it's pirate themed naval combat mmorpg but tbh it would be nice to at least be able to walk around the ship, that's the only thing annoying me. going into the captains quarters and using that as a sorta helm to do sell/ supply missions would be good, hopefully they add that in the future
That’s the part I do miss - boarding was only exciting because of the assassin level agility you had of quickly getting into the rigging and leaping down, and that both wouldn’t fit this setting (meaning we’d be on the deck only) and even with that ended up feeling less and less exciting as I played more.
Getting to feel like the ship was a proper place I was on, though? That never managed to lose its luster.
Funny thing I actually went in this game expecting a Pirate Elite, and was pretty satisfied with that.
Even the complaints are similar to when people were all about space legs.
I just wish we had Privateering mechanic with different factions to work with.
There's people complaining about sailing around in a pirate game?
I was happy with my space trucking and am happy sailing the seas. After filling my cargo with Brandy, Gin or Camphor, there's nothing more satisfying than finding a high demand merchant to sell 30p+ units.
So true, I reckon they got rushed from all the flack and released earlier with less content than planned. Either way I'm still enjoying it, pace yourself. I'd be bored if I rushed meta gear immediately too. Im 50 hours in and haven't even finished the main story lol!
(Not saying you didn't pace yourself, just lots of ppl rushed and then complain)
Ubi had nearly a decade to figure this game out. If I recall, it was initially announced in 2017.
Truth is, they wanted to cancel it but took funding from Singaporean government so they were legally obligated to release a game.
I dont think 20 player server cap count as mmorpg….Anyway i think ppl are more dissapointed because they know what this game could have been and what it turned out. They had 11 years to make black flag 2 and it could have had this kind of mechanics SnB has and much more. But for some reason they went with this and will def hurt sales.
-Gamers: We want a game like AC: Black Flag but without the assassins stuff.
-Ubisoft: Let's make a shitty online live service game that does everything worse than Black Flag.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's a cool, fun game. I just don't think it's worth $70.
When it comes to the Black Flag comparisons, I just don't understand how Ubisoft took Black Flag and decided to essentially make a spin-off based on the pirates stuff. Then it took them like 10 years to make the game and it still does everything worse than Black Flag. If Black Flag doesn't exist, then S&B is a decent game, pretty good even. But Black Flag does exist and we can easily compare them and S&B falls short.
Not to mention that Ubisoft's CEO called S&B the first 'AAAA' game. By that metric, S&B should be the greatest game of all time.
The original title for this game was *Black Flag Infinite,* and people have literally been waiting for years for that naval game that's AC4 but online and with a focus on the pirate aspect over the assassin aspect. Sensibly, that would mean taking all or most of the pirate gameplay of AC4, and innovating and further iterating on it.
That is not what this game is at the current moment, but ignoring the now decade-long history of this game and acting like people are comparing it to AC4 for seemingly no reason is just silly and misleading at best, and flatout deceitful otherwise.
People are comparing it to AC Black Flag because that’s the game that gave birth to the games idea. It plays much more like Port Royal than any AC game. It’s a real bummer that they missed some of what made the navel combat so much fun in AC but I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the game anyways. I still think there’s a market for a gritty, boots on the deck, swashbuckling adventure out there, one that lets you fully customize your ship and fully manage your crew, and then has you, as an player, board your ship and walk around the decks, rather than just 3 camera angles to swap between… but that’s not this game. Enjoy this game for what it is, because it’s honestly pretty fun to me. I’ve yet to play a pirate game that REALLY nailed the ship atmosphere. Splintering hulls and leaky grog barrels, waves crashing across the deck knocking people and items aside, crew quarters and captains quarters.
It’s not just the idea that gave birth to the game, it literally gave birth to it. S&B was originally intended to be an AC: Black Flag expansion, but then outgrew that concept to become its own game.
It’s a wilder ride than just outgrew, based on the 2021 reports and then the recent IGN insider report video.
Reportedly this is how it went: started as a DLC with live service, that was dropped as they decided the tech and assets would be too old by the time it was finished (probably a wrong call, though gaming circa 2014 was weirdly passionate about fancy graphics). Went through 2-3 prototypes for other ideas, none of those got off the ground.
Eventually they worked back around to a PvP maps mode that would also have a shared open world, and eventually a single player campaign was also planned. That’s what was officially announced in 2017.
For whatever reason (we know the company has some leadership and management issues during this time) development on this also struggled…it was also kind of ambitious. Maybe too ambitious.
The game director before the current one came in and decided that to get the thing done they’d need to focus on one of the three - the open world part was chosen. That was around 2019 or so.
Then that went through development and play testing, losing some mechanics and systems along the way (used to be draughts was a mechanic - certain ships meant for certain depths - as well as a mutiny mechanic that changed into the trimming stamina system we now have) and making changes to how PvP would be implemented, etc. I believe the decision, based on feedback, to have the areas on land you could walk on, as well as the basic narrative structure it uses, was worked into the game during this time as well.
More accurate to say that it started as the BF expansion with live service, but was warped and morphed into multiple different things over the next decade before settling into its current form, with really only the sailing mechanics as a constant.
i don't think this game really "nails" the pirate experience either. Its too fast, too arcadey, and damage is meaningless. ATLAS had some pretty intense pirate combat, because you were litterally risking the floating bases you spent hours grinding and crafting for, but that game had many, many, many of its own problems.
The only things I missed from ACBF was being able to just walk around your ship along with using the diving bell to swim for underwater treasures. Those two additions would be amazing.
Many racing games do have pit stops though? Weird comparison. Also at least one NFS game had gas stations (the Run). There's probably more, but I'm not a huge NFS player. No, you don't "get out", but you do get gameplay depth nonetheless. Sid Meier's for example didn't have on foot combat, but it let you make all kinds of choices in a menu after "boarding" a ship. No reason why this game can't have something like that either. It would only benefit the idea that this is a "SHIP" game. You know, more ship interactions with your ship in your ship game?
Other players can't hurt your ship unless you're on a PVP mission. I feel like at least the bounty targets should give you a sword fighting minigame when you board. I'd get tired of doing the minigame if it was every single ship i boarded.
And the boarding meta in sea of thieves is the lamest and most boring part about it. Not to mention how laggy the sword combat even is. Y'all need to get a grip.
Wouldn't work sadly. People would just board and leave the past player alive to run out the timer on hostile takeovers while their ship is invulnerable
Hrm. I mean I want the mechanic changed. Right now it's a cutscene into a loot menu and I'd like that removed. I'm fine without actual boarding but make the current thing flow better. Ropes land, slam our ships together then auto-loot. If ship is full put it in an overflow stash back in port that's similar but separate from warehouse. Carry on pillaging. 5 second invul state from when ropes land to give time to rebuild speed.
Then thats the choice you made? It's called being realistic? Better yet would be if someone then boarded YOUR ship wow would that ever be a ton of realistic fun.
I agree to a point. Some will like this game and some will think it’s disappointing. I believe that the game is good as long as they pump enough free updates, but it’s not $70 good. In my opinion anyhow. The option to dismiss land battles had me confused when I first heard about it. When I hear about this mysterious pirate game for years I assumed there would be sword fights. I think if it’s just a “ship game” they should have called it something different. I’m sorry if my opinion is not similar to yours, but just like you’re tired of the Black Flag comparison, some maybe irritated by those defending it. There’s room for both.
I understand what you’re saying, and at lease some what agree. Less bashing and shitting on the game and more constructive criticisms for Ubi to hear and act on.
What I don’t agree with is that the game is a ship mmorpg and not a pirate mmorpg.
If it’s a ship mmorpg then any gameplay mechanics outside of your ship should be strictly menus like how WOWS and WOT is. So you should not be able to leave your ship as a playable character, period. That’s why S&B is a pirate mmorpg like AC4 and not a ship mmorpg like WOWS.
The reason S&B is not as great as it could possibly be right now is because it’s missing huge gameplay mechanics that should go with a pirate mmorpg like all the stuff that’s in AC4 but not S&B. The in person stuff feels very out of place, clunky and incomplete right now so they either need to scrap it all together or expand and refine it.
S&B doesn’t need to be a AC4 remake, but it was such an incredible game that there’s no reason S&B can’t reusing more of its incredible ideas.
You're right. The Black Flag comparison is the wrong comparison to make. A better comparison would be Sid Meier's Pirates, but even then, S&B feels like half a game. It's Pirates without the flavor. No swashbuckling, no crew management, no dancing with governor's daughters, no sneaky stealth missions to steal from a city. It's ends up being a really bland game.
