I played 'Skull and Bones' to see if it's THAT bad...

👉 All my links: linktr.ee/lukestephens 👈
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Skull and Bones is a 2024 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Singapore and published by Ubisoft. The game revolves around piracy and naval warfare with a fantastical setting in East Africa and Southeast Asia during the late 17th century, the peak of the historical Golden Age of Piracy.
Skull and Bones was released for Amazon Luna, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on February 16, 2024, after multiple delays and developmental difficulties. A version for Google Stadia was planned before the service's shutdown. The game received mixed reviews from critics.
As of 2017, Skull and Bones was marketed as a tactical action game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. Players take control of a customizable pirate ship, and may choose to sail the Indian Ocean on a single-player campaign, or gather up to five other players to ally in player versus player gameplay in Disputed Waters.
Wind positioning can be assessed to gain an advantage in battle. Players may collect additional ships throughout the game, such as sloops-of-war, frigates and brigantines, whose weapons include mortars, broadside cannons, and rockets. Ships can be charged into with brute force and boarded. The rate of inflicted damage is gauged by the health bar. A core component is the multiplayer mode Loot Hunt, where two groups of players are challenged in treasure hunting to further accumulate their riches. Each given ship's crow's nest is scalable for use as a lookout point, and spyglasses will be available. Another large part of the game is plundering Forts and Settlements.
TIMESTAMPS:
Intro: 0:00
What It's Trying To Be: 1:21
Early Game : 6:54
Mid Game: 11:33
End Game: 15:37
Conclusion 23:39
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#gaming #ubisoft #ps5 #xbox

[@LukeStephensTV]

If you liked the video, consider donating to the charity fundraiser on this video! All donations go DIRECTLY to the charity and never pass through my hands or anyone else's!

[@j1spen736]

Lol Jirard's legacy lives on

[@josephg6540]

You should say Shouldn't not exist in the first place instead of bringing up the price

[@cloodhound9417]

Opinion valid, video sucks tho

[@Karlach_]

This video was amazing and saved me 70 bucks. Thanks Luke! :D

[@EnvyIXA]

Suicide squad doesn't have any pay to win or pay to play aspects. So being heavily monetized is a bit of a reach.. since the game came out they only added one new skin set . And the prices are cheap under 30$ and you get what you pay for literally. Btw I normally agree with your reviews (most of the time) but about that part of Suicide squad nah. But still tho great content ❤

[@chungus1149]

Oh wow a game where the pirating part of being a pirate is done in a cutscenes. They should do a fps where all the shooting is done in a cutscenes and you're just responsible for hitting R to reload

[@notagainsavari4831]

Now that sounds like a game!! Can there be in game purchases too?

[@Icyhot007]

Don’t put that idea out there 💀😂

[@Cynsham]

Now that sounds like a true $70 Ubisoft experience. Pay $0.99 to reload please! It’s like a kinder surprise egg!

[@zephyr8072]

How about a racing game where the racing is in cutscenes and all you do is drive a delivery truck for Amazon.

[@themasterofdova1861]

Don't give them ideas lol

[@RipleySawzen]

In a world where AAA is already seen as inferior to indie, it's no wonder they call this AAAA

[@vaiyt]

Aaaaaaaaahhhh! game

[@aidenjaxhernandez]

Lmfao yessss! It makes total sense!

[@Welsh7133]

This is one of my favorite comments ever

[@Y4manata]

So this is the AAA version of those mobile game ads where you get a great cinematic trailer but it's just a city building game

[@brendanvanderlaan5971]

No no, quadruple-A my friend. According to Ubisoft this is an AAAA title.

[@Adam.Brophy]

The 4 a is for asinine

[@realzachfluke1]

Fucking exactly, you got it.

[@blakksheep736]

​@@brendanvanderlaan5971 this game will forever be known as a great example of the dangers of overhyping. The Internet will _never_ forgive the Ubisoft execs for that blunder.

[@ArmUkraine]

Sot is triple a and that seems far far far far better than this “game”

[@victorbenoin4732]

I would honestly have preferred a hyper realistic pirate game where you just die of scurvy after finishing the tutorial

[@lsswappedcessna]

argh matey it's a pirate's life for me, I am dying of scurvy but I'm only twenty three Yar har, yar har. Skull and Bones ain't up ta' par, there's no villages to pillage, there's no wenches to take yer inches, my second mate has worms and my quartermaster has third degree burns Yar har, yar har. It's a pirate's life for me, the captain of fifty three -A little pirate verse I came up with just now

[@darkosiris09]

Speaking of realistic pirate games, check out the Sea Dogs series. Graphics are very outdated of course but the gameplay is rock solid even today. It's most likely the most complex and thought-through game about XIII century piracy. And you can actually walk around and fight people on land too, unlike skull and bones lmao

[@fidmid]

Awesome,@@lsswappedcessna

[@gunslngrxero]

No, seriously, this isn't even a joke. The company should fire itself at this point.

[@MrFinch-vx2kb]

​@lsswappedcessna I truly felt I was aboard a ship sailing the seven seas with me mateys. Thank you for the experience 😂

[@meinsouza]

at this point their new slogan should be "it's not bad, it's ubisoft".

[@tortoiseoflegends4466]

Eh their stuff is still pretty mixed. Obviously this is bad but the new Prince Of Persia was a lot of fun. It's not like Activision Blizzard where everything they touch turns to shit.

[@ejscorp]

"It's better than bad, it's good!"

[@Krypto121]

Except this isn't a good example of what Ubisoft usually makes. Odyssey, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Prince of Persia, The Division 2. All high quality bangers that had a lot of love put into them. This is clearly game that has only been in active development for 2 years and the results show.

[@erik7317]

@@Krypto121 I'll be honest... none of the games you listed, except maybe prince of persia, have much of a soul at all. None of them are still talked about. Many of them had horrible anti-consumer behaviors. They're not breaking any ground and are just copy pasted formulas. Ubisoft has hit rock bottom compared to what they used to be in the early 2000s.

[@MaxRamos8]

​@@erik7317recently as of 2012 I would say these are great: Watchdogs 2, The Crew, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Rayman Legends? (the musical one sorry if that's the wrong title), Child of Light. Not Alot of bangers but what exists is excellent

[@caughtin1440p]

I had one copy of skull and bones, then someone broke into my house and left two more

[@Nufshi]

Lmao

[@ejscorp]

You got reverse pirated

[@Spiderman-_-007]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@Spiderman-_-007]

I saw a meme on FB that someone went to see madame web and someone broke into the car and left two tickets inside like 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@Stryker-K]

🤣

[@mohawkan423023]

How do you mess up one of the most popular concepts you’ve ever put out? They had it nailed down ten years ago… People were like “Just more Black Flag please”, and Ubisoft went “Ok we don’t know what that means, here is a live-service game with minigames for collecting wood”

[@F_Around_and_find_out]

Gamers: We want a dedicated pirate game with mechanics from Black Flag please! Ubishit: OK here's a live service game (red flag #1), with 0 mechanics from Black Flag (red flag #2), lots of grinding if gamer wishes to progress to endgame ( red flag #3) and is $60 entry (not even free to play, and don't even talk about onwership, you don't own live service games).

[@tskk_NMSL]

$70 cus AAAA@@F_Around_and_find_out

[@arminlinzbauer]

It's like the guys over at Abstergo mistook a splint of cedar wood for Blackbeard's toenail or something and now you're reliving the memories of a pirate ship... It's a whacky concept.

[@johningersoll1118]

This actually makes me wanna try it now 😂

[@markdotinc8371]

You explained my thoughts more perfectly than I ever could have

[@General..Grievous]

This is the best explanation

[@nightfire_CSGO]

What a creative and fitting headcannon I am now stealing

[@ZeallustImmortal]

How does your mind work to come up with such a beautiful statement?

[@gangleri1358]

Their decade old game, Black flag, is better. What a surprise. Modern Ubisoft.

