Skull & Bones is the pirate game you’ve been asking for ever since Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. I got the chance to play the game during Ubisoft’s games showcase at E3 2017.
I played two matches in my 30-minute demo. There were three ships available — one ship was essentially for defence, one for long-range attacks and the other was for close-range assaults. I used the Brigade, the ship for close-range assaults.
The controls in the Skull & Bones alpha I played are similar to pirating the high seas in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag . In fact, you’ll feel a lot of deja vu, especially since the same songs you heard in Black Flag are sung by the crew. I was humming along the tunes as I looted pirate ships.
Anyway, back to the gameplay. It didn't take long for me to get back into the pirating groove. I picked up 1,000 loot for my team, which unfortunately made me an instant target for the other team. Once you have the most loot in the game, you become a target. Your opponents are prompted of your loot count and they will come after you.
This is where strategy comes to play. Another Raider member and myself carried the most loot on our team. I asked my team members to watch my back and run interference as I tried to slip away. It WORKED. My teammates were bombarding the other ships while I got further away from the battle area. After a few minutes of defense, we were prompted to make our way to the escape zone.
To win the match in Skull & Bones, you'll need to make it to the escape zone. You want to be the team with the most loot at the end. So if you have loot, you should make it to this checkpoint at all cost. There's a possibility you won't have any loot by the time you're prompted to get to the checkpoint. If that's the case, you can make yourself even more useful by attacking enemy ships. If they sink before reaching the escape zone they can't respawn and will forfeit their loot. So even if your team is behind on loot there's always a chance to recover.
My team won the match by working together to get the members with the most loot to the escape zone. It was fantastic gameplay and smooth mechanics on the developer’s end. After the matches, I was curious as to what the customization will look like for the game, if it's an option. I'd want to upgrade my ship when and crew in the PvP mode, but understand if there isn't a standard option since it would mean all players are on a even playing field. The matches go by quickly, so you’ll be constantly fighting and adapting to the other team’s play style.
No word yet if Skull & Bones will have a single player campaign, but if they do, I hope there are nods to Black Flag . I would love to pirate as James Kidd and beat Blackbeard. Skull & Bones is currently in development and will be released sometime in 2018.
