Ubisoft Shows Off New Pirate Game Skull and Bones

[ffronw]

Ubisoft Shows Off New Pirate Game Skull and Bones

Ubisoft is offering up a new multiplayer, PvP pirate game: Skull and Bones.

Ubisoft is getting into the pirate game business with a brand new title: Skull and Bones. The multiplayer, open-world game will drop players into the Golden Age of Pirates, and task them with surviving in an ocean full of ferocious battles. At its E3 press conference, the publisher offered up two trialers for the game. The first is a cinematic affair, while the second focuses on actual multiplayer PvP gameplay.

 




Skull and Bones will let you customize your captain, recruit a crew, and build your own ships. As you plunder the trade routes, the game's "shared open world" will react to your exploits. You can even team up with friends to take on bigger targets, and go to war with other pirates.

The game is still a ways off, with a Fall 2018 release window. It's slated to come to PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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[ccggenius12]

It's my understanding that if this is just more of AC 4 without the not piratey bits, they have a hit on their hands. Character customization sounds suspiciously like microtransactions though.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I wish this wasn't multiplayer only tho. Really wanted an ACIV-like pirate game with singleplayer.

 

[Callate]

Much as I appreciate the theme, I'm not entirely enthusiastic about the trend towards "semi-open worlds". It sounds a lot like "we'll count on other players to make up for content we're not willing to provide, the only semi-frequent contact with other players in an 'open world' to make up for a lack of player-vs-player balancing and addressing of 'griefing' issues, make network issues and 'bad apple' players the scapegoat for any technical issues we don't address in the first six weeks of play, and offer 'boss' characters with several times more hit points than any single player can feasibly take on in the place of more nuanced and carefully crafted challenges."

Maybe I'm cynical; maybe I just prefer my games to focus on robust single-player experiences. But a game like this comes with big, obvious hurdles to someone like me: I'd want assurance from other players that the game wasn't like the above before I'd be willing to throw my money down for it, and by that time, the "power players" would likely have everything they needed to make mincemeat out of a "newb".

 

[Cether]

Yes but can you play a female? Or is it still too expensive and time consuming to make a female player character?

 

[bjj hero]

So sea of thieves without the charm?

 

[Zydrate]

I wish this wasn't multiplayer only tho. Really wanted an ACIV-like pirate game with singleplayer.

Wait, is that true? Fuck, then I hope there's an AI mode at least (like For Honor, etc).
I absolutely adored Black Flag's naval combat but I don't like the idea of facing against human players.

 

[immortalfrieza]

I wish this wasn't multiplayer only tho. Really wanted an ACIV-like pirate game with singleplayer.

Me too. I've been looking for a singleplayer pirate game that finally creams the Sid Meier's Pirates! remake, I guess I'll have to wait longer.

Much as I appreciate the theme, I'm not entirely enthusiastic about the trend towards "semi-open worlds". It sounds a lot like "we'll count on other players to make up for content we're not willing to provide, the only semi-frequent contact with other players in an 'open world' to make up for a lack of player-vs-player balancing and addressing of 'griefing' issues, make network issues and 'bad apple' players the scapegoat for any technical issues we don't address in the first six weeks of play, and offer 'boss' characters with several times more hit points than any single player can feasibly take on in the place of more nuanced and carefully crafted challenges."

Maybe I'm cynical; maybe I just prefer my games to focus on robust single-player experiences. But a game like this comes with big, obvious hurdles to someone like me: I'd want assurance from other players that the game wasn't like the above before I'd be willing to throw my money down for it, and by that time, the "power players" would likely have everything they needed to make mincemeat out of a "newb".

You're not cynical, just able to recognize reality. At some point the video game industry realized that instead of trying to make games that can stand on their own, they could just make some crappy multiplayer game instead. This way they can stretch a game that has in reality is lucky to have 5 hours of actual content into lasting any one player dozens of hours by forcing the player base to make up content FOR them, AND they can justify having what is functionally always on DRM built in as without a legitimate copy and functional servers there's nothing to play. Then, eventually even having a legitimate copy won't be enough and they can just release this "new" game that's basically the same as the last game and charge everybody for it all over again. Make it a monthly subscription MMO and these companies can (aside from the occasional bug fixing and content update) just sit on their butts doing nothing for years and get paid more money for a game the player has already bought.

Multiplayer is supposed to be an addition to a game, something to get other players involved as a bonus above and beyond what the game's singleplayer is already capable of. Regardless of content, no game should EVER require more than one player to be enjoyable and especially not require more than one player to be played at all.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I wish this wasn't multiplayer only tho. Really wanted an ACIV-like pirate game with singleplayer.

Wait, is that true? Fuck, then I hope there's an AI mode at least (like For Honor, etc).
I absolutely adored Black Flag's naval combat but I don't like the idea of facing against human players.

I mean I wouldn't mind having the option of battling other players, maybe even have a Souls-like invasion mechanic where you can get pirated by other players (optional mechanic of course) but no.

 

[RealRT]

I wish this wasn't multiplayer only tho. Really wanted an ACIV-like pirate game with singleplayer.

Me too. I've been looking for a singleplayer pirate game that finally creams the Sid Meier's Pirates! remake, I guess I'll have to wait longer.

What about the Sea Dogs series?

 

[immortalfrieza]

I wish this wasn't multiplayer only tho. Really wanted an ACIV-like pirate game with singleplayer.

Me too. I've been looking for a singleplayer pirate game that finally creams the Sid Meier's Pirates! remake, I guess I'll have to wait longer.

What about the Sea Dogs series?

Tried it, Sea Dogs doesn't really convey the feeling and setting of being a pirate as masterfully as the Sid Meier's Pirates! remake does. The combat in particular is pretty terrible.