[@freetory]

Idk why yall keep making the comparison. They don’t care their old game is better than their new one, they’re spitting in your faces and yall still wanna give them props at the same time for a better game they made 10 years ago

[@OnasaD]

Unfortunately it looks terrible in 4k 🙁 needs a remake asap

[@ryanshetter7197]

You obviously don't remeber black flag, the game was buggy af

[@spooky6839]

Skull and bones isnt trying to be black flag it is its own thing so stop comparing it to other games

[@zozzledwolf4653]

​@@spooky6839 😂 its literally built on the foundation of black flag. Hell the entire reason it exists is because of black flag it's a completely fair comparison. Skull and bones sucks compared to a decade old game that's pathetic.

[@castillogrande8926]

My biggest contribution to this whole ordeal was convincing my friend to refund his pre-order of Skull and Bones by simply telling him "yeah, theres literally no swashbuckling. Its literally just grinding through ship-to-ship combat in an uninspired live-service game world." Homies don't let homies buy shit games.

[@sebastianaltamirano4991]

you are not a homie, you are a brother

[@madeliner1682]

Homies especially don't let homies preorder games

[@omegacxv8344]

@@madeliner1682 nah, some companies like Capcom and FromSoft get a pass for preorders. been pre-ordering most of their games since 2017 and didnt regret it a single time. Ubisoft on the other hand is the exact opposite...

[@derekcook8201]

you're doing Gods work

[@xboss-5704]

Another crybaby "omg I can't sword fight in a ship combat based game" go play world of tanks and cry you can't run around with an rpg and anti- tank mines. Just love complaining

[@predictorbibulous3327]

One thing that would bother me is the ships physics in relation to the water. The bow is constantly much lower than the aft and looks like it's taking a nosedive at any point. Boats that sit like that on the water sink.

[@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968]

Also the ships are really small compared to real-life ships of that era.

[@PurpleTroopers]

So true

[@tomh3627]

probably done so you can see what's in front of you better

[@predictorbibulous3327]

@@tomh3627 You're most likely right about that.

[@tkbravox5167]

@@tomh3627 thats BS why not have big and smaller ships then It's just lazy work

[@lamegamertime]

8:55 I think a better phrasing would be: "Live service games are built around keeping you engaged for hundreds of thousands of hours" *with as little content as possible.*

[@DeadOGChannel]

It's called Skull & Bones because it's already dead on arrival. Ubisoft finally giving the players a title experience. AAAA game for sure.

[@ItalianoDio-]

AAAA is not a thing.

[@namegame-ow5nj]

Looks like it's just fine to me 😂 maybe get good.

[@GoRideLP]

@@ItalianoDio- ubisoft calls it that tho

[@venacava7897]

Quadruple A⁉️☠️☠️☠️

[@DeadpanNorwegian]

The drugs the people at Ubisoft must be taking to believe this insanity they're spewing...

[@robsolf]

11:25 I remember, in beta at least, there was a mission where you were tasked with going and attacking a settlement to get a bottle of oil or some such BS. I just remember thinking... If they wanted a bottle of something that could be literally carried in a pack, why would an NPC call upon a captain to disembark in his ship, built to carry crates upon crates of cargo... to do this? And why would the captain do it? Why would they blow up a settlement when they could take a handful of their crew to walk into whatever building it was in and just get it? I went with the mission, thinking that you might do just such a thing. But nope. You cannonball a settlement into oblivion, then "BING!", the bottle of oil pops into your inventory. Uninstalled.

[@fraxizztv6433]

Sounds more like a quest on land, lmao

[@hybrid9mm]

@@fraxizztv6433 it should have been on land, but you literally sail in a circle by the port shelling a defence tower and sinking the odd npc ship. Mobile mini games (which you can turn off there’s an auto loot option in settings) for resource collecting instead of actual going on land, board a ship to plunder nope it’s a cut scene, people hit end game in 4 days and it’s been speed run in 30min so yeah it sucks.

[@Trentcast]

It’s because not only did the people from Singapore develop the game, they also wrote the story 🤣

[@robsolf]

@@hybrid9mm I'm imagining a dev digging through Wowhead or other MMO guide sites looking for quests to copy, and not even bothering to change a single player pickup item to something more appropriate like, "crates of rare papayas". I mean... they don't even have to create art for it, for fark's sake. Anybody have to blow up a town to collect Murloc fins? Seriously.

[@hybrid9mm]

@@robsolf I know it’s crazy they completely missed the mark, when you consider these 3 things it baffles the mind how Ubisoft f’d this up. Ubisoft had the recipe AC Black Flag all they had to do was reskin, remove AC and add new story plus freshen the graphics (although black flag looks better) The developers had 10 yrs to do the above yet they could not find a direction for the game (the dev history of this game is an absolute shambles) Third the budget was $120m.

[@Mfn_Tagilla]

"Because it's not Helldivers, the servers are far from at capacity so we should be able to get in real quick." That one got me lmao

[@bonjour2838]

I knew this was going to be a doozy when I saw the stamina bar on the SHIP

[@DisDatK9]

I still dont know whose genius idea was "Lets give a boat on the ocean a sprint capacity." Whoever it was, they're paid way too much to be that stupid

[@blakksheep736]

@@DisDatK9 I think they technically mean the sailors' stamina. Clearly indicated, it isn't, but that's the only interpretation that makes sense.

[@blakksheep736]

@@DisDatK9 you don't say.

[@bruhproductions2078]

Why is every next AAA game is so bad nowadays. It's truly frustrating to see the whole gaming industry become so disappointing and lackluster. Every next game feels so soulless and bland. And most developers get overworked and rush games just to meet deadlines. There isn't the same excitement i felt when i was younger, eager to play new games. It's a shame tbh.

[@TheKulteska]

Honestly its been like this for a while, i would say it peaked around 2010/2012, and has been downhill since. The ps4 and xbone never really lived up to their predecessors. Sure there were periodic good games, but gone are the days of every other month was a must play banger of a game

[@nanushka]

I work in videogames and what you're saying is true. Even us as developers are disappointed at the greedy executive decisions and the ridiculous business models they're trying to push down people's throats. We try to push back but it's "my way or the highway". The industry right now is upside down and only this year, 7,000 people working in videogames have been laid off - the majority, AAA studios. These people have been in some studios for 15 years and are the reason why games are successful. Executives don't give a damn and there's a huge amount of talent on the streets right now. Only very few games and AAA studios are really giving players what they want (Zelda is an example). So AAA for many of us, is dead. Good thing is that many of these people who have been laid off or don't agree with what studios are doing, are creating new studios on their own. The future will be in indie sandbox, AA and AAA, but it'll take a year or more for us to see that resurgence. Games like Bob the Diver were completely unexpected and turned out to be a hit. Some minor studios are really giving players what they really want. Finally.

[@lorecow88]

ESG.

[@bruhproductions2078]

@@lorecow88 love to hate BlackRock and Vanguard trying to force their garbage systems on everything because they own everything.

[@fabian4809]

Ayye, Whoa! This here is a AAAA game bro, dont forget

[@shadowxps]

This game reeks of an idea that was neat ten years ago but people have clearly lost sight of whatever creative spark there was long ago. Similar to the idea of a Halo TV show.

[@unc54]

That's literally what happened. It started in late 2013 as a Black Flag expansion and then spun off into an independent project. It was first showcased in 2017 and since then had been in development hell. This game had multiple directors, was rebuilt from the ground-up multiple times (each time with vastly different visions in mind), and then was mandated to be released by the Singapore government. And this was all from a 2021 report so who knows how much more changed behind the scenes since then to release. I mean this game had a beta literally the week before it released and the CEO was just saying anything to get people to buy it. Just shows you how little care was put into the project. Heck the game that inspired it is better in almost every facet (even visually which is crazy to say for a game that was released on PS3/360)

[@davidstinger1134]

Doubt there was any creative spark, this game was probably born entirely out of trying to capitalize on Black Flag's popularity.

