Find the games you're looking for

Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones has received a mixed reception, with critics acknowledging the satisfying core naval combat and ship customization but lamenting its repetitive gameplay loop, lack of a compelling narrative, and shallow live-service elements. While the game’s unique pirate setting and potential for thrilling ship battles hold promise, the general consensus suggests it fails to live up to its high expectations or become a true successor to beloved pirate titles like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

Game Info

Enter the Golden Age of Piracy as you sail through rich merchant trade routes. Embody an insatiable pirate captain, dive into the battle for the ruling of the Indian Ocean and become the most feared pirate, alone or with your gang of up to 5 players.

Recommended

Average Score

Total Reviews: 74

RELEASE DATES:

GENRES:

DEVELOPER(S):

PUBLISHER(S):

SERIES/FRANCHISE:

GAME MODES:

Where to Play

** VSG may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

Ratings & Reviews

74

Critic Reviews

60

Average Critic Score

Where to Play

All reviews are from professional critics. Learn more about the critics VSG aggregates.

High Score

80%

Median Score

60%

Low Score

30%

What did you think of Skull and Bones?

Player Reviews0 Votes

Ralph Panebianco (Skill Up)

February 16, 2024

Not Recommended

Ubisoft spent 11 years making a worse version of a game they already made.

Hamish Lindsay (Stevivor)

February 16, 2024

Not Recommended

Ultimately, I don’t really know who Skull and Bones is for. Diehard pirate nerds may get a kick out of the more “realistic” nature of things as opposed to Sea of Thieves, but after nearly 6 years the latter certainly does most things better. For the MMO, looter shooter gang among us (i.e. me) there’s just not enough meaningful here, and for there’s no depth there for the RPG crew either.

Nick Erlenhof (Cerealkillerz)

February 16, 2024

6.6/10

Skull and Bones feels like an online mode from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, but in a bad way. The sea battles are really fun at first and look really great, but unfortunately it remains a monotonous and dull grind. There’s not much to do, there’s no gameplay away from the ship and everything else just plods along. There is definitely potential somewhere, but there are plenty of more fun alternatives in the pirate genre.

VSG News

News

Embracer Group CEO Takes Responsibility for Restructuring, Announces Major Company Split

News

Assassin’s Creed Jade Release Likely Delayed to 2025 as Tencent Shifts Focus

News

PlayStation 5 Pro: Leaked Specs Reveal a Major Upgrade, Release Hinted for Holiday 2024

News

Xbox Games Hit New Platforms: Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded Coming to Other Platforms