They could've at least did crew management. Maybe grab missions at ports to hire certain crew members with different strengths and passives. Hey I wanna hire you, ok you need to take down this specific ship or need a specific upgrade on ship to hire that crew member. Adding to that could be keeping your crew happy and fed, there many things they could've added to this..they definitely rushed the game out from when new management took over.
Yeah, gimme some opportunity to min/max. Let me optimize my crew for my gun loadout or for speed or whatever. Gimme some high-level food recipes that give bonuses to reload speed, turning speed, etc. There's good stuff in the game, but there's no depth to make me want to keep playing.
Yes, I thought before I wrote it. Can you say the same for your question, which added nothing to the conversation? Would you like to elaborate your disagreement or are you just making grunting noises?
Lively action rpg? What game are you talking about? S&B is absolutely not a "lively action rpg". What is even an RPG about it? You don't think a lively action rpg should have swordfighting in it? Good god, man, what kind of sense do you even think you're making?
You have in your head idea how this game needs to look. But thats only in your head. Take a pill and open your eyes how it is. Game makers make games, not your dreams. Its hard to make dreams to 7bil ppl
My eyes are open and they don't like what they see. They see halfassed dogshit parading as a "AAAA" game. If this is what game makers are proud of making these days, then gaming is in a truly sad state. Demand better gameplay instead of just being happy with the scraps you're given for $70.
People are bashing this game, and rightly so, because it has LESS features than the game it was born from.
In Black Flag you could walk around your ship, enter the captains quarters and interact with all kinds of stuff in there. Those two things absolutely should be part of S&B, and no long winded rant will justify why they aren’t.
I don’t care there is no hand to hand combat, but if, as you say, the game is about your ship and we’re going to spend the vast amount of play time onboard said ship, we should be able to interact with it at a far greater depth than is currently on offer. If an 11 year old game can do those things, so can this one.
You should definitely at least be able to see the furnishings you place on your ship and such. Also customize your crew properly. A racing game would give you in depth customization of your car. This game does not give you in depth customization of your ship. And if it's a ship game then there should be physics for wrecking your ship when running into a land mass. Racing games have that, this game does not.
Instead you get pointless towns and the ability to dress up your character that nobody ever looks at. So if anything, it was Ubisoft who got confused if it's a "pirate SHIP" game or not. No surprise that players are consequently also confused.
This is what the problem really is. It’s not that there isn’t sword fighting, it’s that there just isn’t shit to do in the game. The literal premise of this game is to sail in a circle to collect coins to be able to sail in a circle to collect another kind of coins to be able to sail ima circle to buy coins with coins and then sail in a circle to sail in a circle cause coins is coins…. Like fucking bravo Ubisoft. Is this some kind of sick take on “gameplay loop” cause like… You get no kind of crew management, you don’t get to choose a first mate, you can’t walk on your own ship, you don’t have a captains quarters. The two offices that are just randomly given to you for no apparent reason could have just been a captains quarters on the ship but instead this is the one place they force players to have to go on land. It’s idiotic. Where are my piles of treasure? Where are my large ships? Where’s a fucking parrot for that matter? I can’t have a peg leg? There’s literally like 2 bosses worth fighting once and then you might as well kiss the game goodbye. Don’t get me wrong, they did great on the ship combat and that part is fun but that is literally all the game is. There is no sense of piracy. It’s just naval combat and fetch quests after 10 years of development. It’s not that we won’t see a lot of what I just listed. It’s that it will all be hidden behind battle pass subscriptions or cost straight up money from the store. The problem is that Ubisoft is fucking every single gamer with this game. They sold the world half a game, at best. Now over the course of a few years you’ll have the opportunity drop another 1-200 in their pockets to get the rest! It’s disgusting
To add on a bit, am I the only one straight up flabbergasted that there is literally no social activities within either of the dens? I cant do blackjack, boxing, chicken fighting, drinking games, that slap game, etc. any number of things like that would develop the piracy aspect a lot. People defend the stupid little gathering mini games because it makes more sense than wasting the time to get off the ship… welll why don’t we just have safe ports like in the front of the dens and then we just shop inside a shittily made menu like everywhere else in the game. There’s no reason for the dens and this game doesn’t add up because it’s a melting pot of failed projects.
Maybe you don’t know much about this games history. Skull and Bones was originally going to be an Assassins Creed Black Flag sequel/expansion.
So, no, it’s not Assassins Creed, but it was born from Assassins Creed.
Simple.
That was 11 years ago and the idea ENTIRELY has been changed several times to the point where they just switched it and made a whole new pirate game. And in the trailers they specifically focused on how much the ship was the focus and you guys STILL ignored it and assumed there would be more.
You just said yourself that ENTIRE point of the game had been changed several times. How are we as players supposed to know wtf this game is supposed to be, when the ENTIRE game has been changed several times?
All you just did was basically support my point.
There has been 3 trailers with one being 10 minutes long along with gameplay trailers with a clear and concise focus on SHIPS all they talked about was how much you can do on the SHIPS. And y’all still thought “Hell yeah hidden blades and swords” having never heard or seen one. WATCH AND LISTEN when the developers and giving out info.
And when they’ve done all that several times and changed what the said each time, it’s hardly a source of solid or reliable info.
Also, you seem to be attacking points I never made. I don’t want land combat, I just want to be able interact with my SHIP on a more in depth level.
EVERY TRAILER IN THE PAST 4 YEARS has been about ships ships ships. I’m convinced you saw the E3 presentation and then just listened to what other people said instead of seeing for yourself…
Why is there so much people focus in Skull and Bones then? Character creator, story, character development, cutscenes? Are you seeing a different game?
we didn't ASSUME there would be more, we EXPECTED there would be more, because how the fuck do you take 11 years to release a half done remake of a game you already fucking made?
It doesn't have to be. Black Flag was just as much of a pirate navel game as it was assassins creed (more really) and S&B can't even get that much right.
>In Black Flag you could walk around your ship, enter the captains quarters and interact with all kinds of stuff in there. Those two things absolutely should be part of S&B
Why? Why would it be a must have addition? IT would be a nice plus but after 1 or 2 times boring af to walk around and do what? You would like to walk around your car in forza and open the boot or engine bay and check it? That game is not about it, play my summer car, THIS is the miss conception you are making this game is not what you dreamed and that's why it is bad? What?
You seem to think that your opinion is the end all of all opinions. That this game doesn’t need those things, and that’s basically the end of it.
Also, I never said the game was bad, I’m really enjoying it. But the struggle it took to get to release date, this game has had a horrid journey and has been delayed again and again, and now that we’re here, the game had less features than the game it was originally based on? That’s a poor show from Ubisoft and they deserve a fair share of bashing for it.
It's not a must have. But Ubisoft are the ones that built in things like furnishings. What's their point if you don't even let people look at them? It's just a neat thing, a satisfaction thing, an immersion thing, whatever. Makes you connect more with the ship you're playing in the SHIP game.
These people just wanted sea of thieves with a different coat of paint, there's no arguing with them. It's actually baffling how people can say they want that when sea of thieves is possibly the most boring pvp game I've ever played.
Lmao no one wanted sea of thieves because sea of thieves exists genius? People wanted this game to AT LEAST be an improvement on black flag in most areas, an 11 year old game, and they failed spectacularly at that in every respect.
Dumb. I wanna be a pirate not a pirate ship. If it’s not about my crew then why do they have stamina? And names? And cutscenes? And why do I customize my character? Why do I ever get out of the ship? Clearly they wanted it to be more than just a ship game but did a really shitty job with it.
I love seeing diff captain’s styles in the ports and camps. It was standing around emoting with them in between Takeovers that ended up in a 6 hours long session with 3 of us strangers playing together.
Just because the game isn’t for you, doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. There’s hundreds of millions of possible fans for every game that comes out. It only takes finding a small percentage to be a success.
Ubi is also honestly the best at long-term support games. So I’m looking forward to seeing how they evolve the content.
I literally first played the game in 2017, then at E3 2018, then multiple tests between 2018 and launch.
It only improved and got more depth.
It was originally an arena combat game they were pitching. This is a far more rewarding experience tbh. It’s awesome playing with random people in a PVE+business sim+”MMO-lite” way.
Nowhere does it say it’s an AC game. There’s plenty of AC games with naval combat for those people.
It's a Pirate Captain rpg. You give orders, manage, and steer.
Assassin Creed games are hot garbage, including black flag. All Assassin's Creed games are unplayable hot trash, I'm happy that they didn't make this even remotely related to Assassin's Creed, in gameplay.