[@duffinthemuffin5792]

Ubisoft always has these great ideas for games, but does them poorly or waits too long to actually make them a reality, or in this case both. It'll fail because if you want to play a proper pirate game just play black flag.

[@duffinthemuffin5792]

​@@davidstinger1134capitalizing off a game over a decade late.

[@CFBEmbeddedMOD]

I wouldn’t compare it to the Halo show, I actually had a decent time watching it lol

[@BetonKundySlap]

I just want to say that in Black Flag you could get out of the ship at any point outside of combat, not just points of interest. This comes into play mainly when you want to fight endgame ships like the highest level bounty hunter very early on. The game doesn't really tell you about it but you could swim to a ship, kill everyone aboard, swim back and then easily capture the ship. This also works in Rogue. You might get shot at but if you hide underwater once in a while it's very easy to do. Ubisoft could have made a quick buck by making sandbox version of Black Flag with different kinds of playable ships but sadly they did not.

[@krudonovan5894]

It’s crazy companies keep fucking chances at printing money

[@ED-gw9rg]

And imagine if those ships cost MONEY! And had cool cosmetics! Which you could ALSO buy with MONEY! Man, corporations are dum as hell nowadays.

[@willsullivan3132]

Open world games that don’t have a true “open world” drive me nuts. You should be able to explore every tiny little island, finding maps and treasures there

[@darthgamer9861]

for heavens sake, Windwaker from nearly twenty years ago felt more open.

[@kirkginoabolafia3650]

This has got to be one of the biggest gaming fumbles I've seen in a long while. Literally all they had to do was make a cheap re-skin of Black Flag, and maybe change the combat a little, and I bet this game would have been a slam dunk. But Ubisoft spent all that time and money just gave their C-suites extra pay and vacations and kicked the can down the road until the Singaporean government essentially forced them to shit out this game all these years later. Funny how Ubisoft themselves are a sinking ship.

[@MixMeister5000]

The day before wants to chat 😅

[@rykehuss3435]

@@MixMeister5000 that was just a scam, not a serious attempt

[@kickingitwithtimmyb]

Nice breakdown

[@unc54]

They already did a cheap re-skin of Black Flag in AC Rogue and it sold well. The fact that they couldn't even manage that for a game they spent 11 years is genuinely concerning.

[@DDubzzz]

I'm enjoying it. To each their own

[@MyGuyYourNotHim]

The very first AAAA game, and it's a live service...let that set in

[@ashe_regera]

Live service ≠ guaranteed failure. If that were the case, this wouldn't be an existing model today. It's just corpos being absolute asswrecks in doing actual good with said models. There's too many failures due to greed, and few successes due to actually wanting to give the players what they want. We can't blame the model, otherwise games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Genshin Impact, and a few others would've failed on release. And games like Helldivers 2 would follow. I wouldn't shade a game because it's a live service, however I would shade it because it is what it is, a bad game.

[@PlumGod]

No. I’m gonna let it sink in

[@Jaguar21010]

It's not really a AAAA game. The dev who said that isn't even a gamer. He just said it as a buzz word without any idea what he was talking about. Damn thing is barely a mobile game. I think k we'd all get a lot more out of monopoly GO or clash of clans or something lol. Jk it's not thaaaat bad but it certainly makes a lot of people want to replay black flag.

[@acousticwolf5985]

@@Jaguar21010 If i would call anything an actual AAAA game, would be GTA 6, or maybe The Witcher 4 when it comes. Calling this anything else other than garbage is a lie lol

[@Jaguar21010]

​@@ashe_regeraI agree with you for the most part. At the same time. Personally I could easily live without ANY of the games that are considered live service. Fortnite, apex, genshin... I just don't care. The games don't have a fun and meaningful progression system because they are free to play and live service. And I don't really understand how the people who play them solo get any enjoyment out of them. I play warzone because it's squad cod with friends, but it is indeed a trash game because of it's live service model. Helldivers 2 will be getting free content updates and it is not free to play so most of it's systems are built like that. When they do release paid dlcs, people will be happy to pay for them because the game was designed around being a complete experience that rewards the player for their time instead of dangling the carrot endlessly with an addictive gameplay loop that's designed to make them want to buy microtransactions. Live service is successful because of humanity's lack of self control and because the vast amounts of live service enjoyers (silent majority) tend to be on the more casual side and spend their money on whatever. Blind consumerism and needing a quick fix. If people genuinely cared more about meaningful experiences then the model would not have made it. That being said, fortnite and Apex are decent games with good systems that would have been made far better without live service but probably wouldn't have made nearly as much money without f2p live service. Look at Wow. There's a cosmetic in that game that made more money than the entirety of Elden Ring sales, even though the value proposition is completely opposite. People have no self control or patience. It's quite sad really.

[@Razumen]

They don't even look or act like real ships on water, it's like they're just cars with ship skins on them. They don't dip and bounce on waves, they can turn in any direction with ease, and can go full speed in any direction regardless of the wind speed and strength. Like someone else here said, the whole ship chase thing would actually work if piloting your ship actually took skill in managing these aspects instead of just pressing "X to go faster"

[@BenjaminLeeds]

The windspeed looks a little more important than it was in black flag. But yeah I agree. Understanding wind direction and speed is a huge part of tall ship naval combat, it's hard to understand why they would neglect it.

[@HienNguyen-cs1md]

Either they are too lazy to implement that or they make this game only to caters to casuals. It's like a racing game but you only need to push 3 buttons

[@Razumen]

@@HienNguyen-cs1mdDepth is the enemy of focus/test groups, because you'll always get *someone* that doesn't understand something, or even try to, and then complain about it, and then someone in charge will say: "We need to dumb this down."

[@eldritchcupcakes3195]

also how they sit ont he water in a way that'd sink any actual ship. I can see the rudder so often

[@blakksheep736]

Also, don't the ships essentially have sprint meters? That are restored with food? What sense does that make?

[@radosbarner1734]

What will inevitably kill this game is the fact Sea of Thieves is now dropping on PS5, and that console is only big enough for one live service pirate game.

[@General..Grievous]

It's essentially "why play SaB, a game with the illusion of being a pirate when you can play SoT and be an actual pirate?" Sea of Thieves and Black Flag are better pirate games than Skull and Bones ever could be

[@gradybell9820]

Comparing SaB to SoT or BF is like comparing forza or GT to NfS.. pointless the only thing in common is the theme.. racing...or in this case pirates.. people should just get their head out of their ass at this point and move on bf was a boring single player game and SoTs is nothing but trolls

[@Gloomdrake]

@@gradybell9820that’s a lot of words to say nothing at all

[@F_Around_and_find_out]

Maybe that will encourage Ubisoft to go back to single player games. Single player games are, if you look at the whole picture, cheaper than live service. Once live service goes live, the studio always lose money on server money, as well as development money to keep updating the game with new contents or else -> dead game, it's vicious, and even when gamers love it, studio always lose money on servers and future development, not for the faint hearted and poor I mean small studios, unfortunately. Single player, just release the game and watch the money coming in, if the game is good, lots of gamers buy it, lots of revenue. If everyone hates it, well the studio don't have to lose anymore money, at least not as much money as live service, servers are expensive.

[@urgae9125]

@@gradybell9820pirates are literally their only theme. What do pirates do? Pillage, plunder, and do adventure shit. What does SOT have? That and more. What does SAB have? Sail on the sea and shoot the gun. They completely removed the soul of what makes pirates cool. You have relationships with other crew members, you actually fight for your lives when plundering, and you find cool treasure that may or may not have curses. This game does none of that.

[@dameonk]

Somehow Ubisoft was going for a slam dunk and ended up hitting their head on the rim, falling backwards onto the court, and breaking their neck. All they had to do was take the Assassin's Creed stuff out of Black Flag. It's honestly astounding they found a way to mess that up.