Xbox

Xbox Reaches Beyond Consoles: 4 Games to Rival Platforms, and What It Means

Score Ranges

Read the Reviews (74 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
AltChar	Asmir Kovacevic	65 / 100	02-21-2024	When a ten-year-old Assassin’s Creed game proves to be a superior pirate experience compared to an actual pirate game which Skull and Bones is on paper, that only raises questions about the true nature of the latter.	Read review
Atarita	Alparslan Gürlek	60 / 100	02-20-2024	Skull and Bones unfortunately falls far short of the bar set by Ubisoft’s great service games like Steep, Riders Republic and The Crew Motorfest. Even though the theme is well done, it’s far from being fun at the moment.	Read review
Atomix	Aldo López	70 / 100	02-23-2024	If you were looking for a spectacular adventure focused on a single player or similar, that is something you will not find in this product. On the other hand, if you were prepared to receive this game knowing that it is just a service, then you may have a good time, since the hours of farming are not going to end soon and it has ideas that are not bad at all.	Read review
BaziCenter	Milad Taher Nejad	6 / 10	02-22-2024	After all the drama, all the hype and a lengthy development process, Skull and Bones is here, and it fails miserably. This is not a AAAA title, and even calling it a AAA title is highly debateable. I wouldn’t waste my money on it and I recommend that you don’t either.	Read review
But Why Tho?	Kate Sanchez	6.5 / 10	02-20-2024	As a whole, Skull and Bones is a very fun game, one that I genuinely couldn’t put down once the battles began. But that fun is uneven at best. Despite its long development cycle, the live-service element that is felt deeply throughout the game isn’t microtransactions. It’s emptiness.	Read review
Capsule Computers	Travis Bruno	5 / 10	02-29-2024	Skull and Bones nails its ship combat and sailing so wonderfully it becomes a highlight amongst generic gameplay loops, bare bones story, and chore-like endgame tasks.	Read review
Cerealkillerz	Nick Erlenhof	6.6 / 10	02-16-2024	Skull and Bones feels like an online mode from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, but in a bad way. The sea battles are really fun at first and look really great, but unfortunately it remains a monotonous and dull grind. There’s not much to do, there’s no gameplay away from the ship and everything else just plods along. There is definitely potential somewhere, but there are plenty of more fun alternatives in the pirate genre.	Read review
CGMagazine	Philip Watson	6 / 10	02-19-2024	Skull and Bones is finally here, but tedious game systems and a grindy time investment to get anywhere may be too rich for some to go on this voyage.	Read review
Checkpoint Gaming	Tom Quirk	6 / 10	02-21-2024	Considering the game’s notoriously troubled development, Skull and Bones is definitely not as bad as it could have been. With many of its tweaks to the naval combat pioneered in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, the game is often fun, particularly with a friend. However, those moments of fun are often hard to find, and are buried under boring travel, glacially-paced harvesting and looting, and a rather shallow world to explore. If you’re a fan of other multiplayer live-service titles and are looking for a new kind of game to check out with friends, Skull and Bones certainly brings something new to the table that Destiny 2 and The Division 2 do not, but it is not all smooth sailing.	Read review
COGconnected	Rhett Waselenchuk	70 / 100	03-05-2024	Skull and Bones does what it set out to do quite well. Combat is fun, the upgrade system is rewarding, the environment is engaging, and the sound design is phenomenal. But everything that it doesn’t do sticks out like a sore thumb. A next-to-non-existent narrative, repetitive one-trick missions, and a lack of anything pirate-related other than sailing a ship hurts. To its credit, I enjoyed my first twenty or so hours more than I thought I would. But it’ll take a significant, focused effort from Ubisoft to maintain interest over the years to come.	Read review
Dexerto	Jessica Filby	2 / 5 stars	02-20-2024	As much as I wanted to enjoy it, Skull and Bones feels like an underdeveloped, unpolished, and unnecessary game that was better left on the cutting room floor. With awkward quests, little incentive to explore, and far too many problematic features, it’s left us wondering how this took 11 years to release and how quickly it’ll drown in its own seas.	Read review
Digital Trends	Jason Rodriguez	2.5 / 5 stars	02-19-2024	Skull and Bones turns the Golden Age of Piracy, one of the most exciting periods in history, into a mundane and plodding experience.	Read review
