{"id":738996,"date":"2025-11-23T10:51:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T10:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/Hwtn6fkQaDhModVRaszDSK"},"modified":"2025-11-23T10:51:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T10:51:41","slug":"so-far-skull-and-bones-has-just-made-me-want-to-play-sea-of-thieves-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/so-far-skull-and-bones-has-just-made-me-want-to-play-sea-of-thieves-again\/","title":{"rendered":"So far, Skull and Bones has just made me want to play Sea of Thieves again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Skull and Bones is finally coming out this month (or so we're told), and this week's open beta<\/a> is Ubisoft's last best chance to convince us that the long-delayed pirate game is worth $60<\/a>. I played a few hours of it today, and it's not quite what I expected or hoped for, though I won't rule out that it gets better in the endgame.<\/p>\n

It starts with Ubisoft's typical early game babying: Before you graduate from captaining a glorified dinghy, generic pirate NPCs make you prove that you understand complicated game systems such as pressing F to pick up floating loot, and you're sent schlepping between little islands in search of an acacia tree to cut down. That task took me a while, because other players had already harvested all the nearby acacia groves, and I guess they take a while to respawn. Yo ho yo ho, another stump for me.<\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Ubisoft)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Should logging really be one of the first things you do in a pirate game? Probably not, but after acquiring lumber and finally building a proper ship, I could focus on sinking NPC merchants to amass wealth and supplies, which is better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The combat is simple fun, although it's more like piloting a speedboat than captaining a 17th century ship. I guess I somehow failed to absorb any of the nearly 30<\/a> Skull and Bones trailers Ubisoft's put out over the past seven years, because I'd been picturing something slower and more dignified, like the capital ship battles of Fractured Space<\/a> (except on the ocean, obviously).\u00a0<\/p>\n

It's easy to maneuver into cannon range with NPC merchants and fishing ships, and landing shots doesn't take any great ballistics intuition. A crew stamina bar does add some friction, though in an artificial-feeling way. It also prompts tiresome complaints from the crew about being hungry in the middle of our high seas adventures. Their constant mewling and barking (they yell about everything they see, just in case I didn't notice all the big ships around me) made me pine for the poignant solitude of a solo session in Rare's Sea of Thieves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At first I thought Ubisoft was making a grittier, bloodier counterpoint to Rare's charming, whimsical pirate game, but Skull and Bones isn't really gritty or bloody. It's cheesy and unnatural. When I constructed my first ship, there was a celebratory animation in which my character aggressively applauded at the shipwright<\/a> like a wine-drunk adult clapping at a baby they're trying to get a reaction from, and it reminded me of those TikTokers who pretend to be NPCs, or those ads for fake mobile games where the player becomes a Level 99 Boss. I can't imagine growing attached to this world.<\/p>\n

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