[@jandro8370]

They've never slam dunked anything. All their games have always been a tease. Too much of something u don't want and wishing u could do more of something u can't.

[@ItalianoDio-]

AC Odyssey has the same thing as "black flag" in it.

[@Tessou]

@@jandro8370Origins is the closest to a modern great game that Ubisoft could manage. Unity could have been better if the current patched version was what we got at release.

[@necromancer6405]

@@Tessou I enjoyed Odyssey.

[@aardvark421]

The assassins creed engine doesn't do multiplayer. Many attempts to Mod AC have been tried, and all of them ran into the same basic things, mechanically the Black Flag code base is not able to correctly work with multiple players. That's one of the reasons for the 10+ years, they didn't want just Black Flag without Assassins Creed, they wanted something that was multiplayer also. Sadly instead of just starting ground up with a platform that would support Multiplayer and then adding the pirate elements in, they didn't. Now you have 20 players on a server and groups of up to 2 other players WOW!

[@Chuck_vs._The_Comment_Section]

10 years of development and probably forgotten in 10 days.

[@mr_wafflepants]

10 days after this comment was posted, and you are absolutely correct

[@killerkraut9179]

I think it will stay a long Meme!

[@Cody_Handsome]

Wait…to plunder a city your crew leaves the boat and then you have to defend an area with your boat with no crew on it??

[@eriquedobson7523]

They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Seriously, if this came out 5 years ago and was just the Black Flag naval warfare with some extra exploration and more customization options for your ship, it would have been gang-busters. This was so easy!

[@emsedgwick9521]

I heard one of their execs called this, "The first Quadruple A title." Same company said: "Users shouldn't get used to owning their games." ...

[@MrJoeBlaze]

Terrible people.

[@smokeyblinker9869]

@@MrJoeBlaze better yet Quadruple Terrible people

[@luminous9755]

character movement on island is like they really didn't intend to make your character could walk on land

[@spiralisis5524]

That’s totally correct because traversal on land was an after thought

[@semmert]

cause they didn't. lol. it's a relatively new feature. considering the development time.

[@Lightsaglowllc]

It’s really odd. Feels like you’re sliding around on invisible ice.

[@tlingitsoldier]

No, clearly the walking looks strange because your character still has their sea legs. Or that's what Ubisoft should have said as a reason for cutting corners.

[@sasugayuchitard5400]

Reminds me of call of duty ww2 open space which is lameeee

[@dredpyratebonny]

For a ship focused game, the ships look so bad when theyre sailing. Like a kid's toy floating in a bathtub.

[@coliver0]

Funny how they couldn’t figure out how to do a disembark transition without a loading screen even though literally every other game they’ve made with naval ships have been able to do it

[@r.e.z9428]

How do you fail at something you had done before with more resources and time? Like it was simple, just expand on BF and Rogue. You could still be greedy with microtransactions and make a decent game at the same time, but apparently they’re exclusive from one another in this case.

[@Renegade322]

what is mutually exclusive is ubisoft and making a good game

[@ShadowGhostHD]

Well bad leadership and a studio who only worked as a support role for Ubisoft games trying to create a new IP. But mostly bad leadership and constant changes of the games direction.

[@darumanu9276]

People put too much value on company names. Its not "Ubisoft" that is important but the developers that worked on the game and those mostly left Ubisoft for obvious reasons. They are the heart and soul of the game, not the company

[@armintor2826]

Im assuming the majority if not all devs that worked on Black Flag arent working for Ubisoft or didnt work on Skull & Bones. Or god i hope they didnt...

[@dpray96]

Issue is, this game would've been canned long ago if it weren't for the Singapore Government.

[@Makowh]

Hey video games execs, simple idea: If the main element of your game is to sail around for a long time and fight aboard a ship, this is the part you need to make cool and fun. Remember WB's Mad Max game? It featured a whole lot of driving around and fighting aboard a car, right? But this part was AWESOME. The car controls were great, it was super customisable, the fights were cool and brutal, and spending hours driving around was the best part. Do that, but with boats. It's not that hard.

[@CamMcCulls-kx6zk]

Mad Max was awesome. 😊

[@tskk_NMSL]

Assassin creed odyssey has ship rading and abording elements, they literally have everything pre-made, smh

[@krudonovan5894]

@@tskk_NMSLyeah like how are they failing to do something they’ve done kinda well multiple times

[@pazz]

I feel that the failure of this and SS, paired with the success of Lethal Company and Helldivers II can be nothing but good for the industry overall. I hope these huge studios regroup and restructure the way they do things.

[@xboss-5704]

Failure? You have no sense of reality. Because some wanna be influencers pander to their audience by crying about everything doesn't mean the game isn't full of people grinding it. I can switch servers at least 200 times and never run into the same lobby. This video is a win because the cry babies aren't something you'll have to worry about bc sailing is too hard they want an fps pirate game lmfao

[@Echoe-14]

@@xboss-5704I think I had a stroke when I was reading this

[@krishm7812]

@@xboss-5704 ubisoft said it didn't meet their expectations

[@stormlappy]

Ubisoft even fail to just copy paste Black Flag and make it 100% pirate theme game

[@brent6771]

It was so easy. Blackflag without the Assassin stuff. Few tweaks, different ships, but the formula was basically there.... this could have been a big hit

[@Mr_Tea_Rexx]

What everyone thought it was going to be with additional features and mechanics. Like they had everything they needed

[@tiredman99]

Yep. I have no idea how hard it is to essentially rework a game and remove certain elements but it wouldn't have taken 10 years would it?

[@jandro8370]

Exactly. How do u fuck that up? Ubisoft is how. They could fuck up a cup of coffee.

[@jenot7164]

It was probably a management issue. I wouldn’t blame the developers.

[@DamianHowardTV]

The exact same can be said about Ghost Recon: Breakpoint.. And look at what a shit-show of a game that was, at launch. Granted, that Ghost Recon: Wildlands had its issues when it initially released but it was by far, the more competent game.. And still the Ghost Recon game (in recent years) that I will happily go back and play. Just for the immersive environment and its overall experience. This is what happens when you get CEO’s (and modern CEO’s) and company executives pushing and trying to prioritize revenue and profits over the player-base. And essentially telling players what THEY want. Do they not understand that for a game to be successful, you put your players first?! The ones who buy their games.. Not viewing them as a damn statistic on a chart or graph 📈 📊 . If they only realize that if they put their player-base first, the revenue and profits will naturally come.. And they’ll make more than could hope for. EA are EXACTLY the same and that’s why these big corporations seem to now fail, time.. And time again.

[@robsolf]

0:25 Once upon a time, I'd have thought "video game reviewer" would be a dream job. Phrases like, "I've played a lot of Skull and Bones over the past year and a half or so..." has cured a LOT of that notion. The idea of being forced to play this... Redfall, Gollum, Kong, even Starfield makes me think that even being a plumber wouldn't be so bad.

[@AlexanderLeister]

As a plumber you wade through much less shit than the average video game reviewer.

[@Revkrokusjauntkicker]

Imma be honest, I’d rather play a shit game than be in a crawlspace all day 🤣

[@mitrovarr]

Eh, I don't think this game looks that bad. I wouldn't play it for free to say nothing of throwing money away on it, but it doesn't look actively unpleasant.

[@nicspringer7353]

Electrician

[@tsbol2201]

Plumber: Deals with literal feces. Game reviewer: Deals with digital feces.

[@capusvacans]

When you said "you can heal a teammate by firing a mortar at him" my brain fell out. I mean, uhm, what?

[@piedpiper1172]

What, you’ve never heard of the East India Company’s proprietary ship repairing mortar shells? SMH my head, read a book.