Enternity.gr	Platon Peppas	3 / 10	03-18-2024	After about twenty hours of gameplay we wonder why they finally released a game that won’t even manage to break even and put Ubisoft through even more promotion costs	Read review
Entertainium	Felicity Chevalier	Recommended	03-06-2024	Avast ye landlubbers! There’s enough pirate booty in Skull and Bones to fill the coffers of the entire Spanish Armada.	Read review
Entertainment Geekly	Luis Alvaro	3FALSE	02-18-2024	With its visually stunning world, engaging gameplay mechanics, and the promise of evolving content, “Skull and Bones” charts a course many will be eager to follow. Yet, the true measure of its legacy will be how it grows and adapts in the treacherous waters of game development.	Read review
Eurogamer	Matt Wales	Not Recommended	02-21-2024	Ubisoft’s long-in-the-works pirate adventure boasts a beautiful world and bombastic ship-to-ship combat, but it sinks amid boring busywork and tedious traversal.	Read review
Eurogamer.pt	Adolfo Soares	2 / 5 stars	02-22-2024	Skull and Bones, unfortunately, doesn’t offer much more than a disappointing experience. Ubisoft insisted on a project that, from the beginning, lacked the necessary elements to result in a satisfactory final product. The result is in many ways embarrassing: it turns out to be one of the most boring games I’ve tried in recent years. Most of the time is spent in a never-ending search for resources to improve our boat, an activity so monotonous that the desire to return is practically nil.	Read review
Everyeye.it	Lorenzo Mango	6.5 / 10	02-20-2024	Unfortunately, Skull and Bones is marked by continuous fluctuations in quality. Its open world is quite vast, but also a bit empty, its pirate atmosphere is successful, but the narrative component is very uninteresting.	Read review
Evilgamerz	Jeroen Janssen	5 / 10	02-22-2024	At first, Skull & Bones seemed to provide a little surprise, but the longer you play, the more frustrating it becomes. The same missions are repeated over and over and the fact that almost all of the gameplay takes place on the boat is simply not fun enough. The choice to focus almost the entire game on sailing was a mistake. The potential of Skull & Bones was enormous. There aren’t that many of a major publisher that makes a pirate game. The big question is why they didn’t opt for a complete pirate adventure, where you had the freedom to explore all the islands on foot and discover the secrets and treasures.	Read review
Explosion Network	Jacob Hegarty	6 / 10	03-22-2024	I had hoped that Skull and Bones might have been an underdog, and I had wished it had come out and surprised me. Unfortunately, it is undercooked and lacks direction.	Read review
eXputer	Moiz Banoori	3FALSE	02-21-2024	Skull and Bones falls short of being a deserving successor to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, and it also lacks substantial elements to support Ubisoft’s assertion that it is the first-ever AAAA title.	Read review
Game Informer	Matt Miller	7.5 / 10	02-21-2024	Despite its long and circuitous course to arrive at port, Skull and Bones is the type of game that may change significantly in the coming months. But to evaluate it as it stands, fellow pirate enthusiasts may discover what I did – a flawed but beautifully presented historical fantasy in which one can take to the water and make a fortune, even if absolutely everything about the pirate life isn’t always pretty.	Read review
Game Rant	Adrian Morales	2.5 / 5 stars	02-22-2024	Skull and Bones is a bloated game that does manage to swim instead of sink, but not without many caveats. In an attempt to separate itself from Black Flag and stand out from the likes of Sea of Thieves, Skulland Bones doesn’t so much color outside the lines as much as dogmatically stick to a tired formula while burying its strongest attributes under mountains of redundancy and half-realized concepts. For those who crave a game set during the Golden Age of Piracy, there are definitely things here to enjoy, but get ready to do a lot of digging.	Read review
Gamefa	mohammad oliaei	4 / 10	02-24-2024	Skull and Bones is a massive letdown and one of the most disappointing games in recent years. Creativity is almost nonexistent, 70 dollars price tag is unjustifiable and combat becomes repetitive extremely fast.	Read review
gameranx	Unknown	Not Recommended	02-16-2024	Video Review	Read review
Gamerheadquarters	Jason Stettner	4.6 / 10	02-22-2024	Skull and Bones is an aesthetically displeasing, barebones pirate game lacking base fundamentals such as boarding which provides an incredibly mundane and ultimately boring experience that is far below the par compared to its inspiration from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.	Read review
