I’m concerned this game going to be a big flop so my suggestion is to steer clear. As always, if you made it here to the end of the post, thank you so much for reading.

Have an awesome day!