[@Equinox171]

The harvesting minigame is the same one from chopping wood in Idleon: The Idle MMO, a game literally made by a single person and designed to mostly be played offline

[@nicky_bobby92]

In my mind when this game was announced i thought it would be a single player rpg type. It could have been something about a pirate who is trying to make his own name. And building a crew going to island for supplies could have been you and a crew disembarking and you could set your disembarking crew with certain abilities. Maybe you encountered hostile wildlife or other pirates or indigenous people. Then maybe making your own hideout. Like that’s the game I wanted. This….seems like a mobile game

[@rrwholloway]

You’ve just invented Sid Meier’s Pirates (sort of)

[@fish5645]

@@rrwholloway From what I have seen from years of reading comments on Skull and Bones trailers and now the thrashing videos it is getting people want a Sid Meier's Pirates + Black Flag hybrid with potentially the option to group up with friends to do content or some form of PvP. It baffles me how Ubisoft not only missed the mark but utterly ignored it and chose instead to chase a gaming trend that is almost entirely hated. It almost seems like they are deliberately burning money.

[@jandro8370]

That's what this was supposed to be but they couldn't balance it all and I'm guessing a lot of things were cut from the game to make it playable.

[@brkooduh66]

same. ever since some of the original pirate games, "Sea Dogs", "Pirates! Gold", "Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy", or "sid meier's pirates" all i ever dreamed of is a better RPG element, its all i've craved in this genre.

[@Mulberry2000]

Nope none of that.

[@nopedontthinkso]

I really wonder, who at Ubisoft thought, a ship should have a stamina bar u cant make this stuff up 😂

[@brianorth4480]

That and who thought of how you have to wait 60 or 90 seconds to heal so dumb you should be able to heal whenever you want hopefully they will get rid of the wait to heal timer i will come back to the game when they fix that.

[@jokinplaysgames]

It's for balance purposes it slowed faster ships to give slower ships a chance at catching them etc problem is that you can just stack tons of food lol

[@chucklesdeclown8819]

Tbf, it would make sense with big row boats like the Tessarakonteres where the ship is mainly rowing powered though for ships with sails ya, that doesn't make any sense

[@sootcoot8712]

Prob the same guy that thought of a healing ship, that mortars health bombs to your friends.

[@diancruz8210]

The food is actually for your crew, it's their stamina that depletes when you try to trim the sails at full speed not the ship.

[@thedofflin]

So many AAA games these days seem to stray far away from the cool fun power fantasy, now they're just designed to waste our time gathering resources in a gigantic, barren open world, crafting everything just to be able to do the most basic stuff in the game, and progression systems with very minor upgrades which are also a massive grind to unlock new upgrades. I don't want a _grind,_ I want a *challenge.*

[@steaky6523]

SoT handled the speed well by making each ship faster or slower depending on the wind direction so you could control how fast you were by going with or against the wind.

[@ForIornWatchman]

Wind waker did this back on the GameCube

[@emigomez4295]

Unless a brig is involved, once one is in the server you know you are never catching that sucker.

[@phoenixfire8226]

@@emigomez4295 galleon is slightly faster with a tailwind and sloop is slightly faster into the wind soooo

[@samslenderman]

Why are devs going backwards lately? I understand Jamie and Sefton left Rocksteady, but still, that team went from Arkham Knight 9 years ago.. to Suicide Squad.. Ubisoft went from Black Flag almost 11 years ago.. to Skull and Bones.. WB Montreal went from Arkham Origins 10 years ago.. to Gotham Knights. These are all valid examples of devs who's older games are not only much better than their latest, but are STILL gorgeous and playable today

[@0xNubby]

All over the board, Payday 3 so much worse then Payday2

[@petervenkman9838]

Because ten years ago game devs were dudes who built and learned about game engines and programming by their own merit. There was no industry standard so you just had tons of super talented and smart guys basically writing and breaking the rule book as they went. Now It s a huge industry and most if not all game devs went to university or college to study game dev. Where they were taught the "right way" of doing things. I.e make every system and game the exact fucking same and always prioritise the business side of gaming and not the creative. Essentially game development has been gentrified and it fucking sucks now.

[@RD-zf3yb]

Because most devs today are diversity hires who don't care about videogames and lack the passion that older devs had. Halo was basically a bunch of college nerds making the game they wanted to play.

[@michaelbaker8284]

Most Far Cry games are bad like this. Giant map with nothing in it. Collect 500x this thing collection quests. Just giant evil timesinks. That's all these companies can make now is copypaste filler content.

[@sidfreefire1570]

Far cry 6 is much better then skull and bones

[@Discellaneous]

To think that Sid Meier’s Pirates had a boarding minigame and this doesn’t is disgraceful.

[@nine3cobra]

The pvp is pretty fun in the game and it kind of makes sense in a 6v6 to not board a ship in the middle of a battle and not having a ship to go back to 😂

[@user-be5we8dm5o]

@@nine3cobraif thats the only reason it makes sense… yikes

[@dpray96]

@@nine3cobra Then make them immune or invisible, or better yet allow your allies to join in on the boarding minigame.

[@nine3cobra]

@@dpray96 its free for all pvp, what allies?

[@ZachariahShihab]

Can someone just remake that game?

[@reagansido5823]

I can't hear "Quadruple A" without thinking of the hilariously fake review Dan from Game Grumps read for Motorcycle in the night sky or whatever it was called. It was a line like "fractions of triple A price for quadruple A experience"

[@enzaza9200]

Imagine a pirate game where you can explore a massive map where you can explore secret islands, pillage towns for resources, choose or pick sides to protect or destroy and had pirate sword combat similar to ghost of Tsushima. Actually if a game like tsushima came out but for pirates and mainly on sea, it would be one of the best games ever created because it hasn’t been done before correctly

[@SuperTommox]

A DECADE??? Since 2014??? That's wild 😭💀

[@nixutps]

Actually it began development in 2013...

[@user-md2rm2di2q]

​@@nixutpsthat's worse gosh

[@nixutps]

@@user-md2rm2di2q right? 😂😅😅 Over a decade time to make a good game, and they release this s**t...

[@Karlach_]

The game is shit

[@daniil3815]

@@nixutpsholly, it’s even longer than it took Russia and it’s proxy to take Avdeevka 😂

[@kunibertrandolf1886]

To give an option on how a better game would handle the beginning (looting wood and getting your first ship) The game opens up with a black screen. Slowly, muddy blues and some orange fades in and muffled sounds can be heard. Lightning blinds the player before screaming men, ripping gales and heavy rain slices through the muffled sounds and your character gets picked up by a crewmate screaming at you to get back up. You are on a mid-sized ship, maybe 20 Meters in length. Debris, flames and broken wood can be seen in the darkness of the storm ridden night. The game leads you towards the helm as you assume control over the mess and you character screams for order into the wind. The camera swaps to the 3rd person ships view as a quick tutorial freezes the game and explains you what button furls and unfurls the three main sails and what sail helps with forward movement and what with steering (Not exactly real boat accurate, but a gameplay translation). “FURL THEE SAILS” your captain screams, prompting you to press all buttons as your NPC men hustle to follow order. “ROGUE ON STARBOARD”, one of the crewmembers' screams, as the camera zooms to a big wave coming towards you and a text tells you to steer into the huge wave. You do, and with a big splash you crash through it. “I NEED A STATUS REPORT” you character screams at the top of his lungs. “UNKNOWN ASSAULT, CAPTAIN”, someone screams back at you. As you scan the surrounding waters for lights, another crew members screams. “THEY ARE COMING FROM BEHIND” The camera focuses on a warship coming from behind you, several sizes bigger than your own ship. It rushes just past you and a fight begins (that you are supposed to lose). If you get sunk, a cutscene plays where your character grabs onto a large piece of wood while all manners of items, rubble and corpses swim around you in the slowly easing waves. You character binds himself to a chunk of wood with a piece of rope and the last of his strength, before he blacks out. If you DON’T get instantly sunk (very hard) and manage to keep your ship alive for long enough, you can chase the big ship away. As it drives off, the sea eases and you slowly relax in a cutscene, another crew man shouts something. “THEY HAVE CHASERS”. As he speaks, canons can be heard, followed by the whistle of cannonballs. As they hit your ship, the last thing you see is your crew on the centre of the ship getting hit point blank, before an explosion close by knocks you out. *Fade to black* As you wake up again, you are on a beach, either bound to the wood or laying by the burned-out skeleton of your old ship. (This only changes the amount of starting loot and had no deeper gameplay effect. You scour the debris gathered on the beach for usable materials and manage to find some simple tools, unburned rope, usable wood and weapons. As you exlpore the tiny island you can see that you are on some kind of archipelago, surrounded by more islands. At this point, you are in multiplayer mode, but only party members will be on the island to prevent early PVP and NOOB farming. Your goal now is to find a tree thick enough to be used as a carved out canoe. This explains you how to gather recourses, as well as how to chop wood later, as it will be one of many commercial goods you can gather later, as well as “healing material” for your boat on the fly. You find one, work it down and then pull it to the shore where you can push it into water and begin cruising on the archipelago. While you can already find things on the islands, you have a very limited inventory that pushes you towards investigating high hanging flags on one island. This island is your starting hub with the first harbour, shipwright, NPCs and fetch quests. You manage to get an old shitty boat, sail around to gather stuff for your first REAL boat and can already move out into the world if you choose to. Different island have different stuff, different boats from different factions you encounter give different high value loot and the game then focuses around catching boats, weakening certain factions on land assaults to weaken the defence on their trade routes, chase down high value boats through information fought of bought and have fun with the pirate life.