Gamers Heroes	Blaine Smith	8 / 10	02-19-2024	If you can stomach the rough seas of the early game, Skull & Bones has a bounty of live-service content on offer. The end-game mechanics and loot loop rely completely and entirely on the combat system that, thankfully, is one that delivers with every firing of a cannon. Taking over towns and cities, conquering trade routes, climbing the leaderboards	Read review
GAMES.CH	Joel Kogler	67 / 100	02-18-2024	While Skull & Bones is far from the worst game ever made, it completely fails in conveying its vision of becoming a legendary pirate captain. Instead, it chases every conceivable gaming trend from excessive crafting, battle passes and hands-off story telling and leaves next to no impact whatsoever. Even among Ubisoft titles, often mocked for their bland sandbox approach, “Skull & Bones” seemingly perfected the blandness with a sparse few highlights when environment, multiplayer and ship combat all click into place and reveal a wealth of untapped potential.	Read review
GameSpot	Richard Wakeling	4 / 10	02-22-2024	Skull and Bones strips away everything great about Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, resulting in a dull live-service game that’s often a chore.	Read review
GamesRadar+	Sam Loveridge	2.5 / 5 stars	02-20-2024	With excellent sailing and naval combat mechanics, it’s a shame that Skull and Bones is so hampered by its lack of diversity, odd developmental decisions, and minimal capacity to offer a true pirate fantasy.	Read review
Gaming Age	Matthew Pollesel	6.5 / 10	02-19-2024	For a niche audience, Skull & Bones may be a GOTY contender. But for everyone else, it’s hard to imagine the appeal. Skull & Bones is a grind-heavy game with not a lot of payoff, unless your idea of payoff is being asked to grind some more.	Read review
GamingBolt	Ravi Sinha	5 / 10	02-20-2024	When it’s not annoying with the lackluster story and mission structure, Skull and Bones is tedious with its end game grind and activities. Bland and repetitive, it’s simply a drag to enjoy.	Read review
GamingTrend	Ron Burke	70 / 100	02-28-2024	Skull & Bones exists in the space between GaaS and MMO-lite at launch. There’s fun to be had, as long as you recognize that this is a looter shooter more than a pirate game.	Read review
Geeks & Com	Marc-Antoine Bergeron Cote	6 / 10	02-20-2024	Clearly, Skull and Bones has suffered from years of development and numerous changes of direction. The handling of the ships is well done, but everything around them is much less so. The in-game phases are very repetitive, and boarding and pillaging are nothing more than identical cinematics. The very principle of the experience is to go back and forth until you reach the end of the main campaign. Not to mention that the technology is not worthy of a game marketed in 2024 at this price.	Read review
Generación Xbox	Javier Gutierrez Bassols	6.5 / 10	02-25-2024	Skull and Bones went through a tortuous development and on many occasions it seemed that it was never going to arrive and would remain in the drawer of forgotten games. However, Ubisoft has done everything in its power to make it come to fruition, although it is noticeable that in its decisions there have been cuts that have taken away some features.	Read review
God is a Geek	Chris White	6 / 10	02-26-2024	Skull and Bones might have been a better game had it released sooner, but at it’s fun combat is dampened by its rather dull progression.	Read review
Hey Poor Player	Shane Boyle	2 / 5 stars	02-26-2024	Despite the clear effort that went into build diversity and satisfying naval combat, Skull and Bones’s core gameplay loops simply aren’t enough to stop this ship from sinking. Mindless grinds, tedious busywork, and a complete lack of any meaningful gameplay hooks outside of the core combat result in an experience that feels incomplete despite the plethora of Ubisoft checklists that there is to work through in your time at sea. If you’re someone who enjoys tinkering with builds and doesn’t mind grinding for materials in a constant pursuit of that next upgrade for hours on end, then you may find something to like here. Otherwise, this is a voyage into tedium-induced insanity that you can definitely afford to miss.	Read review
Hobby Consolas	David Rodriguez	69 / 100	02-19-2024	Skull and Bones isn’t an unmitigated disaster, but it ends up throwing a lot of its potential overboard. The problem isn’t that it’s a game-as-a-service, but that its design falls short. It has highlights and good ideas that make it enjoyable, but if this is AAAA, then let Davy Jones drag us all into the abyss.	Read review
IGN	Travis Northup	7 / 10	02-16-2024	Skull and Bones is a maritime RPG with a strong foundation, even if it feels like a live-service first draft.	Read review