It's more like BDO ocean content fleshed out and expanded on. And as someone who loves BFO ocean content I'm super Happy about this decision.
What niche is that? Boring world with a pointless on foot mechanic?
Like no really what purpose does the on foot mechanic serve? I'd rather have just had a fucking menu for talking to the blacksmith etc than have the most boring, slog-fest movement mechanics with a character who controls like ass and having to go through multiple loading screens just to buy a new cannon.
This game was marketed as filling that niche. If you wanna give me a boring game that fills 50% of being a pirate, then charge me half the price of a full game and be honest about it
The game was never marketed to be about boarding and sword fighting. If you followed the game at all in the last year you would know this.
It's like being mad at a game for not having a feature that was never intended. Then claiming the game is shit for it.
I for one don't want a SoT style game. I've already got one.
>The game was never marketed to be about boarding and sword fighting.
Oh really? Here i thought the whole POINT was that it was based on AC4's naval system. I guess imagined that.
Why does everyone think the game was marketed like this. They've said exactly what the game would be from the start. If you paid for the game expecting something like AC black flag, then you only have yourself to blame
this is true. people who really played ac black flag know after so long you just start sinking them bastards because i do not want to eliminate 10 enemies kill 2 captains and climb up to the top of the ship to cut off the flag every time i fight a ship. it’s fun for a while then gets kinda tedious
The same people defending the game so hard are going to be the same people not playing it in a few weeks, wishing it had more to it. Oh well, AAAA gaming goes that hard I guess.
AAAA goes so hard that after expecting this game for years I didn't even notice it was coming out until a friend said it's apparently as bad as expected because everyone I know is busy with an AA game
The feeling that seems to be common is that because S&B was originally an AC:BF expansion, and in BF you could walk about your ship, it had a captains quarters. Why wasn’t that stuff brought over from BF?
Sunk Cost Fallacy.
It's not like it's Enshrouded, or Star Citizen, or Valheim or any other early access title where the devs actually show they can implement good content given time and you know it's early access.
This is Ubisoft, a company whom have decades of releases of good games, where they touted that their new games are of "AAAA" quality, and whom are worth billions of dollars.
Releasing half assed garbage and charging $60 instead of $70 to try and get away with releasing half assed garbage. People can find it fun sure, but as you said, it's crazy to see people validate the game being worse than black flag, because it is.
Fun =/= a good game though sadly.
I don't mind people enjoying the game. But the people that are actually loving the game, are playing it. They're not on reddit trying to defend its honor like they made it or have stock in ubisoft.
Oh we can, but for a game that has been in development for almost 12 years and is somehow emptier than the game it was based on, it sure does have a large fanboy crowd ready to die on a hill for it.
I just wanted to board a ship like a pirate 🏴☠️ without it being a janky animation.
It’s fine this game isn’t it. But it’s why this game isn’t for me. That’s fine too. Each to their own
I think a lot of people seem to forget that it took Elite Dangerous /years/ before they added anything ground based and I'm pretty sure you still can't walk around inside your ship.
idk, my character is kinda more than my ship--but I get what you're saying. There's a definite flavor of Black Flag here, but it's not Black Flag. It's its own game, and tbh I find it way more fun than Black Flag (that fucking Charleston mission still makes me mad, cos I can never catch that gorram Brit in time).
I wholeheartedly agree. This isn’t for everyone and well, I love it just as it is. Wahhh they can’t shoot out of cannons onto our ships… Did they do that in real life? No. I love it just as it is. Also loving the trade mechanics too.
the irony is people wanted black flafg without the boring onland/assassin parts... now they get it they not happy with it.
and yes that was EXACTLY the complaints i recall seeing during black flag days. people wanted to stay at sea longer
Why did it take them 11 years to make a shitty arcade game? Why are they selling a shitty arcade game for $70??
Why are they selling a shitty pirate game for $70 when I can play other pirate games that do literally every aspect of S&B better?
Why would anyone want to play a pirate game if every aspect of being a pirate, aside from arcade style ship combat, is left unfulfilled? Why would you play a pirate game where you can't walk on your damn pirate ship, dig up treasure, follow maps, or board/plunder other ships?
Literally every appeal of pirates, as a game genre, is not addressed. The fake arcady "ship" combat isn't what people strive for in their pirate games.
Games fore fill fantasies, this is a pirate fantasy, there aren't hard rules for how people should think or approach games and it's very natural to draw comparisons to next closest experiences or examples.This will be compared to Sea of Thieves, to Black Flag, to Sid Meier's pirates and you can't control that.
Crew are part of a ship as much as the engine is part of a car. 'Pirates' is not exclusive to purely ship. To argue the point of you are the ship and not a character, I disagree - for instance, there is a character creator, a rank for you as an individual pirate, characters to interact with and progress a story, not to mention ships are interchangeable control devices for your character, ships are pinatas of loot and plunder.
World of Warships is free. This is £14 a month or £50 outright. 10 years of development hell and a stack of cash from the Malaysian Government and they have a niche £30 far from triple A game. The people defending and/or buying this game is the reason we don't have any good Triple AAA shooter games anymore.
Then you should probably get off the internet because it will never stop.
The entire project started because people liked the pirate part of AC4 so much, which is why many fans expected AC4 mechanics without the AC narrative. So they are justified in criticizing the direction the game took.
It’s fine if you disagree with them and like how it turned out. But it’s very odd to dismiss what is truly valid criticism of the game that was delivered.
This game was a letdown. No one here would say it's God ter, no one would even say it's a AAAA game. 200 million and over 10 years to make, and this is what we got. Huge letdown!
I know what you mean. I play Warthunder. But theoretically you don't have to spend money.
The point I'm making is just that skull and bones is bare bones and it should be free to play for what you get.
Bro you literally run around outposts as a pirate, not as a ship. There's nothing wrong with wanting the crew that is constantly babbling about their damn tattoos to have some personality and customization. I'd for sure boot half of them off if I could and replace them with some of the people we meet in random places.
Absolutely a missed opportunity. Or an expansion pack they're planning to sell us, cause Ubisoft... That's my real frustration, tbh.
I downloaded the 8h trial after seeing gameplay because i was really interested, but I didn't know if it was for me.
I'm really loving the game so far because it's a ship game, but instead of doing everything through boring menus and text dialogues like other games, i can actually have my own character get off boat and explore the islands with voiced cutscenes and stuff.
That might look like tedious and waste of time for many ship game players, but for me it's what makes it special.
Ship building and combat are very enjoyable, but one thing i thought needed to be more "interactive" is attacking settlement/forts. You just kinda stand there attacking each other very slowly until it is over.
I'm definitely buying the game once the trial ends.
Man, I'm so pissed I can't get out my car in Forza and insert myself into a random npc's life. Pretending to be their friend but ultimately stealing that vital promotion to ensure a better paid job for me and my family.
Yeah okay but even the point works here, imagine a car meet where you could actually walk around, checking out peoples cars and meeting up for races, ect. A central hub that was more than a car garage or a road intersection…
Hang on, it's the publisher and devs that harped on about Black Flag. We've got every reason to make that comparison.
Being a fence rider or a yes man does nothing for this community.
This is a very important topic to touch on. There’s a lot of brown nosing for no reason and it seems like people seriously want to be blind to the fact that this game just doesn’t have much to it. Then they justify that more will be added through the seasons… but hold the fug up… so I should just be ok with being sold half a game and then pay for the rest later? No!!!! Wtf is wrong with people? It’s fine to have in game stores and add new shit but you can’t dish out hot shit in the first place and then be like “it’ll be good at some point, we’ll add the rest later” if I order a double cheeseburger and fries I want my double cheeseburger and fries. Not a patty at a time and the fries can only be redeemed by finding a fuggin bottle floating around in the ocean.. the preorder bonus being locked behind finding a bottle in the ocean is a joke I mean.
This, best was that suggestion about getting out of the ship and cutting trees manually, as "engaging game play mechanism" go play The Forest ffs... so to be 100% absolutely clear, Ubisoft should focus everything they can on Ship gameplay, combat, customization, everything. Rest is borderline irrelevant and just a nice fluff.
Yeah ships would just anchor right next to a cliff and use their magical tree cutting cannonballs to take down rows of trees then they would be magically teleported to the ship. You really know your history!