[@pyro111100]

At 13:43 it's even worse. The entire place is completely void of life. NO ONE is there running around in panic, trying to mount defenses, going to ring an alarm bell, NOTHING. The entire place might as well just be a jpeg because it'd serve the same purpose.

[@jameslarkin3859]

I just want an open world story driven red dead esque pirate world game.

[@kevinakash2068]

So Black Flag?

[@velvetinedrapes4359]

@@kevinakash2068 Without the Assassins Creed story junk

[@DarkRatz]

I think so did everyone else bud.

[@CosplayZine]

​@@kevinakash2068looking for treasure and whale hunting was not even what pirates did or needed to do. Plunder mate. Plunder.

[@Alextrino]

too bad rockstar doesn't want to try and make a new IP

[@dalincebompila1980]

SAYING BLACK FLAG IS BETTER THAN THIS GAME IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT... BLACK FLAG IS LIGHT YEARS AHEAD OF THIS GARBAGE.

[@danielbroome5690]

For resource gathering I think a cool thing would have been to have parallel systems where you could go onto land and cut down trees etc physically in the early game because your ship can't punch above its weight yet in combat, but it takes longer to gather these resources potentially than just going around in a late-game ship and destroying and scavenging wood from smaller vessels. So it would fade into a casual resource gathering method as the game went on, but was essential at lower levels because you're so weak you've basically been pushed off the seas and onto land to gather.

[@infasis]

At least "Caribbean Legend" just came out too... It's kinda crazy how few good pirate or sailing/swashbuckling/discovery-type games we have. (I've been playing Sailing Era lately and that's been pretty fun too.)

[@rlrihards948]

AAAA game managed to give us AA game, but without the fun gameplay part 😂

[@Jaguar21010]

At this point, AA has a higher likelihood of being quality than AAA or AAAA.

[@VforVengeanceIV]

At this point, Skull and Bones isn't even a AA game, its A game.

[@CrispyMuffin2]

Helldivers 2 being AA is almost an insult to that game xD

[@robgustafson8692]

The A to AAA designation refers to the size of the studio not the overall quality of the game. Triple A titles can be crap but are still triple A games.

[@velvetinedrapes4359]

@@robgustafson8692 Incorrect. A to AAA actually refers to Bond rating system and the reason it became tied to is because a distributor said "It's triple-A!" and it stuck. Triple A itself means the gold standard. Top of the line. AAAA is nonsense the CEO blurted out when questioned on the games price increase

[@TheFool87]

Poison damage? In ship combat? What?!?!

[@syanreeze253]

wait until you found out you can heal other ships

[@MrAerohank]

​@syanreeze253 Poison can't kill you if you've been evaporated by a 60cm ship mortar round.

[@SolidSnnake]

this game legally had to come out or the singapore government was going to throw them all in prison

[@GNCD2099]

Here's my idea of a pirate game. Ship and crew customization and upgrades. Ship boarding with actual 3rd person combat. You can only control the captain who can engage in melee and range combat and buff the crew or debuff the enemies, depending on your build. The enemy captain can be a boss-type NPC with unique abilities. Successfully taking over the ship rewards more loot. On the other hand, you can choose to just sink the ship but will give less loot or nothing at all. Another way of acquiring loot is island exploration. Go on an island to raid a village or town which has its own boss NPC. If it's a deserted island, you can still gather resources but will have a chance of finding hidden treasure. Hell, they can even add monster-infested caves with the treasure at the end.

[@eriadorranger2196]

Boats with stamina??

[@Ash_Hudson]

The stamina is based on the crew handling the sails and rigging. It's not actually the boat that has stamina, lmao.

[@WolfoftheDM]

Your profile picture just makes this comment infinitely better

[@jonypo928]

Selling sub-par games at premium prices will most likely cause another gaming crash akin to the one in the 80's, calling it now.

[@naiiin6949]

More like a triple A gaming crash, indie games aren't really affected by rubbish like this (at least not negatively)

[@falconXmidget]

Good. They need to sober up

[@jonypo928]

@@naiiin6949 I hope you're right. A crash could impact the indie scene when developers try to source investment, crowd-funding is another option however.

[@fish5645]

@@jonypo928 I know what you mean but the difference today is places like Steam act as safe havens for indie games, if AAA suffers a crash in the next few years it won't affect the sales on things they have no ties to. If anything people will be looking to those smaller teams for their gaming fix, I would also expect more projects like Helldivers 2 which are small teams backed by a huge gaming company to become popular. That being said isn't it great that these companies are now feeling the heat from their blatant predatory behaviour?

[@Nerderkips]

The way the camera is so far away from the ship makes you feel really disconnected fromt he game and makes the ship feel weightless

[@alexroselle]

Firaxis and 2K now have the chance to do the funniest thing ever and just release a graphically-refreshed reboot of Sid Meier's Pirates! from 2005

[@TheWatcher20]

No treasure to be found in this game lads, looks like it’s back to the Sea of thieves

[@Karlach_]

I'm so hyped that game is coming to PS5 later. Greatly looking forward to playing for the first time.

[@TheWatcher20]

@@Karlach_ Yeah it’s a really amazing game, one of my favorite parts are the main story quests the crossover quests, you know it’s a true pirate game when there is a mini campaign about teaming up with Jack Sparrow to save the Sea of thieves

[@comlitbeta7532]

I just started playing it with a friend and i really like that it isnt a grindfest, everything right from the start not bullshit gatekeep an only cosmetic to unlock and buy But that is kind of the problem, the game dont really change as you play. I would prefer if you started with a limited number of instrument slots and very few songs, that could be found in treasures and learned form npc's

[@TheWatcher20]

@@comlitbeta7532 There are three songs you can’t play unless you unlock them, two of them you get by 100% the games cross over story arcs, and the third you get from being a pirate legend and that happens when you reach level 50 in three different trading companions

[@TheWatcher20]

@@comlitbeta7532 There are actually three songs that you can’t play that can be unlocked, first two you get by 100% completing the game two crossover story arcs, and the third one you unlock by becoming a pirate legend

[@lewisrichardson1539]

Maybe i misunderstood, but you could grt out and explore pretty much anywhere in black flag, thats the astonishing thing. They went from being able to park your ship anywhere you please and swing of a rope onto a tropical island and hunt for treasure, or dive deep under water and swim through ship wrecks, to none of that and less of everything else... 🤨

[@Kio-Fox]

22:30 easy fix make it so that you have to have a certain kind of ship (one that is bigger with a little more armor or damage output.) that does not have that max speed. This can easily be explained by needing room for cargo or being able to support the weight of it. Alternatively you can make it so that the cargo itself slows you down maybe 5-10 percent of your max speed or thirdly make items that give you speed boosts that are decently difficult to craft or get and disable their use for the ship doing the mission

[@LazySeaBizkit]

Does anyone know what the black safe with the golden skull is behind Luke, off to the right? I'm 90% sure it's some Skull and Bones merch but I cannot for the life of me find it online and it's driving me nuts. It looks similar to the in-game cutthroat cargo logo

[@irish-italianintrovert.8600]

Hey Ubisoft, Remember in ACA you collect materials needed to upgrade your vessel by fighting other ships…. And selling Sugar and rum to gain money which is used to buy upgrades and design. I do.