IGN Italy	Angelo Bianco	7 / 10	02-21-2024	Skull and Bones proved to have a stable enough structure to stay afloat and not sink as long as the French publisher decides to support one of its most controversial projects ever. With more profound and enveloping gameplay, we would be talking about a worthy rival to Sea of Thieves. Still, Ubisoft Singapore’s pirate-based adventure is just a decent video game experience more likely to be appreciated for the management aspect and the considerable amount of playable content.	Read review
IGN Spain	Mario Seijas	7 / 10	02-22-2024	Skull and Bones doesn’t quite live up to the expectations of “a AAAA game”, at least not at launch. The title relies on dynamic naval combat and bland, pointless walks on land. What Skull and Bones does it does well, but it doesn’t aspire to be the definitive pirate game. Perhaps the ultimate pirate ship game would be a title more in line with what we’ve encountered.	Read review
Infinite Start	Josh Garibay	6 / 10	02-17-2024	Skull and Bones is finally a real, fully-launched product after several years of troubled development. While some components manage to pleasantly surprise, like ship buildcrafting and general ship-to-ship combat, the jankiness on the technical front, the exhausting live service components and the slim yet grindy endgame leave a lot to be desired. As always with live service titles, we can look towards the next year of seasons and additional content to see how it develops, but for now Skull and Bones is a middling recreation of the pirate fantasy.	Read review
Kakuchopurei	Lewis Larcombe	50 / 100	02-19-2024	Skull And Bones’ sailing and naval combat are solid and well-made from the get-go. Unfortunately, it isn’t enough to carry the entire game and its insane “quadruple A” price tag. Whether it’s the lacklustre storytelling, the shallow gameplay mechanics, or the uninspired multiplayer, there’s no denying that Skull and Bones fails to live up to the hype. And as players lower their anchors and bid farewell to this ill-fated voyage, one can’t help but wonder what could have been if only Ubisoft’s higher-ups and management had dared to chart a course less travelled.	Read review
Kotaku	Mo Mozuch	Not Recommended	02-26-2024	The looming question now is support. Is Ubisoft’s roadmap for this game going to generate the kinds of quality content and community excitement needed to sustain a player base? Live-service games are a crapshoot at best, but it’s clear there are things in the works. Speculation runs rampant on reddit that we’ll be getting more dynamic PvE events like monster hunts, and that the really cool stuff is coming. But, like so many other good ideas for Skull and Bones, it doesn’t actually exist yet.	Read review
Leadergamer	Alper Dalan	7 / 10	02-26-2024	It’s a charming game with a pirate theme and plenty of mechanics, but it does feel repetitive after a while.	Read review
Merlin’in Kazanı	İlkay Eren Kartal	75 / 100	02-16-2024	To summarize, we have a pirate-themed ship game that looks great and has great mechanics.	Read review
MondoXbox	Antonio Di Lorenzo	7.5 / 10	03-04-2024	Skull and Bones is a pirate naval warfare game that is open to criticism in the areas of navigation and exploration systems. In spite of this, Ubisoft’s title can be played and provides moments of adrenaline during battles or assaults, which are exciting and fun.	Read review
New Game Network	Alex Varankou	60 / 100	02-27-2024	Skull and Bones may have survived the turbulent seas of its long voyage to release, but the end result is a game that’s barely kept afloat by its solid sailing mechanics, while the uninspiring content, underwhelming presentation, and poor multiplayer design punch far too many holes in the hull.	Read review
Nexus Hub	Sam Aberdeen	6 / 10	02-20-2024	Skull and Bones has fun naval combat and great ship customisation but it’s buried by tedious quests, grinding and a shallow endgame that feels unfinished in its current state.	Read review
NoobFeed	Azfar Rayan	30 / 100	02-18-2024	There was so much potential for Skull and Bones to be a fantastic pirate MMORPG, but it is not even close. And due to the lack of meaningful content, Skull and Bones has the potential to be the most disappointing full-priced Ubisoft game that I have ever played. Our money seems to be going toward what seems like a free-to-play game that managed to squander an AAA developer’s resources.	Read review
Oyungezer Online	Gülhis Canpolat	6 / 10	03-14-2024	Despite being in development for so many years, Skull & Bones offers fewer gameplay mechanics than the naval battles of past Assassin’s Creed games. Yes, it does what it claims to do, but the turbulent development process unfortunately prevents it from getting any sympathy votes.	Read review