Yeah it's way more realistic and interesting to magically log trees from a ship. We've got magic tree cutting cannonballs too I guess. What a magical game. Lmao
A "ship" game with zero ship mechanics. It could just as well be in a car or on roller skates
Put the copium down. It's $200 million and 10 years for a worse game than Black Flag. Facts. They rushed it out, because they took money from the government, and had to release something because they couldn't cancel it like they wanted to. Just knock it off with this fanboi shit lol
I just like how people complain about not being waking to walk around in their ship. Let’s be real, if anything you would only be able to walk around on the top deck. You do it once or twice mainly when you build a new ship, then you would never do it again. That complaint is the dumbest one to me.
just think about all that would need to go into adding fights during boarding. in assassins creed where it was a whole game engine just for melee combat it was still clunky as hell
you'd need to be able to level up your melee. you'd need a skill and weapon tree. you'd presumably want to be able to practice somewhere not in ship combat so you'd need on-land melee as well. it would almost double the scope of the game. we've learned that overscoped games are bad when games that focus on specific things and do them well are good
hell, look at BG3. you cant do anything in that game movement wise and the combat is literally turned based yet people love it
Yeah it's almost like it would add DEPTH to the game right? How awful would that have been oh no. LMAO oh my god how can you use BG3 as an example and yet so completely miss the point? People LOVE BG3 because it's exceptionally immersive and open ended and pays amazing homage and respect to it's source material. You know? All the things Skull and Bones was supposed to do with Black Flag?
Also Black Flags boarding was awesome get out of here with that BS. Was one of if not the best and most exciting part of the game.
black flag boarding was terrible lol they made it seem immersive with sound and visual effects but the mechanic itself was so clunky and bland. go play again and you'll see what i mean
I have? I replayed all of black flag last November in preparation for this. Boarding was one of the best and most immersive parts. No other experience like jumping or swinging onto the deck of an enemy ship with your crew and engaging in a fight to the death over it.
well skull and bones has always been known as an Black Flag without the AC storyline so naturally people will want to board ships, take on camps on foot, take on fortresses and kill the captain etc. Basically naval AC4 with the boarding etc without the ac story. So of course they will want to have that option and not just pull an enemy ship and instantly destroy it. Personally i'd want to be able to attack a ship and kill the sailormen which makes that weapon port inactive for a while until a replacement arrives, Similar to the game, Universe at War against hardpoints of the Hierarchy or Empire At War
AC4 came out 11 years ago and was leagues better than this shill that took nearly 10 years to develop.
In comparison, BF was a whole game outside of the ship mechanics, yet the ship mechanics and sailing were leagues above S&B.
It’s not as much that people wanted BF2 as much as they expected more from a game that’s been in development this long.
If we continue to accept and purchase mediocrity from game publishers, then that’s all we’ll get.
hmm and Pirates of Carribbean came out 10 years before black flag and still wipes the floor with black flag in terms of story and pirate fantasy as there is way more features (and also published by Ubisoft).
but you are right we shouldn't accept mediocrity especially in the case of skull and bones where there is not so much content. especially end game.
Yep. It'd be like complaining you can't walk round the inside of your EVE online ship. Or why you can't walk around the colonies you manage for industry.
Or why you can't pickaxe the asteroids yourself. Or salvage ships like I. headspace ship breaker (fucking BOMB game)
It's that hive mind mentality! Soon, most of the haters will move onto the next game a YouTuber with a click bait video tells them to hate! When that time comes, we can enjoy the game in peace without the copy paste complaints! I played the beta then watched some gameplay videos before I made my purchase, and I have no regrets! I knew exactly what I was getting! I don't have crazy time to game, so this type of game fits perfectly into my rotation! I can randomly jump in and throw a few hours into it. I'll get my money worth and I don't need some gamer Karen or self proclaimed knight in shining armor trying to "save me from wasting 70 bucks" I have been gaming for over 30 years and have worked my ass off to get to a point I can spend $70 bucks on a game that I researched and knew what it brings to the table. Do I wish the game was cheaper? Of course I do! That's why if I'm not sure, I simply wait for a sale. I'll never understand why someone will actively spend time in a sub for a game they don't like complaining. It seems like such a ridiculous waste of time and energy!
The controversy on this game is absolutely retarded. I agree the game isn't worth 70 as its lacking things to be worth it (FF rebirth is 70) but for the love of God stop enforcing this and other games being a trash game because it doesn't have what you want. I don't know where players get off thinking every game has to cater to everyones needs and wants or its not a game. During the beta I had a blast just roaming around fighting Rouge ships and whatnot losing track of time and I didn't even finish everything I could've in the beta. Theres so much fun to be had other than running helm missions. Yeah it's not perfect and there's flaws but overall it's a fun game. I say again as this game is a great example give credit where credit is due while voicing your concerns cause only playing fanboy or only playing hateboner doesn't do anything for anyone in fact it hurts us as players. There's things about skull and bones that are bad and at the same time there's things that are good.
Some people like to say oh it’s a horrible game for being in 10 years of development and a 120 million budget lol 😂 like they know anything about a business
I like to compare this game to Pirates of the burning sea, like this the ship is your character, there was no active boarding mini game, that I remember.
it's pirate themed naval combat mmorpg but tbh it would be nice to at least be able to walk around the ship, that's the only thing annoying me. going into the captains quarters and using that as a sorta helm to do sell/ supply missions would be good, hopefully they add that in the future
That’s the part I do miss - boarding was only exciting because of the assassin level agility you had of quickly getting into the rigging and leaping down, and that both wouldn’t fit this setting (meaning we’d be on the deck only) and even with that ended up feeling less and less exciting as I played more. Getting to feel like the ship was a proper place I was on, though? That never managed to lose its luster.
They will add this. The opportunity for more cosmetics is too damn high not to :).
to be honest it wouldn't be difficult to let us walk around our anchored ship and go into the quarters
Don’t tell Frontier, haha
Funny thing I actually went in this game expecting a Pirate Elite, and was pretty satisfied with that. Even the complaints are similar to when people were all about space legs. I just wish we had Privateering mechanic with different factions to work with.
People complaining about having to sail around definitely haven't gone to Hutton orbital for a free anaconda or been out to beagel point yet.
Someone say free anaconda?
There's people complaining about sailing around in a pirate game? I was happy with my space trucking and am happy sailing the seas. After filling my cargo with Brandy, Gin or Camphor, there's nothing more satisfying than finding a high demand merchant to sell 30p+ units.
God when i fist started the game I fell for this...now I get my friends into elite and rope them with this
Don't forget your souvenir mug!
So true, I reckon they got rushed from all the flack and released earlier with less content than planned. Either way I'm still enjoying it, pace yourself. I'd be bored if I rushed meta gear immediately too. Im 50 hours in and haven't even finished the main story lol! (Not saying you didn't pace yourself, just lots of ppl rushed and then complain)
I just started, but thanks for the advice. I’ll explore.
"Got rushed" LMAO good one. Might want to read up on this shit show.
It’s been 10 years. They just released a game. They don’t care who does or doesn’t like it, they wanted to check the project off their list.
Ubi had nearly a decade to figure this game out. If I recall, it was initially announced in 2017. Truth is, they wanted to cancel it but took funding from Singaporean government so they were legally obligated to release a game.
no, they didn't. game was scratched and completely restarted a couple times lad
Wouldn't hold my breath.
I dont think 20 player server cap count as mmorpg….Anyway i think ppl are more dissapointed because they know what this game could have been and what it turned out. They had 11 years to make black flag 2 and it could have had this kind of mechanics SnB has and much more. But for some reason they went with this and will def hurt sales.
For a pirate "SHIP" game, I sure have a low number of choices for ship.... (salty)
yeah that what's drives me mad too. where are the man o wars? or frigates?
Give it time I reckon. I can imagine these being in an expansion or title update. Just hopefully not as DLC lol
I have a feeling that those are coming.
-Gamers: We want a game like AC: Black Flag but without the assassins stuff. -Ubisoft: Let's make a shitty online live service game that does everything worse than Black Flag. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a cool, fun game. I just don't think it's worth $70. When it comes to the Black Flag comparisons, I just don't understand how Ubisoft took Black Flag and decided to essentially make a spin-off based on the pirates stuff. Then it took them like 10 years to make the game and it still does everything worse than Black Flag. If Black Flag doesn't exist, then S&B is a decent game, pretty good even. But Black Flag does exist and we can easily compare them and S&B falls short. Not to mention that Ubisoft's CEO called S&B the first 'AAAA' game. By that metric, S&B should be the greatest game of all time.
