Ubisoft’s much-delayed piracy simulator, Skull and bones, finally released on February 16. Despite plenty of features promised in the run-up to launch, it seems the high seas adventure game has hit the rocks when it comes to user reviews.
Skull and bones currently suffers from one average user score of 2.9 on Metacritic, based on over 300 user reviews at the time of writing. Many of these reviews make unfavorable comparisons to Assassin’s Creed 4 black flag. Released in 2013, Black flag would you have played as Welsh pirate Edward Kenway was involved in much recklessness, sea battles and sneaking around. Other way around, Skull and bonesis more focused on naval battles, where players send crews to board enemy ships rather than doing it themselves.
The negative reviews revolve around pacing issues and a limited approach to game design. “Painfully slow and boring,” he said an userwhile another complained: “It’s worse than it looks. No ship gets on board, can’t swim, sea battles are all the same. There’s no end game at all.”
The twelve reviews on Metacritic at the time of writing are more favorable, coming in at an average of 64, which the site calls “mixed.” These were slightly more favorable than the user reviews PC gamerour sister site, proverb: “A combination of moody and satisfying ship-on-ship combat with superficial live service trappings, Skull and bones is great within the claustrophobic parameters of what market forces allow.”
Skull and bones has had a notoriously difficult development, having suffered multiple delays since its announcement in 2017. Since then, the title has been changed in numerous ways, with revisions to the setting, branding, and the scope of the game’s mechanics.
The cool game is currently available on PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and on PC via the Ubisoft store.
Looking for an alternative? Try our lists with the best single player games And best story games.