Highlights

  • Skull and Bones is not impressing gamers with overwhelmingly negative reviews on Metacritic, citing dull gameplay and story.
  • The game, initially marketed as an exciting pirate adventure, faced design changes and delays, resulting in a lackluster launch.
  • Despite criticisms, some believe Ubisoft can improve Skull and Bones with post-launch updates.

Ubisoft's newly launched Skull and Bones is not faring well on the review aggregate site Metacritic, where it has received overwhelmingly negative ratings from gamers. Prior to its full release, game testers had already complained about the game.

Revealed to the public at Ubisoft's E3 2017 press conference, Skull and Bones initially marketed itself as an online open world game that would give its players the opportunity to explore the Indian Ocean during the Golden Age of Piracy as a pirate captain. However, the game spearheaded by Ubisoft Singapore supposedly went through multiple changes in design and scope mid-production, resulting in several delays. Skull and Bones finally launched on February 16, but it has received mostly negative reviews from players.

Skull and Bones Sailing
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On Metacritic, Skull and Bones has a user score of 3.1 out of 10 based on around 500 reviews, earning it a Generally Unfavorable rating. Out of those reviews, about 71% were negative, with many of those critical submissions pointing out Skull and Bones' shallowness and dull story. Meanwhile, critics have been far more forgiving of Ubisoft's pirate adventure title, as the game has a Metascore of 64 out of 100. For comparison, Assassin's Creed Unity, which is the lowest-rated game in the entire Assassin's Creed franchise, has a user score of 5.5 and a Metascore of 72.

Skull and Bones Metacritic Reviews

skull-and-bones-metacritic-reviews
  • Metascore: 64
  • User Score: 3.1

During a closed beta for Skull and Bones last December, many testers ended up quitting the game as they claimed Skull and Bones was too boring. Ubisoft has apparently made little to no changes since then, as this is still a common complaint among players of the full release, along with a poor storyline and general lack of charm.

While many consider Skull and Bones to be tedious and uninspired in its current state, some believe Ubisoft can salvage the game by slowly building up Skull and Bones' post-launch content. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, another live-service title from Ubisoft, was able to become extremely popular after it received numerous post-release updates.

It will likely take Ubisoft a while to address Skull and Bones' issues. In the meantime, those looking for a similar kind of experience can try out the many pirate games like Skull and Bones that are currently available. Among these is the Microsoft-published Sea of Thieves that just recently received a massive update, as well as Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, which is considered the spiritual predecessor of Skull and Bones.