Skull & Bones release has been a long time coming (development began in 2013, initially conceived as DLC for Assassins Creed: Black Flag), and its November release date is approaching at a steady clip.
While the project has changed significantly over the years in size and scope (it was going to be an MMO at one point), the promise of large-scale pirate battles is enticing. We got to see the game in action last month in an extended gameplay trailer, and players can expect naval encounters a-plenty.
Just don't go in expecting a grand story of swashbuckling splendour, as Skull & Bones is apparently a gameplay-focused game first and foremost.
In an interview with True Achievements, game director Ryan Barnard had the following to say on the matter.
“Skull and Bones is not a narrative-driven game. We have narrative pieces — in the game, you'll meet important NPCs called Kingpins which have their own stories that you'll learn as you develop rapport with them by taking on contracts with them.
"There is an underlying story to the game with which we build the entire world lore, but that's not the main focus. We want players to create their own stories and be able to choose the type of pirate they want to be."
"That being said, what drives you through the progression system which we call Infamy, is the fact that you will gain access to blueprints in the game which will give you different types of ships, weapons, and armours, and you'll need those as you move and explore around the world to be effective against new foes.”
So, it sounds like Skull & Bones will be much more of a player-led experience, with your interactions with the various factions and other players being the real meat and potatoes of the game. This probably shouldn't be too surprising, considering what we have seen of the game so far, and the fact that Skull & Bones is a live-service game.
Are you looking forward to Skull & Bones? Set sail for the comments section below.
[source trueachievements.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 40
So basically for honor but pirates
It's Sea Of Thieves, then?
@LanceC77 sea of thieves looks like fun ngl
Too bad. Most likely not the game for me.
@TheNomadLad Sea Of Thieves is great!
'Skull and Bones is not a narrative driven game' aaaaaaaand youve lost me.
Ok you lost me ages ok when it was another ubisoft online sandbox but now im completely lost
How can video games not have any sort of narrative. I hate this live service crap
Of course not. It's NFT and profit- driven. Games are not meant to be fun and atmospheric, they're meant to earn us as much money as possible. It's a Ubisoft original.
So , basically, it’s a narrative based game without a narrative, which they are trying to spin as being a different genre somehow, whereas in fact it’s just lacking a part of the standard gameplay experience.
There are such thing as multiplayer Co-op and competitive games with narratives.
Sad Trombone
The worst thing is, some game designers with this epic personal vision are getting fired for making the most boring game in history.
Who is going to be playing this game? It's just the activities from Black Flag, not even the side quests lol.
Great that they can plop the ship combat and crew management from this into a narrative driven game in future though, as a traversal and side activity part of a much bigger game. Or an integral part of a narrative about pirates!
The Tales/Myth of Blackbeard (instant sales)
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Remake
Assassin's Creed Infinity (or whatever)
Ha. What a let down. A game where they forgot the game again.
A multiplayer, service style, tech demo…..
Nobodies favourite type of game
pity i need plot a big bad and a john Shepard oh well back to mass effect trilogy i go.
I never liked the Ship combat in AC:4, Origins or Odyssey so I had little interest in this to begin with. I always thought that AC4 would have made a 'better' Pirate game but instead they shoehorned in an Assassins Creed story that to me didn't work as an 'Assassin' game. It was as if they had NO confidence to make a new IP around pirating and had a great 'single player' narrative.
Hearing this though, what 'little' interest I had was killed off...
This game has car crash written all over it
I can't believe they're charging 70 euro for this. A systems driven game that will most likely be an absolute churn and grind to earn resources with little in the way of hooks besides "make the numbers go bigger".
Certain that this will be F2P within a year, but interesting to see how much of a marketing push they try
But why? I just want assassin creed blackflag without the "assassin" part, just give me normal pirate game that's like ac blackflag without all the assassin creed stuff (don't need future, assassin, and templar story).
I think everyone want that rather than this confused game.
Why waste money by employing writers?
