Skull and Bones Reviews

While its ship customisation revels in aesthetic delights, little else here allows for the kind of pirate fantasy we’ve been waiting for since 2013. Despite some early promise and admirable endgame ideas, Skull and Bones charts a fairly unremarkable course through its gorgeously empty ocean.

There are brief windows within Skull and Bones where I can see some remnants of passion. Maybe your crew will break into an unprompted shanty while you’re sailing to your next destination, or maybe you’ll stumble across one of the few unique discoveries worth seeing out on the ocean. Everything else is a chore. A predictable one, considering the game’s delays and development issues, but a disappointment all the same.

Skull And Bones is a game that has glimmers of fun that show what it could have been. The game is competent but not worthwhile in its current state.

Skull and Bones is a dull exercise in checklist progression, spiced here and there with some impressive sailing.

Skull and Bones nails its ship combat and sailing so wonderfully it becomes a highlight amongst generic gameplay loops, bare bones story, and chore-like endgame tasks.

Skull and Bones is simply uninspired and tells a boring story, yet is relatively fun in its moment-to-moment gameplay.

Skull and Bones is a very odd game and there are plenty of aspects to it that will leave a great number of players stone-cold. But, there is also something wonderful about it as well; the sense of exploration, the cathartic combat, the glorious visuals, the welcoming online community, and the ridiculously catchy sea shanties. In short, like the very best pirate, Skull and Bones will be loved by some, and hated by others. For my part, and in spite of its issues, I love it.

Skull and Bones is a solid pirating adventure that has its moment but is often weighed down by a sluggish grind and outdated quest design.

From the start, Skull and Bones makes it clear that this is almost entirely a ship-based game. The first time players take control of their character after a destitute character creation process, the game's technical issues are highlighted by its odd movement animations, sluggish camera, and clunky player momentum. Simply going up to a merchant and trying to talk to them is needlessly tricky sometimes, as it requires being at a specific distance from the NPC and not a step closer. The only on-foot combat players will ever encounter is fighting with the camera controls just to see where they need to go. In fairness, Skull and Bones was very upfront about on-foot sections not being a focus for this title, but when the actual on-foot gameplay feels so tacked on, it's a wonder why it was even implemented in the first place.

I had high expectations for Skull and Bones, anticipating a stellar “AAAA” pirate experience: peg legs, sliders—the whole nine yards. However, my hopes were quickly dashed as I emerged from a botched naval battle, coughing up sand on an unfamiliar island. Surveying my reflection in a broken barrel on the shoreline, I sifted through the limited presets available to customize my pirate avatar.

The development of Skull and Bones has not exactly been smooth sailing; after multiple delays and reworks since its announcement back in 2017, it is kind of a miracle that Ubisoft Singapore’s seafaring pirate MMO has released at all. Now available to the public, the game is certainly better than it could have been, with plenty of fun co-op plundering to be had. However, its relatively shallow and repetitive missions and uninteresting world are not likely to keep many players sticking around...

Way back in 2013 (yes, more than a decade ago) Ubisoft announced Skull and Bones, an open world pirate simulator that had a lot of people excited. However, nobody expected to wait for for such a long time. We get that AAA game development is long and arduous, but this one took things to a whole new level. Years went by, and it felt like a release date was never approaching, especially with every new Ubisoft showcase showing something else but it.

Perhaps Ubisoft's most mediocre new IP launch to date, eliciting neither excitement nor offence.

When I heard that Skull and Bones was released, I was over the Moon. The chance to be a pirate again and relive the time when I played AC Black Flag seemed like a dream come true. But the reality is different.

Skull and Bones is a dreary and dull open-world game that completely fails to capture the fantasy of being a pirate, failing to deliver anything worth experiencing.

Ubisoft's long-in-the-works pirate adventure boasts a beautiful world and bombastic ship-to-ship combat, but it sinks amid boring busywork and tedious traversal.

Skull and Bones is, despite half a dozen delays and some lingering dark clouds, one of the most addictive and vibrant piracy simulators we've ever played; not that many exist. It offers a surprising amount of freedom in how players approach it, and it looks and runs beautifully on PS5, even during large-scale fleet battles. Developer Ubisoft Singapore has created a vibrant, interconnected world of seamless swashbuckling action, and if you can recruit a few reliable mates, sailing the high seas and engaging in all kinds of nautical hijinks will be a blast.

Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones has been on a very long and choppy voyage with development reportedly setting sail over a decade ago. Admittedly, the initial pitch was a fairly appealing one – an open-world multiplayer pirate adventure from the same Ubisoft Singapore team that worked on the naval battles from the acclaimed Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Unfortunately, the game’s 2017 reveal was followed by reboots, damning behind-the-scenes reports, and a seemingly endless sequence of delays. Many began to suspect the game would eventually sail over the horizon, never to be seen again, but lo-and-behold, Skull and Bones finally drifted ashore last week.

Like a ship that has changed tack countless times and delayed its arrival at port, Skull and Bones has launched far later than expected and faced trouble along the way. Even so, this pirate adventure surprised me with the breadth of its world, the richness of its commerce simulation, and an approachable and rewarding naval combat system. As a living game built around seasonal content and a growing universe, it has a ways to go to be at its best, but the bones of a quality experience are here.

A pirate adventure still finding its sea legs.

As a whole, Skull and Bones is a very fun game, one that I genuinely couldn’t put down once the battles began. But that fun is uneven at best. Despite its long development cycle, the live-service element that is felt deeply throughout the game isn’t microtransactions. It’s emptiness.

11 years in development and the controversial pirate game Skull and Bones has docked into port, but does it rise like a wave in a storm, or sink under the weight of its own cannons and cargo?

With excellent sailing and naval combat mechanics, it's a shame that Skull and Bones is so hampered by its lack of diversity, odd developmental decisions, and minimal capacity to offer a true pirate fantasy.

With its stunning visuals, immersive gameplay mechanics and richly-detailed world, Skull & Bones is a must-play for any fan of action-adventure games. If you liked Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag's take on ship combat, you'll love this game. So grab your cutlass, raise the black flag and prepare to plunder your way to infamy on the high seas. Fair winds and following seas, matey!

Skull and Bones is finally here, but tedious game systems and a grindy time investment to get anywhere may be too rich for some to go on this voyage.

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.

It’s not without its charms when a fleet is sailing in synchrony, crashing waves and plundering merchant ships or other players. There’s some excitement to be had, but the drawback is that quite a bit of monotony and visible limitation will be found amidst these moments. There is potential and room for improvements however; Skull and Bones seems to be the type of game that will receive a host of content in the coming years, so hopefully we’ll see significant enhancements to turn it into a remarkable seafaring adventure.

Seafaring misanthropy, with crafting: Skull and Bones is a fun game about boats hamstrung by today's live service conventions.

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.