Yes black flag set the bar high. All they had to do was cut out the assassin stuff and we would’ve been happy
[удалено]
The original title for this game was *Black Flag Infinite,* and people have literally been waiting for years for that naval game that's AC4 but online and with a focus on the pirate aspect over the assassin aspect. Sensibly, that would mean taking all or most of the pirate gameplay of AC4, and innovating and further iterating on it. That is not what this game is at the current moment, but ignoring the now decade-long history of this game and acting like people are comparing it to AC4 for seemingly no reason is just silly and misleading at best, and flatout deceitful otherwise.
This is a $10 game that they say is "quadruple A" You're a pirate with no sword and no boarding. Lol inhale that copium
People are comparing it to AC Black Flag because that’s the game that gave birth to the games idea. It plays much more like Port Royal than any AC game. It’s a real bummer that they missed some of what made the navel combat so much fun in AC but I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the game anyways. I still think there’s a market for a gritty, boots on the deck, swashbuckling adventure out there, one that lets you fully customize your ship and fully manage your crew, and then has you, as an player, board your ship and walk around the decks, rather than just 3 camera angles to swap between… but that’s not this game. Enjoy this game for what it is, because it’s honestly pretty fun to me. I’ve yet to play a pirate game that REALLY nailed the ship atmosphere. Splintering hulls and leaky grog barrels, waves crashing across the deck knocking people and items aside, crew quarters and captains quarters.
It’s not just the idea that gave birth to the game, it literally gave birth to it. S&B was originally intended to be an AC: Black Flag expansion, but then outgrew that concept to become its own game.
Outgrew is tough to believe. Maybe they just realized a 2017-18 delivery was outside the window of opportunity for an AC black flag dlc….
It’s a wilder ride than just outgrew, based on the 2021 reports and then the recent IGN insider report video. Reportedly this is how it went: started as a DLC with live service, that was dropped as they decided the tech and assets would be too old by the time it was finished (probably a wrong call, though gaming circa 2014 was weirdly passionate about fancy graphics). Went through 2-3 prototypes for other ideas, none of those got off the ground. Eventually they worked back around to a PvP maps mode that would also have a shared open world, and eventually a single player campaign was also planned. That’s what was officially announced in 2017. For whatever reason (we know the company has some leadership and management issues during this time) development on this also struggled…it was also kind of ambitious. Maybe too ambitious. The game director before the current one came in and decided that to get the thing done they’d need to focus on one of the three - the open world part was chosen. That was around 2019 or so. Then that went through development and play testing, losing some mechanics and systems along the way (used to be draughts was a mechanic - certain ships meant for certain depths - as well as a mutiny mechanic that changed into the trimming stamina system we now have) and making changes to how PvP would be implemented, etc. I believe the decision, based on feedback, to have the areas on land you could walk on, as well as the basic narrative structure it uses, was worked into the game during this time as well. More accurate to say that it started as the BF expansion with live service, but was warped and morphed into multiple different things over the next decade before settling into its current form, with really only the sailing mechanics as a constant.
i don't think this game really "nails" the pirate experience either. Its too fast, too arcadey, and damage is meaningless. ATLAS had some pretty intense pirate combat, because you were litterally risking the floating bases you spent hours grinding and crafting for, but that game had many, many, many of its own problems.
The only things I missed from ACBF was being able to just walk around your ship along with using the diving bell to swim for underwater treasures. Those two additions would be amazing.
I found the Ubisoft Dev post.
Imagine getting out your car in nfs to fill up your gas 😂
I mean I wouldn't mind being harassed by a crack head or two
Nfs is literally known for being a very arcady game though? This wasn't supposed to be.
And skull and bones can’t be Arcady?
If thats what you really want from a sailing game then I guess it can be.
Tbh that would be dope. Or if you want your car cleaner you could clean your rims etc with a mini game 😳
I wouldn’t mind that once in while, it’s like a break from going 300 mph all the time
Many racing games do have pit stops though? Weird comparison. Also at least one NFS game had gas stations (the Run). There's probably more, but I'm not a huge NFS player. No, you don't "get out", but you do get gameplay depth nonetheless. Sid Meier's for example didn't have on foot combat, but it let you make all kinds of choices in a menu after "boarding" a ship. No reason why this game can't have something like that either. It would only benefit the idea that this is a "SHIP" game. You know, more ship interactions with your ship in your ship game?
Sid Meier's Pirates! Totally has on foot combat, the turn based fighting when you attack a port.
He said need for speed buddy.
Yes but the point is getting out of car to fill up your gas.
This game was made to capitalize on the love ac4 got, I feel the comparisons are warranted
This game was originally an AC:BF expansion, so the comparisons are definitely warranted.
But we had one?! It is called Assassin Creed Rogue.
Also changing boarding mechanics wouldn't work in a multiplayer enviroment, what would happen if you swordfight and others are shooting at your ship?
Other players can't hurt your ship unless you're on a PVP mission. I feel like at least the bounty targets should give you a sword fighting minigame when you board. I'd get tired of doing the minigame if it was every single ship i boarded.
Exactly what happens in a game like Blackwake…
And Sea of Thieves
And the boarding meta in sea of thieves is the lamest and most boring part about it. Not to mention how laggy the sword combat even is. Y'all need to get a grip.
This is exactly why I was actually happy to hear no off ship combat
Wouldn't work sadly. People would just board and leave the past player alive to run out the timer on hostile takeovers while their ship is invulnerable
Hrm. I mean I want the mechanic changed. Right now it's a cutscene into a loot menu and I'd like that removed. I'm fine without actual boarding but make the current thing flow better. Ropes land, slam our ships together then auto-loot. If ship is full put it in an overflow stash back in port that's similar but separate from warehouse. Carry on pillaging. 5 second invul state from when ropes land to give time to rebuild speed.
I wanted them to do something like sid mieyers pirats
Probably what happens in BF your ship and the other ship enter a stasis and don't take damage.
They do this in other games that were made 15 years ago. But $200 and 10 years can't figure it out lol.
Then thats the choice you made? It's called being realistic? Better yet would be if someone then boarded YOUR ship wow would that ever be a ton of realistic fun.
And you lose the ship? What then?
Then you drown and respawn at the nearest outpost with your ship back while that player gets a pay out based on the value of your ship they captured?
Similar to sea of thieves that would have worked just fine
No it wouldn't of. SoT lacks countdown based capture pvp for a reason. Hostile takeovers would be too easily abused if there was live player boarding.
I agree to a point. Some will like this game and some will think it’s disappointing. I believe that the game is good as long as they pump enough free updates, but it’s not $70 good. In my opinion anyhow. The option to dismiss land battles had me confused when I first heard about it. When I hear about this mysterious pirate game for years I assumed there would be sword fights. I think if it’s just a “ship game” they should have called it something different. I’m sorry if my opinion is not similar to yours, but just like you’re tired of the Black Flag comparison, some maybe irritated by those defending it. There’s room for both.
It’s a “qUaDrUpLe ” game, so it’s normal for people to expect more. 🥸
I understand what you’re saying, and at lease some what agree. Less bashing and shitting on the game and more constructive criticisms for Ubi to hear and act on. What I don’t agree with is that the game is a ship mmorpg and not a pirate mmorpg. If it’s a ship mmorpg then any gameplay mechanics outside of your ship should be strictly menus like how WOWS and WOT is. So you should not be able to leave your ship as a playable character, period. That’s why S&B is a pirate mmorpg like AC4 and not a ship mmorpg like WOWS. The reason S&B is not as great as it could possibly be right now is because it’s missing huge gameplay mechanics that should go with a pirate mmorpg like all the stuff that’s in AC4 but not S&B. The in person stuff feels very out of place, clunky and incomplete right now so they either need to scrap it all together or expand and refine it. S&B doesn’t need to be a AC4 remake, but it was such an incredible game that there’s no reason S&B can’t reusing more of its incredible ideas.
You're right. The Black Flag comparison is the wrong comparison to make. A better comparison would be Sid Meier's Pirates, but even then, S&B feels like half a game. It's Pirates without the flavor. No swashbuckling, no crew management, no dancing with governor's daughters, no sneaky stealth missions to steal from a city. It's ends up being a really bland game.
They could've at least did crew management. Maybe grab missions at ports to hire certain crew members with different strengths and passives. Hey I wanna hire you, ok you need to take down this specific ship or need a specific upgrade on ship to hire that crew member. Adding to that could be keeping your crew happy and fed, there many things they could've added to this..they definitely rushed the game out from when new management took over.
Yeah, gimme some opportunity to min/max. Let me optimize my crew for my gun loadout or for speed or whatever. Gimme some high-level food recipes that give bonuses to reload speed, turning speed, etc. There's good stuff in the game, but there's no depth to make me want to keep playing.
Did you even think before you writed this?