[@user36003]

Its exactly what you have in this game , you can get everything from sinking other ships and you have sugar and literlly rum cargo heists in the game the guy who made this video didn't even bother to mention it and i doubt he even played the release ... he showed footage from season 1 which was beta times when some content creators got to play a bit of season 1....

[@CosplayZine]

​@@user36003Pirates didn't really have to fight most of their potential targets. Most merchants didn't even want to fight back for fear of losing their lives. Only pirate hunters and navy were any threats. See how simple it could have been to make an actual pirate game?

[@TheMrAtmospheric]

Well dont trust stupid youtubers Which didnt actually played the full released game.. As someone already mentioned Its all in the game, you also have yours own bussines, you Plunder And kill other ships for resources same As settlements And towns. You trade with rum And tobaco, there Are PvE/PVP events.. do some research before commenting;)

[@firdanharbima6997]

​@@TheMrAtmospheric still ain't a fucking quadruple A games

[@TheMrAtmospheric]

@@firdanharbima6997 true but Its not that bad As many Are saying, neither that good As some Are saying.

[@RisingPhoenixLily]

With AC Black Flag, I sang few songs and pretended to be a pirate (lol yup), and freak out over hurricanes near my ship - a real experience. Seeing Skull and Bones gameplay, I get nothing of it.

[@tiredman99]

Same here. Some of those Shanties were catchy. Also yeah storms, rogue waves, all made me go "Oh shit! Oh fuck!"

[@joehanz9217]

​@@tiredman99 yeah, during the Stormy Sea, we can't off the wheel, face it like a true Sailor

[@fish5645]

I mean I get it, the shanties in Black Flag are amazing and the weather/waves/storms thrash the living hell out of Skull and Bones, it's amazing how a ten year old game looks better than one several days old.

[@CosplayZine]

​@@fish5645 and they only had over 10 years to make it fun...

[@vict632]

That endgame max speed chase thing seems just half-baked.. just like the rest of the game i guess? They could do something like this: The "chasers" can spawn ahead of the escaping ship and take some shots at it. (but they spawn at not-max speed so they take time to accelerate) Something relatively simple like that would allow for multiple strategies. Choose a scout ship and try to avoid enough shots to survive, choose a beefier ship and shoot back, etc. 🤷‍♂

[@zlizgirl]

So I know this is about Skull and Bone, but I just wanted to say that the issue with max speed boat chasing max speed boat was addressed in Sea of Thieves. At least for a specific voyage that you're encouraged to chase down and fight over the treasure. If you have the Siren Skull treasure on your ship, the ship is cursed to be slower, allowing any ship the potential to catch up with you and forcing you into naval battles you'd otherwise be able to run from.

[@djukafox]

Mom, I want Sid Meier's Pirates. Mom : We have Sid Meier's Pirates at home.

[@morducal2203]

Skull and Bones is missing so many features that should be part of a pirate/sailing game. Caribbean Legend for example has: -boarding -many shiptypes -attacks on forts -land combat -sea combat -trading -capture possibilities -story -tons of sidequests -huge map -fleet management -crew management -personal abilities and skill system -rpg elements -simulation elements -Story Mode -Sandbox Mode -Steam Workshop

[@IcyVegeta]

In essence, it is missing anything that makes a game compelling or replayable. Just play the old classic games, or seek out smaller development studios' works, like your suggestion in Caribbean Legend (remaster of an older game). Don't bother with this "AAAA" slop.

[@kevMB0000]

and hunting. How many years have I waited to be a fucking hunting ships, sailing and killing all lifeforme with a harppon gun and a cool ship

[@naiiin6949]

The funny part is, AC Black Flag had most of these features lol

[@edwarddonald2792]

Black Flags only redeeming feature was naval combat. I like how people ignore how crap the rest of the game was just to sit on the Skull and Bones hate wagon. Lmao ​@@naiiin6949

[@AluGames_]

It does have some of those things. It does have a huge map, story, ton of side quests, sea combat, attacking forts/settlements, rpg elements, trading, and more. The game is flawed but it’s not unplayable. I do agree it should have land combat, a lot more ship types, fleet&crew management, and the skill system. It could use all those things but it doesn’t need any of them to be playable either.

[@LegallyPotato]

what mouse is that? i didnt see it listed in your setup but it looks like what im looking for

[@Mr.Stone_]

Hi Luke, Just an updated here regarding 19:25. It's actually a lot worse for two reasons. 1 food is not abundant, it's designed more as a time sink to have player go harvest / an economy funnel to move currency out of players banks. 2 This smuggling mission has the exact same endpoint EVERY single run. So no one chases anyone. You just camp the endzone with all weapons primed. While the smuggler trying to run it in has been bled dry from the long travel and pirate NPC's. It's literally the most anti-fun mission.

[@dyliososcioso650]

I might pick it up in four months when it becomes a free to play grind-a-thon.

[@unc54]

I don't think this game would be remotely interesting for another year at least and who knows if it even makes it that long. Unlike other games that fell flat at launch, Ubisoft doesn't seem motivated at all to stick with this game.

[@Tar-Numendil]

I wouldn't play this if it was free. I wouldn't play it if Ubisoft paid me. I'll just play Black Flag and Rogue again.

[@PhilDaBank]

I feel like that name “skull and bones” is lazily slapped on and a depiction of the game in general

[@KyCoyote5.0]

You can cut off the ship by fast traveling and slow them by attacking the sails or causing flood damage. Not the greatest solution but it's something.

[@lsswappedcessna]

You could get off your ship anywhere in Black Flag, it's just that all the little desert islands and POIs were very far apart and going for a swim was only rewarded once you got the diving bell and went to one of the various shipwrecks around the map. They condensed the entire Caribbean into an area about 15km² which is still quite big as maps go by 2013 standards.

[@jordanbaldwin1477]

The reason we are hearing rumors about a Black flag remake is so Ubisoft can reuse mechanics from this game and recoup money they know they’re gonna lose from skill and bones

[@BrandonGavin_EDC]

The sad thing is this game doesn’t even look that good, or that much better than Black Flag sadly.

[@__________.....]

​@@BrandonGavin_EDCIf there's one thing they've managed in SnB that'd be the graphics they're definitley eye pleasing and better than ac4, to say the contrary is next level hating

[@BrandonGavin_EDC]

@@__________..... in some areas yea, but I’ve seen the gameplay side by side and the character models aren’t better, the water barely looks better and you can’t even interact with it. Obviously some textures are improved but it’s not even a great looking game. Not for 200M.

[@SOURMlLK]

As a huge fan of Black Flag, I have no interest in buying this game even if it was $5. What is wrong with game studios now days!

[@jcbtiller]

This is sid Myers "pirates!" With a new texture pack and some of the best features like having a fleet removed.

[@pakabe8774]

I was sailing on a ship (I mean ship and not just a boat) myself once. But even not being an expert, after watching the ships movement in the game, I am sure any real ship would sink almost immediately if it would move like that in real life. I thought people like if the physics in the game can give you the feeling of things you would like to experience irl but can't afford to. And just another mention. Isn't it funny that the flag isn't moving into the same direction where the wind goes (in fact the flag is moving like from a non moving pole and into the opposite direction it would - flags move with the wind and not against).

