Skull And Bones Review Roundup: Ubisoft’s AAAA $70 Title Disappoints

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Abiyan

At Tech4gamers, I cover all sorts of gaming news. Whether it’s a leak of any upcoming game or an update, an announcement, or a rumour, I like to write about it all. Over the weekend, I sit and write features where I talk about games that I miss or want to see return.

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Skull and Bones has been delayed countless times since it was announced over a decade ago, but the game has finally launched alongside a free eight-hour trial today.

While Ubisoft was late to send review codes, various reviews have begun to come out from popular outlets despite the delay. While most approached the game with cautious optimism, it seems to be a massive disappointment as a pirate fantasy adventure.

Why it matters: Ubisoft has been consistent with its review codes in the past, sending them out promptly to avoid such delays.

At the time of writing, the game has yet to receive a Metacritic rating because of the limited reviews, but initial scores are far from positive. As shared by MauroNL, a few of the review scores are listed below.

• Try Hard Guides – 8/10 
•  Pure Xbox – 6/10 
• Gamereactor – 4/10
• GGRecon – 4/10
• The Times – 4/10
• Financial Times – 4/10

The critics who have played the game have not had a great time since Skull and Bones does not offer much beyond basic naval combat.

It’s been claimed that the game is still not fully polished despite being delayed multiple times. A few positives include appealing ship customization and a serviceable open world, but most parts of the game fail to deliver.

Aside from the technical problems, the quests are basic and mundane. Reviewers believe it fails to stand out in a slew of live service games despite the lack of many AAA pirate-themed adventures.

While Ubisoft believes this release holds the right ingredients for a long-lasting live-service entry, critics believe the multiplayer features are half-cooked. They point to the fact that interactions between players are limited.

This can happen when certain events are in progress or during races, among other limited instances. While Ubisoft remains confident in this AAAA release, Skull and Bones seems to be struggling overall.

Since various outlets received codes much later than usual, this may have been an intentional decision from Ubisoft to avoid the aftermath of a poor release. We have reviewed several games from the publisher recently, but like many others, we did not receive a code for Skull and Bones.

Following our experience with the open beta, we preferred to return to Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag. We would not be shocked if most people shared a similar opinion since the game is lacking basic features like boarding a ship, which were already part of Black Flag 10 years ago.

Abiyan

[News Reporter]

Abiyan is on track to complete his Computer Science bachelor’s degree. His enthusiasm for writing and gaming motivates him to keep readers and gamers updated with the latest information from the industry. In his free time, Abiyan enjoys playing Dota 2 and Rocket League. Abiyan has also been cited in reputed websites such as Kitguru, Comicbook, GamingBible, Eurogamer and Gamingbolt.