Skull And Bones Lets You Get Off Your Ship And Play As A Pirate, But Not As Often As I'd Like
Skull and Bones is quite the enigma for me. The ideas behind it intrigue me--I like what developer Ubisoft Singapore is trying to sell me with Skull and Bones' rags-to-respect (and maybe some riches) open-world adventure about forging a name for yourself as a pirate kingpin. But I didn't see much of that narrative present in the slice of gameplay showcased at a Skull and Bones preview. It's left me wanting to try Skull and Bones to see if those narrative threads are there, but wary that this game may be selling a fantasy that it ultimately doesn't fulfill.
In Skull and Bones, you start off as the survivor of a shipwreck, having washed up on the shore of an unknown location. You gather enough resources to build yourself a small dhow, armed with just a simple spear to fend off any threats. Confronted with the notion that you've hit rock bottom, you aspire to become a respected pirate captain and set out to fulfill contracts and loot treasure in order to earn enough money to buy new ships, upgrade your gear and weapons, and hire your own crew.
Skull and Bones is set in the Indian Ocean (the very large body of water between Asia, Africa, and Australia) during the Golden Age of Piracy. This separates it a bit from Ubisoft's other big pirate game, 2013's Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, which is set roughly during the same time period but largely takes place in the Caribbean, the much smaller body of water near North, Central, and South America.
Despite the narrative differences, there are some clear gameplay similarities between Black Flag and Skull and Bones. Naval combat still entails the pattern of spotting a ship on the horizon and attempting to get a better look at it in order to gauge its strength, giving you a chance
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