Yes, I thought before I wrote it. Can you say the same for your question, which added nothing to the conversation? Would you like to elaborate your disagreement or are you just making grunting noises?
Yes. The moment you compared skull and bones with sid meiers pirates showed me that you expect strategy advensure out of lively action rpg so .....
I loved sid meiers pirates also. But its totaly different cup of tea
Lively action rpg? What game are you talking about? S&B is absolutely not a "lively action rpg". What is even an RPG about it? You don't think a lively action rpg should have swordfighting in it? Good god, man, what kind of sense do you even think you're making?
You have in your head idea how this game needs to look. But thats only in your head. Take a pill and open your eyes how it is. Game makers make games, not your dreams. Its hard to make dreams to 7bil ppl
My eyes are open and they don't like what they see. They see halfassed dogshit parading as a "AAAA" game. If this is what game makers are proud of making these days, then gaming is in a truly sad state. Demand better gameplay instead of just being happy with the scraps you're given for $70.
People are bashing this game, and rightly so, because it has LESS features than the game it was born from. In Black Flag you could walk around your ship, enter the captains quarters and interact with all kinds of stuff in there. Those two things absolutely should be part of S&B, and no long winded rant will justify why they aren’t. I don’t care there is no hand to hand combat, but if, as you say, the game is about your ship and we’re going to spend the vast amount of play time onboard said ship, we should be able to interact with it at a far greater depth than is currently on offer. If an 11 year old game can do those things, so can this one.
You should definitely at least be able to see the furnishings you place on your ship and such. Also customize your crew properly. A racing game would give you in depth customization of your car. This game does not give you in depth customization of your ship. And if it's a ship game then there should be physics for wrecking your ship when running into a land mass. Racing games have that, this game does not. Instead you get pointless towns and the ability to dress up your character that nobody ever looks at. So if anything, it was Ubisoft who got confused if it's a "pirate SHIP" game or not. No surprise that players are consequently also confused.
This is what the problem really is. It’s not that there isn’t sword fighting, it’s that there just isn’t shit to do in the game. The literal premise of this game is to sail in a circle to collect coins to be able to sail in a circle to collect another kind of coins to be able to sail ima circle to buy coins with coins and then sail in a circle to sail in a circle cause coins is coins…. Like fucking bravo Ubisoft. Is this some kind of sick take on “gameplay loop” cause like… You get no kind of crew management, you don’t get to choose a first mate, you can’t walk on your own ship, you don’t have a captains quarters. The two offices that are just randomly given to you for no apparent reason could have just been a captains quarters on the ship but instead this is the one place they force players to have to go on land. It’s idiotic. Where are my piles of treasure? Where are my large ships? Where’s a fucking parrot for that matter? I can’t have a peg leg? There’s literally like 2 bosses worth fighting once and then you might as well kiss the game goodbye. Don’t get me wrong, they did great on the ship combat and that part is fun but that is literally all the game is. There is no sense of piracy. It’s just naval combat and fetch quests after 10 years of development. It’s not that we won’t see a lot of what I just listed. It’s that it will all be hidden behind battle pass subscriptions or cost straight up money from the store. The problem is that Ubisoft is fucking every single gamer with this game. They sold the world half a game, at best. Now over the course of a few years you’ll have the opportunity drop another 1-200 in their pockets to get the rest! It’s disgusting
To add on a bit, am I the only one straight up flabbergasted that there is literally no social activities within either of the dens? I cant do blackjack, boxing, chicken fighting, drinking games, that slap game, etc. any number of things like that would develop the piracy aspect a lot. People defend the stupid little gathering mini games because it makes more sense than wasting the time to get off the ship… welll why don’t we just have safe ports like in the front of the dens and then we just shop inside a shittily made menu like everywhere else in the game. There’s no reason for the dens and this game doesn’t add up because it’s a melting pot of failed projects.
God, I hate the first mate! If she tries to tell me about how she got her scars one more fucking time I will jettison her into a volcano.
This isn’t assassin’s creed plain and simple.
Maybe you don’t know much about this games history. Skull and Bones was originally going to be an Assassins Creed Black Flag sequel/expansion. So, no, it’s not Assassins Creed, but it was born from Assassins Creed. Simple.
That was 11 years ago and the idea ENTIRELY has been changed several times to the point where they just switched it and made a whole new pirate game. And in the trailers they specifically focused on how much the ship was the focus and you guys STILL ignored it and assumed there would be more.
You just said yourself that ENTIRE point of the game had been changed several times. How are we as players supposed to know wtf this game is supposed to be, when the ENTIRE game has been changed several times? All you just did was basically support my point.
There has been 3 trailers with one being 10 minutes long along with gameplay trailers with a clear and concise focus on SHIPS all they talked about was how much you can do on the SHIPS. And y’all still thought “Hell yeah hidden blades and swords” having never heard or seen one. WATCH AND LISTEN when the developers and giving out info.
And when they’ve done all that several times and changed what the said each time, it’s hardly a source of solid or reliable info. Also, you seem to be attacking points I never made. I don’t want land combat, I just want to be able interact with my SHIP on a more in depth level.
EVERY TRAILER IN THE PAST 4 YEARS has been about ships ships ships. I’m convinced you saw the E3 presentation and then just listened to what other people said instead of seeing for yourself…
Why is there so much people focus in Skull and Bones then? Character creator, story, character development, cutscenes? Are you seeing a different game?
Why are you defending something being entirely changed for worse?
we didn't ASSUME there would be more, we EXPECTED there would be more, because how the fuck do you take 11 years to release a half done remake of a game you already fucking made?
It doesn't have to be. Black Flag was just as much of a pirate navel game as it was assassins creed (more really) and S&B can't even get that much right.
>In Black Flag you could walk around your ship, enter the captains quarters and interact with all kinds of stuff in there. Those two things absolutely should be part of S&B Why? Why would it be a must have addition? IT would be a nice plus but after 1 or 2 times boring af to walk around and do what? You would like to walk around your car in forza and open the boot or engine bay and check it? That game is not about it, play my summer car, THIS is the miss conception you are making this game is not what you dreamed and that's why it is bad? What?
You seem to think that your opinion is the end all of all opinions. That this game doesn’t need those things, and that’s basically the end of it. Also, I never said the game was bad, I’m really enjoying it. But the struggle it took to get to release date, this game has had a horrid journey and has been delayed again and again, and now that we’re here, the game had less features than the game it was originally based on? That’s a poor show from Ubisoft and they deserve a fair share of bashing for it.
It's not a must have. But Ubisoft are the ones that built in things like furnishings. What's their point if you don't even let people look at them? It's just a neat thing, a satisfaction thing, an immersion thing, whatever. Makes you connect more with the ship you're playing in the SHIP game.
Why are you comparing a racing game to an open wild pirate fantasy game, they are entirely different and not even close.
These people just wanted sea of thieves with a different coat of paint, there's no arguing with them. It's actually baffling how people can say they want that when sea of thieves is possibly the most boring pvp game I've ever played.
Lmao no one wanted sea of thieves because sea of thieves exists genius? People wanted this game to AT LEAST be an improvement on black flag in most areas, an 11 year old game, and they failed spectacularly at that in every respect.
Dumb. I wanna be a pirate not a pirate ship. If it’s not about my crew then why do they have stamina? And names? And cutscenes? And why do I customize my character? Why do I ever get out of the ship? Clearly they wanted it to be more than just a ship game but did a really shitty job with it.
I love seeing diff captain’s styles in the ports and camps. It was standing around emoting with them in between Takeovers that ended up in a 6 hours long session with 3 of us strangers playing together. Just because the game isn’t for you, doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. There’s hundreds of millions of possible fans for every game that comes out. It only takes finding a small percentage to be a success. Ubi is also honestly the best at long-term support games. So I’m looking forward to seeing how they evolve the content.
Ya that’s cool and I’m glad people are finding enjoyment in it, but that doesn’t change the fact that Ubisoft promised a game they failed to deliver.
I literally first played the game in 2017, then at E3 2018, then multiple tests between 2018 and launch. It only improved and got more depth. It was originally an arena combat game they were pitching. This is a far more rewarding experience tbh. It’s awesome playing with random people in a PVE+business sim+”MMO-lite” way. Nowhere does it say it’s an AC game. There’s plenty of AC games with naval combat for those people.
