No miracle: long-suffering pirate action game Skull & Bones gets low marks

Pirate action game Skull & Bones was in development for 11 years.

It seemed that during this time it would have been possible to make a first-class action game, but instead the project from Ubisoft Singapore went through numerous postponements, changes of managers and mired in production hell.

The result was predictable: right after the release the game was heavily criticised.

Here's What We Know

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot called Skull & Bones a AAAA game, but as it turns out, either the executive didn't know everything or he was purposefully exaggerating.

Skull & Bones gets low marks from critics, who state that the game doesn't live up to the $70 price tag, the developers' loud promises, or the desired quality.

The only element of Skull & Bones to which there are practically no complaints is the combat system. It is fun, dynamic and spectacular to participate in sea battles, but the same can be said about another Ubisoft game - Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. And since its release took place 11 years ago, there's no need to talk about progress.

Skull & Bones has neither ultra-modern graphics, nor interesting plot, nor exciting activities, nor even sword fights, and certainly there are no prospects of its further development, which is a disaster for a service game.

The only thing that could save the games is the transfer to the conditionally free distribution model. Many developers managed to succeed in this way, perhaps Ubisoft will try to do the same.

As a result, the game naturally receives its low scores and goes down.

Scores on aggregators:

• Opencritic - 60 points with 25% recommendations;
• Metacritic - 64 points.

Skull and Bones is available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series.

Recall, the developer offers users an 8-hour free trial of the game.

Source: Opencritic, Metacritic