Highlights

  • Skull and Bones elevates ship battles from Assassin's Creed with fully customizable ships, offering different roles in combat and the ability to create a party.
  • The upgrades and customization options in Assassin's Creed naval combat have been limited to stronger cannons and armor improvements, lacking significant differentiation in gameplay.
  • Skull and Bones introduces a wide range of cannons and weapons, allowing for different playstyles and the ability to swap out ships, enhancing multiplayer gameplay and adding a layer of customization.

With Skull and Bones releasing on the backbone of a decade of Assassin's Creed naval battles, Ubisoft's multiplayer open world manages to properly elevate this side content from the developer's flagship series. This is best shown in the upgrade that Assassin's Creed's ship battles have needed since all the way back in Black Flag: the ability to fully customize the player's ships.

Several facets lead to Skull and Bones going above and beyond the naval combat of the Assassin's Creed series, but few have as much effect on gameplay as being able to actually customize the various ships in the game. The most notable aspect is the fact that there are multiple ships, each of which offers different roles in combat and can combine with other players to create a proper RPG party.

Skull and Bones combat
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The History of Ship Upgrades in Assassin's Creed

There is a reason that Assassin's Creed: Black Flag continues to be elevated as having some of the best ship combat in gaming, even when these unique encounters don't make up the core of the actual combat. However, as good as the combat itself is, the upgrades and customization options don't amount to much more than stronger versions of a few different cannon types and some armor improvements.

This is on top of a handful of visual updates, which does help to make every player's own ship feel like their own, but most of the combat fails to differ from one player to the next. While this best describes Black Flag, the same can be said for Odyssey, the most recent entry to continue the trend of naval combat.

Cannon Types from Steel to Glass

Skull and Bones ships

With naval combat taking center stage in Skull and Bones, the customization of the ships themselves jumps into the forefront as well. This can easily be seen in the way that Ubisoft Singapore has expanded not only the upgrade levels of cannons but also the variety of weapons that can be attached to a ship.

These include different types of cannons that can either shoot a barrage at medium range, single shots at long range, or scatter shots at close range. However, there are also options other than cannons to strap to either side of a ship, such as bombardiers, and torpedoes that can fire explosive payloads at range to kick off a fight with a big hit to one or more enemy ships.

These types of cannons and other weapons then allow for significantly different playstyles, which can be swapped out from one encounter to the next. As the latest beta for Skull and Bones currently has players exploring an open ocean that doesn't pull punches in the higher-level areas, properly tuning a ship's weapons for the oncoming encounter can be the difference between sinking a convoy or being sunk. This also compounds with an even more powerful form of customization, the ability to actually swap out the player's ship for a completely different class of boat.

Take the D&D Party to the Seas

skull and bones key art pirate ship

As players continue to gain infamy and gather materials, they'll earn the ability to buy new ships that are assigned different roles in combat including DPS, Support, and Tank. This level of customization further enhances Skull and Bones' multiplayer gameplay by allowing players to set sail with a group of friends, with each individual ship taking on a role in the overall party akin to a Dungeons and Dragons party. While some ships are obvious choices, as they come from higher levels with bigger numbers, the ability to round out party composition adds a new layer to engaging with more difficult content.

On top of the powerful ships, and the different classes of ships, Skull and Bones also includes a massive amount of visual customization that can help each player's vessel feel unique. Similarly, groups of players can share designs as a sign of their in-group, like the Clans and Guilds that are abundant in other multiplayer titles. Either way, these customization enhancements are welcome for Ubisoft, whether the gameplay is successful in Skull and Bones or any rumored Assassin's Creed remakes.