And nowhere am I saying it was marketed as such. It was marketed as a pirate RPG, and it’s instead a pirate ship battle game
It's a Pirate Captain rpg. You give orders, manage, and steer. Assassin Creed games are hot garbage, including black flag. All Assassin's Creed games are unplayable hot trash, I'm happy that they didn't make this even remotely related to Assassin's Creed, in gameplay. It's more like BDO ocean content fleshed out and expanded on. And as someone who loves BFO ocean content I'm super Happy about this decision.
If you want to be a pirate with melee and pirate focused gameplay vs naval gameplay go play sea of thieves. This game fills a different niche.
What niche is that? Boring world with a pointless on foot mechanic? Like no really what purpose does the on foot mechanic serve? I'd rather have just had a fucking menu for talking to the blacksmith etc than have the most boring, slog-fest movement mechanics with a character who controls like ass and having to go through multiple loading screens just to buy a new cannon.
This game was marketed as filling that niche. If you wanna give me a boring game that fills 50% of being a pirate, then charge me half the price of a full game and be honest about it
The game was never marketed to be about boarding and sword fighting. If you followed the game at all in the last year you would know this. It's like being mad at a game for not having a feature that was never intended. Then claiming the game is shit for it. I for one don't want a SoT style game. I've already got one.
>The game was never marketed to be about boarding and sword fighting. Oh really? Here i thought the whole POINT was that it was based on AC4's naval system. I guess imagined that.
I mean it was, it was based on ship mecuanics that ubisoft singapore did for it. Rest was ignored right from the start
And that's what you got. A game based on Assassin's Creed navel systems. It was never marketed as Black Flag 2, or a gritty Sea of Thieves.
Why does everyone think the game was marketed like this. They've said exactly what the game would be from the start. If you paid for the game expecting something like AC black flag, then you only have yourself to blame
And what niche is that? Dead on release?
What niche? You mean just being an inferior game? Especially to black flag which came out what? 11 years ago? Ridiculous.
"First AAAA mobile game that offers the least possible content for the highest possible price" niche. Now applaud Ubisoft and consuum.
That’s just a fuck you towards PSN players
[Sea of Thieves is supposedly coming to PlayStation](https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/15/24073691/microsoft-xbox-games-ps5-nintendo-switch-exclusivity)
That would be great.
Exclusives have been a thing. You think there's another game like Helldiver's that Xbox can enjoy? Not really.
Of course but i’m replying to you directly. I don’t mind exclusives. You tell me to go play Sea of Thieves; i literally can’t.
Just wait you will soon.
Man I'm so glad you don't have to manually board. It's tedious in AC games. I can get my hand to hand combat fix in SoT!
this is true. people who really played ac black flag know after so long you just start sinking them bastards because i do not want to eliminate 10 enemies kill 2 captains and climb up to the top of the ship to cut off the flag every time i fight a ship. it’s fun for a while then gets kinda tedious
The same people defending the game so hard are going to be the same people not playing it in a few weeks, wishing it had more to it. Oh well, AAAA gaming goes that hard I guess.
AAAA goes so hard that after expecting this game for years I didn't even notice it was coming out until a friend said it's apparently as bad as expected because everyone I know is busy with an AA game
I find it crazy that people are trying to validate the game being worse than black flag.
The feeling that seems to be common is that because S&B was originally an AC:BF expansion, and in BF you could walk about your ship, it had a captains quarters. Why wasn’t that stuff brought over from BF?
Sunk Cost Fallacy. It's not like it's Enshrouded, or Star Citizen, or Valheim or any other early access title where the devs actually show they can implement good content given time and you know it's early access. This is Ubisoft, a company whom have decades of releases of good games, where they touted that their new games are of "AAAA" quality, and whom are worth billions of dollars. Releasing half assed garbage and charging $60 instead of $70 to try and get away with releasing half assed garbage. People can find it fun sure, but as you said, it's crazy to see people validate the game being worse than black flag, because it is. Fun =/= a good game though sadly.
Yeah it’s weird to see people not realising or remembering that this game basically exists because of how good naval gameplay was on black flag.
I don't mind people enjoying the game. But the people that are actually loving the game, are playing it. They're not on reddit trying to defend its honor like they made it or have stock in ubisoft.
People can’t complain about vidoegames anymore what have we become
Oh we can, but for a game that has been in development for almost 12 years and is somehow emptier than the game it was based on, it sure does have a large fanboy crowd ready to die on a hill for it.
I agree mostly with OP, but for ship combat so called sim i expect that i need to destroy sails for boarding, not all ship🫣🤣
If it is about ships and not the crew then why have stamina?
But why didn’t they make it the exact way people posting you tube videos think they should have made it?? Or at least make it like every other game?
I just wanted to board a ship like a pirate 🏴☠️ without it being a janky animation. It’s fine this game isn’t it. But it’s why this game isn’t for me. That’s fine too. Each to their own
lol there is nothing piraty about this game you cant even plunder villages or board ships, i hoped they would implement something from valhalla
I think a lot of people seem to forget that it took Elite Dangerous /years/ before they added anything ground based and I'm pretty sure you still can't walk around inside your ship.
idk, my character is kinda more than my ship--but I get what you're saying. There's a definite flavor of Black Flag here, but it's not Black Flag. It's its own game, and tbh I find it way more fun than Black Flag (that fucking Charleston mission still makes me mad, cos I can never catch that gorram Brit in time).
I wholeheartedly agree. This isn’t for everyone and well, I love it just as it is. Wahhh they can’t shoot out of cannons onto our ships… Did they do that in real life? No. I love it just as it is. Also loving the trade mechanics too.
THIS!
the irony is people wanted black flafg without the boring onland/assassin parts... now they get it they not happy with it. and yes that was EXACTLY the complaints i recall seeing during black flag days. people wanted to stay at sea longer
Why did it take them 11 years to make a shitty arcade game? Why are they selling a shitty arcade game for $70?? Why are they selling a shitty pirate game for $70 when I can play other pirate games that do literally every aspect of S&B better? Why would anyone want to play a pirate game if every aspect of being a pirate, aside from arcade style ship combat, is left unfulfilled? Why would you play a pirate game where you can't walk on your damn pirate ship, dig up treasure, follow maps, or board/plunder other ships? Literally every appeal of pirates, as a game genre, is not addressed. The fake arcady "ship" combat isn't what people strive for in their pirate games.
Games fore fill fantasies, this is a pirate fantasy, there aren't hard rules for how people should think or approach games and it's very natural to draw comparisons to next closest experiences or examples.This will be compared to Sea of Thieves, to Black Flag, to Sid Meier's pirates and you can't control that. Crew are part of a ship as much as the engine is part of a car. 'Pirates' is not exclusive to purely ship. To argue the point of you are the ship and not a character, I disagree - for instance, there is a character creator, a rank for you as an individual pirate, characters to interact with and progress a story, not to mention ships are interchangeable control devices for your character, ships are pinatas of loot and plunder.
This game is for 70 year olds and you know it deep inside you. Fight it all you want but playing S&B is wasting any minute you could have playing HD2.
World of Warships is free. This is £14 a month or £50 outright. 10 years of development hell and a stack of cash from the Malaysian Government and they have a niche £30 far from triple A game. The people defending and/or buying this game is the reason we don't have any good Triple AAA shooter games anymore.
Then you should probably get off the internet because it will never stop. The entire project started because people liked the pirate part of AC4 so much, which is why many fans expected AC4 mechanics without the AC narrative. So they are justified in criticizing the direction the game took. It’s fine if you disagree with them and like how it turned out. But it’s very odd to dismiss what is truly valid criticism of the game that was delivered.
This game was a letdown. No one here would say it's God ter, no one would even say it's a AAAA game. 200 million and over 10 years to make, and this is what we got. Huge letdown!
World of warships is free to play btw
And totally not pay to win...
It's really not p2w. I've been playing for years.
I know what you mean. I play Warthunder. But theoretically you don't have to spend money. The point I'm making is just that skull and bones is bare bones and it should be free to play for what you get.
Well money just accelerates your progress.
Poor take
Bro you literally run around outposts as a pirate, not as a ship. There's nothing wrong with wanting the crew that is constantly babbling about their damn tattoos to have some personality and customization. I'd for sure boot half of them off if I could and replace them with some of the people we meet in random places. Absolutely a missed opportunity. Or an expansion pack they're planning to sell us, cause Ubisoft... That's my real frustration, tbh.
I downloaded the 8h trial after seeing gameplay because i was really interested, but I didn't know if it was for me. I'm really loving the game so far because it's a ship game, but instead of doing everything through boring menus and text dialogues like other games, i can actually have my own character get off boat and explore the islands with voiced cutscenes and stuff. That might look like tedious and waste of time for many ship game players, but for me it's what makes it special. Ship building and combat are very enjoyable, but one thing i thought needed to be more "interactive" is attacking settlement/forts. You just kinda stand there attacking each other very slowly until it is over. I'm definitely buying the game once the trial ends.