[@Zn0nimus]

I figured out the "Quadruple A" reference. You see, you thought the A's were linear, but we were wrong. It is a circular formation, making a triangle. 1 A on top with 2 A's below it, like a pyramid. The A's travel in this circular pattern, so as we get to the 4th A, we are in-fact back at the first A. So, a Quadruple A game goes full circle back to a single A. See, it all makes sense now!

[@CognetoBurrito]

To me, a live-service game is basically a released game that they haven't finished making yet, so Ubisoft spent a *decade* making a game and then released it unfinished for full price. Yeah, they can arse off with that. All they had to do was copy + paste Black Flag, remove the AC elements, add a load of ship-specific content, and boom. Easy money maker. But noooooooo, that was too fucking difficult, apparently.

[@RadleyBO0]

So I honestly don’t know how Ubisoft is even still around. They’ve been facing massive losses for years now, and it just doesn’t seem like they have any clue what they’re doing anymore. With that said, I think this leaves an opening in the gaming market for someone to make a really good, fairly deep/involved pirate simulator. Blast enemy ships to smithereens with your cannons but risk losing plunder to the depths, accrue loyalty but also infamy and face growing threats as you become more well known, grow your crew and become the ultimate pirate king. You could even have a base that grows and evolves as you progress. That kind of thing. And obviously, have land-based combat. This would, in turn, translate to plundering combat, as boarding ships could lead to close-range fighting opportunities. And obviously, looting, plundering, and pillaging is how you get stuff. And you shouldn’t buy ships, you should steal them and then repair them/upgrade them afterwards.

[@Just_Flipy]

if they just made a system where you can capture ships and then send them out to collect stuff. so you have to actually tactically destroy boats or else they become usseless. creating a system where in the end you gather your fleet and attack a large island with friends who can control your fleet. and of course there are simple raids where you join an npc pirate so you don't have to do that. that would have made this game 500 times better than what it is now

[@Dr.Kryptanical]

I just realised what it is about the UI layout especially in shops and storage... the font, the colors scheme of yellow/white on black the separated item boxes on a semi-transparent black tint backgrounds off to one side... It's PUBG's UI through and through and once you notice it and look back at PUBG you can't unsee it it's practically identical with little variation at all! my sibling just bought it they were installing it last night I'll take no pleasure in saying "i told you so" but they doubled down figuring I didn't know what I was talking about claiming they also saw the demo video quite a few yrs back and that they had changed since them I call bullshit though the inability to land on any island and inability to walk around your ship or board ships like in black flag is easily apparent! and this from the person who played black flag first and then said it was crap and refused to play the other assassin's creed games prior to black to have it make more sense! I don't understand as someone who studied videogames for years and was taught on the course to properly do my research that people still refuse to take my advice even when I got the evidence to back it up! I guess you could say I know how the Trojan Priestess Kassandra cursed to tell prophecies that were true but not to have anyone believe them feels, I educate myself on a matter and i'm right like 90% of the time so I can't understand this illogical level of distrust the only thing I can think of is because their adverse reaction to being told their wrong even if true will cause an emotional response to double down because they can't stand being wrong! Personally I hope she enjoys the game regardless cause it's a damn waste of money otherwise I only say to her cause I care that she practically scams herself expecting higher than what she recieves! It's a good game on it's own right if you don't compare it to other games and just imagine it's the only pirate game which tbh most people highly invested in it do anyways, it's a decent game in my book a decent sailing game and a decent ship battle game but all I said was to "dampen your expectations so your not disappointed" I could of worded it better something along the lines of "any game can be fun if you just wanna have fun, not nit pick and treat it like your doing a review" I have a saying that critics are people who see it as a job pick a game apart and tend to have forgotten what fun is! a major issue with our society these days! I remember playing broken games as a kid I didn't care it was broken that was half the fun! on the flip side though this is a pirate game the intention is to be a pirate sea of thieves got that memo, a cinematic certainly is not good enough for boarding and exploring your own ship practically living on it gives a slight rpg element to it... It's a bad pirate game, a good battleship game but the important thing is if your having fun then it's worth the money just check what your paying for first don't expect a black flag or sea of thieves experience or your wasting your money! it's also nothing like it was originally! as I recall players were gonna be able to crew their ship with players like sea of thieves in the original version I remember many years ago but that was before they stripped everything out! I really need to stop using exclamation marks but it's become a bad habit and yes it is autism! out of curosity for how badly I can break the game I will play the game in the future when it's on sale or up for free depending on the overall view of the game in the end and if those who are tightly grasping what they paid for it are enough to keep the servers running!

[@dylanwright9927]

I ain’t reading all that brother

[@qhu3878]

playing blackflag, not understanding the story, refusing to play any of the prior games and then calling it crap and dropping the series is really weird to me, like youre missing the most important parts of the story and then saying it doesnt make any sense

[@hokagab]

I've always hated it when the boss poisons my pirate ship and I didn't bring any antidotes or full restores.

[@doctor_decay2296]

That plunder section is classic text book AC. They didn't even try to add on to that at all probably when this was in it's AC expansion phase.

[@th3r3dscare99]

At 3:30 the thing is in ac blackflag you could just get off your ship anywhere and explore you could get off your ship and swim to the islands if you wanted to

[@tonydeluna8095]

Another one you should analyze is Star Wars: Outlaws another Ubisoft game that is currently in the works

[@SIrIvanErection]

I’m not a massive Star Wars fan, but I am looking forward to that and I really hope they don’t mess that one up 🥲

[@sailynmartin9873]

I have a BIG feeling that outlaws will actually be decent even if I hate to say it seeing it’s Ubisoft…..

[@ryanmitchell4044]

@@SIrIvanErectionI would temper your expectations

[@SIrIvanErection]

@@sailynmartin9873 I am not getting my hopes up, I love Ubisoft, pretty much every single one of my favourite franchise are Ubisoft.. Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Assassins Creed, the old school Tom Clancy Games, even the OG Prince of Persia games! So it has been hard over the last few years with the new releases just not being up to the high standards (in my opinion) that they set themselves! Hopefully they bring it back with Outlaws

[@SIrIvanErection]

@@ryanmitchell4044 They can't let me down anymore than they have with Skull and Bones lol

[@nine3cobra]

Why do all the reviews complain about collecting wood and ore, and say they just want to be a pirate. Just kill the ships with the items already refined, with piratey actions lol. i have not done anything but loot shipwrecks.

[@TheBrutalshock]

For 70 bucks

[@nine3cobra]

@@TheBrutalshock to each their own i suppose, i am just saying if your going to do a review at least understand the content well enough to make it.

[@porkchopexpress84]

I'm sorry

[@Nico78Not]

You're paying 70 bucks for this while AC Black Flag is under 15$. You are literally paying more for less.

[@nine3cobra]

@@Nico78Not i wonder how many people who are interested in this game havent played black flag, sometimes having gone through the story multiple times.

[@dizzylilthing]

This is a beautiful example of the difference between art monetized like Elden Ring or Slay The Princess, and media. This game is not artwork made into a product, it is a product sold with artwork.

[@skitz-gh6jb]

Blackflag had a fishing minigame while here you shoot your mortar at the fish

[@mb2776]

Also, ship battles back in the day were more about killing the crew and capturing the other ship or at least use parts of the other ship like planks and cannons to repair your own ship after a battle. So, collecting wood and stuff is just sooo wrong

[@Jay-ws7tv]

It's got that shareholder creativity to it.

[@brockly4443]

No hand to hand combat or even character control of getting off the ship etc killed this game for me

[@DestructionatorWitch]

I bought Black Flag yesterday so I could have fun. I forgot how good it feels to sail with sea shanties. My life is clear again.