Why bother having any form of immersion in the form of a narrative?
Live service multiplayer that will be switched off in a couple of years time. Easier.
Dull & Cloned
(Yes, that’s all I have to say)
hopefully nobody pays for this especially after the audacity of pricing it 80 euros as if it's goty or smth
@Mikey856 they're not saying there isn't a narrative at all, they're saying there is one but it's not very good.
Ubisoft is rapidly falling apart:
I honestly have no hope for Ubisoft at this point. They used to be one of my favorite publishers (Rayman is one of my favorite franchises) but not anymore.
My take on this game is years ago they had a bold vision for a pirate game after AC4. Then it went into development hell, lost all sense of focus or direction, or never had one, and basically stopped development. Then, while they have a lack of new games nearing release got the idea to dust off the incomplete game shell of the Unfinished Pirate Game, throw a marketing budget around it, and see how much they can get for it. I don't imagine they expect it to become the next Fortnite, I think they're just trying to fill a calendar vacancy and make some money from a dead project. Even Ubisoft can't be serious about this as a real game.
Sure, sea of thieves is popular and is the same format, but it at least has charm. And a Disney license.
@thefourfoldroot1 If it has a narrative, the narrative has to end, and thus, so do the battle passes.
You can check my history; I don’t bash games often but this game is going to bomb so hard.
Imagine taking the positive feedback from the pirate/sailing aspect of AC4,(wasn't it crossgen on ps3/ps4 too?),then rather than making a narrative pirate adventure & perhaps include some online bits to supplement the main game,they just saw the $$ of live services like GTA Online instead!🙄
But this is also the same Ubisoft that abandoned the original Beyond Good & Evil 2 on ps3/360 continuing the search for Pey'j in favour of an MMO type thing!
For all the GTA VI rumours,I'll be surprised if there's still an offline single player adventure given Take Two's live service greed! Its sad how most AAA publishers have abandoned single player by & large in the pursuit of live service plunder instead!
@Milktastrophe go on then, enlighten me… what’s the narrative?
Anyone who has a Xbox or PC really should just play Sea of Thieves instead, PS players should just replay Black Flag. The game looks awful and its quite sad as all they had to do was make a grander, bigger and more in depth version of Black Flag just minus the AC elements and it would be hyped as hell.
@Robocod Most? Not really not at all as there's plenty of AAA single player focused games out or being made, even EA has a few lined up and the next AC game is a single player smaller focused game despite the direction of Ubi.
@Mikey856
@Milktastrophe so there’s no narrative, just a bunch of random story missions that will be played over and over.. sea of theives
@SeanOhOgain that’s Sony fault I’d say they need to drop the price of games back to £50!
@Mikey856 Sony doesn't set the price for 3rd party games, so it is Ubisoft selling it for a premium
@Mikey856 so there is a narrative, just not a good one that taken a backseat to the gameplay.
As much as I was really looking forward to this, they seem to have just taken this in a complete different direction. Will be one I wait until it drops massively in price
@Mikey856 @Danloaded @Ultrasmiles Same thoughts here, will never be buying this game, and won't be claiming it even if offered on PS+ for "free".
@Kairu @wiiware THIS! I haven't played Black Flag yet, but have heard nothing but excellent things regarding the story and pirate combat/gameplay.
Another online only game. Another game crossed off the list.
@Milktastrophe I dunno if that really counts in the sense of the word ‘narrative’ as most people would see it iygm but either way it won’t be getting my coin 👌🏻
@KidBoruto AC-BF is incredible mate I covet that game
@SeanOhOgain doesn’t Sony set the price for games on the store then?
@Mikey856 nope, that's at the developer's discretion and is why there's a wide range of prices on the store. 70 euro or the regional equivalent was pushed by Sony and 2k, amongst others, and it has now settled as the AAA price point. I think there was also an additional bump in the price in the UK, if you were to do the conversion of new and old price to euro, due to Brexit
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