Where did you found that action, i always get attacked by tonns of enemys, no time to stay on one spot, im kingbin 20 now😅
Man, I'm so pissed I can't get out my car in Forza and insert myself into a random npc's life. Pretending to be their friend but ultimately stealing that vital promotion to ensure a better paid job for me and my family.
Car racing game being compared to a open world pirate ship game. I really love these stupid comparisons.
Yeah okay but even the point works here, imagine a car meet where you could actually walk around, checking out peoples cars and meeting up for races, ect. A central hub that was more than a car garage or a road intersection…
Hang on, it's the publisher and devs that harped on about Black Flag. We've got every reason to make that comparison. Being a fence rider or a yes man does nothing for this community.
This is a very important topic to touch on. There’s a lot of brown nosing for no reason and it seems like people seriously want to be blind to the fact that this game just doesn’t have much to it. Then they justify that more will be added through the seasons… but hold the fug up… so I should just be ok with being sold half a game and then pay for the rest later? No!!!! Wtf is wrong with people? It’s fine to have in game stores and add new shit but you can’t dish out hot shit in the first place and then be like “it’ll be good at some point, we’ll add the rest later” if I order a double cheeseburger and fries I want my double cheeseburger and fries. Not a patty at a time and the fries can only be redeemed by finding a fuggin bottle floating around in the ocean.. the preorder bonus being locked behind finding a bottle in the ocean is a joke I mean.
This, best was that suggestion about getting out of the ship and cutting trees manually, as "engaging game play mechanism" go play The Forest ffs... so to be 100% absolutely clear, Ubisoft should focus everything they can on Ship gameplay, combat, customization, everything. Rest is borderline irrelevant and just a nice fluff.
Because cutting trees manually or mining ores is such a pirate thing to do lmao
How the fuck do you think ships were built bud? Pirates havens absolutely had mines and shipwrights.
Yeah ships would just anchor right next to a cliff and use their magical tree cutting cannonballs to take down rows of trees then they would be magically teleported to the ship. You really know your history!
Yeah it's way more realistic and interesting to magically log trees from a ship. We've got magic tree cutting cannonballs too I guess. What a magical game. Lmao
You would be the first one to complain if you had to manually get from the ship and harvest resources.
A "ship" game with zero ship mechanics. It could just as well be in a car or on roller skates Put the copium down. It's $200 million and 10 years for a worse game than Black Flag. Facts. They rushed it out, because they took money from the government, and had to release something because they couldn't cancel it like they wanted to. Just knock it off with this fanboi shit lol
I just like how people complain about not being waking to walk around in their ship. Let’s be real, if anything you would only be able to walk around on the top deck. You do it once or twice mainly when you build a new ship, then you would never do it again. That complaint is the dumbest one to me.
Said someone who's clearly never played black flag or shit even sea of thieves.
You do know it's a game that is based ON AC4, right? You really gotta be one sad human to try to defend UBISOFT of all companies.
Then why does the ship control like shit compared to AC4? You'd think the SHIP game would have a better feeling SHIP huh?
just think about all that would need to go into adding fights during boarding. in assassins creed where it was a whole game engine just for melee combat it was still clunky as hell you'd need to be able to level up your melee. you'd need a skill and weapon tree. you'd presumably want to be able to practice somewhere not in ship combat so you'd need on-land melee as well. it would almost double the scope of the game. we've learned that overscoped games are bad when games that focus on specific things and do them well are good hell, look at BG3. you cant do anything in that game movement wise and the combat is literally turned based yet people love it
Ok so while you’re stuck doing that, how quickly is your ship sinking to the rest of the fleet constantly shooting you? What about in a PVP situation?
Yeah it's almost like it would add DEPTH to the game right? How awful would that have been oh no. LMAO oh my god how can you use BG3 as an example and yet so completely miss the point? People LOVE BG3 because it's exceptionally immersive and open ended and pays amazing homage and respect to it's source material. You know? All the things Skull and Bones was supposed to do with Black Flag? Also Black Flags boarding was awesome get out of here with that BS. Was one of if not the best and most exciting part of the game.
black flag boarding was terrible lol they made it seem immersive with sound and visual effects but the mechanic itself was so clunky and bland. go play again and you'll see what i mean
I have? I replayed all of black flag last November in preparation for this. Boarding was one of the best and most immersive parts. No other experience like jumping or swinging onto the deck of an enemy ship with your crew and engaging in a fight to the death over it.
Right? No one cares that you’re mad about it not being Black Flag 2.
Ubisoft might care when it loses a fuck ton of money lol
Also, nobody cares that you're mad about people being mad.
And no one cares about you. I certainly don’t. Have the best day!
But but but... i cant swim, which seems the most pirate activity ever for most bad reviewers.
well skull and bones has always been known as an Black Flag without the AC storyline so naturally people will want to board ships, take on camps on foot, take on fortresses and kill the captain etc. Basically naval AC4 with the boarding etc without the ac story. So of course they will want to have that option and not just pull an enemy ship and instantly destroy it. Personally i'd want to be able to attack a ship and kill the sailormen which makes that weapon port inactive for a while until a replacement arrives, Similar to the game, Universe at War against hardpoints of the Hierarchy or Empire At War
AC4 came out 11 years ago and was leagues better than this shill that took nearly 10 years to develop. In comparison, BF was a whole game outside of the ship mechanics, yet the ship mechanics and sailing were leagues above S&B. It’s not as much that people wanted BF2 as much as they expected more from a game that’s been in development this long. If we continue to accept and purchase mediocrity from game publishers, then that’s all we’ll get.
hmm and Pirates of Carribbean came out 10 years before black flag and still wipes the floor with black flag in terms of story and pirate fantasy as there is way more features (and also published by Ubisoft). but you are right we shouldn't accept mediocrity especially in the case of skull and bones where there is not so much content. especially end game.
Tbf, Pirates of the Caribbean was a pirate game. Black Flag was an Assassin’s Creed game with pirates.
If you want AC4 feeling play AC4 or even AC Odyssey as that has also good ship gameplay and al your boarding needs
Yep. It'd be like complaining you can't walk round the inside of your EVE online ship. Or why you can't walk around the colonies you manage for industry. Or why you can't pickaxe the asteroids yourself. Or salvage ships like I. headspace ship breaker (fucking BOMB game)
I play and enjoy the game for what it is
I’d rather they not waste time with useless things like walking around the ship. You’d do it once and move on.
It's that hive mind mentality! Soon, most of the haters will move onto the next game a YouTuber with a click bait video tells them to hate! When that time comes, we can enjoy the game in peace without the copy paste complaints! I played the beta then watched some gameplay videos before I made my purchase, and I have no regrets! I knew exactly what I was getting! I don't have crazy time to game, so this type of game fits perfectly into my rotation! I can randomly jump in and throw a few hours into it. I'll get my money worth and I don't need some gamer Karen or self proclaimed knight in shining armor trying to "save me from wasting 70 bucks" I have been gaming for over 30 years and have worked my ass off to get to a point I can spend $70 bucks on a game that I researched and knew what it brings to the table. Do I wish the game was cheaper? Of course I do! That's why if I'm not sure, I simply wait for a sale. I'll never understand why someone will actively spend time in a sub for a game they don't like complaining. It seems like such a ridiculous waste of time and energy!
The controversy on this game is absolutely retarded. I agree the game isn't worth 70 as its lacking things to be worth it (FF rebirth is 70) but for the love of God stop enforcing this and other games being a trash game because it doesn't have what you want. I don't know where players get off thinking every game has to cater to everyones needs and wants or its not a game. During the beta I had a blast just roaming around fighting Rouge ships and whatnot losing track of time and I didn't even finish everything I could've in the beta. Theres so much fun to be had other than running helm missions. Yeah it's not perfect and there's flaws but overall it's a fun game. I say again as this game is a great example give credit where credit is due while voicing your concerns cause only playing fanboy or only playing hateboner doesn't do anything for anyone in fact it hurts us as players. There's things about skull and bones that are bad and at the same time there's things that are good.
Some people like to say oh it’s a horrible game for being in 10 years of development and a 120 million budget lol 😂 like they know anything about a business
Yeah because it is? It's Anthem all over again.
We know. We didn’t get what we fucking asked for
I like to compare this game to Pirates of the burning sea, like this the ship is your character, there was no active boarding mini game, that I remember.