PC Gamer	Shaun Prescott	68 / 100	02-16-2024	Combining moody and gratifying ship-on-ship combat with shallow live service trappings, Skull and Bones is great within the claustrophobic parameters of what market forces allow it to be.	Read review
PC Invasion	Aidan Lambourne	4 / 10	02-16-2024	Instead of a “gritty pirate game,” Skull and Bones is a looter shooter on the high seas that keeps stepping on its own toes.	Read review
PCGamesN	Cheri Faulkner	4 / 10	02-16-2024	Skull and Bones promises the pirate adventure of our dreams and falls far short thanks to a sparse storyline, lack of personality, and gameplay that oscillates between frustrating and boring.	Read review
Press Start	James Wood	6.5 / 10	02-17-2024	While its ship customisation revels in aesthetic delights, little else here allows for the kind of pirate fantasy we’ve been waiting for since 2013. Despite some early promise and admirable endgame ideas, Skull and Bones charts a fairly unremarkable course through its gorgeously empty ocean.	Read review
PSX Brasil	Bruno Henrique Vinhadel	70 / 100	02-21-2024	Skull and Bones adopts the theme of piracy in a naval battle game that delivers good combat in a well-crafted fantasy. There is still a lack of precise adjustments to improve the experience as a whole, improvements to poorly developed mechanics, and the endgame in its current state is deplorable. Despite this, there is an opportunity here for fans of the style and setting to have fun, as long as they understand what the game proposes.	Read review
Push Square	Khayl Adam	7 / 10	02-21-2024	Skull and Bones delivers boatloads of explosive tactical action, with players playing the part of pirates in an impressive oceanic world. Its 17th-century naval battles are best-in-class, with developer Ubisoft Singapore building a firm foundation for future voyages. But with no real story to speak of and little in the way of variation, repetition inevitably sets in. While not the spiritual successor to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag as some might have been hoping for, Skull and Bones is never-the-less an incredibly unique, reactive game well worth checking out.	Read review
Rectify Gaming	Unknown	6.5 / 10	02-26-2024	Overall the game is Decent, but with the amount of years it took to make, we both expected way more from the game. While the game invites players to explore the beautiful but treacherous Indian Ocean during the Golden Age of Piracy, if it weren’t for the Online Servers, this game would likely be one you’d see heavily pirated, just like the Golden Age of Piracy the game is set in.	Read review
Rock, Paper, Shotgun	Ed Thorn	Not Recommended	02-23-2024	After 11 years of development, Ubisoft Singapore’s open world pirate-venture is a deeply ungenerous live service that’s so dull, I’d turn anywhere else for entertainment.	Read review
Screen Rant	Leo Faierman	2 / 5 stars	02-23-2024	It’s everything surrounding those battles and skirmishes that makes Skull and Bones a harder sell. The simulation aspects are limited and under-baked, the questing is almost always tedious, and there are only a few main ship models to work with. Lacking the ability to dock and explore, ocean exploration feels perfunctory and artificially hampered. Better ship customization options open up eventually, and it’s initially interesting to tinker with armaments, but it’s hard not to want even more of the best boat blueprints, more gear, more detailed inclusions that would make these vessels feel authored and unique, something to elevate the vacant core routines. Skull and Bones could have been a welcoming and rare new beacon for pirate game fans but, even with seasons of promised premium content yet to come, this boat is visibly sinking.	Read review
Seasoned Gaming	Alex Segovia	6 / 10	02-19-2024	I wish Skull and Bones was the pirate extravaganza it could and should have been. But other than some fleeting ship combat, if you want to get the real pirate experience, look elsewhere.	Read review
SECTOR.sk	Peter Dragula	7 / 10	02-23-2024	Ubisoft has offered a decent base for an online pirate game, perhaps without a lot of variety yet, but it still has atmosphere and depth in terms of upgrading ships, building new ships, as well as trading and, of course, combat.	Read review
Skill Up	Ralph Panebianco	Recommended	02-16-2024	Video Review	Read review
Softpedia	Cosmin Vasile	6.5 / 10	02-19-2024	Skull and Bones spent seven years in development, but still feels like an unfinished beta version that was released way before it’s time. And while many expect this kind of patchwork from Ubisoft, it is still a reprehensible industry practice that is in no way fair to the players, who despite all the warning signs have waited and hoped for the game’s release.	Read review
SpazioGames	Nicolò Bicego	6.2 / 10	03-08-2024	In short, net of reversals made by future updates, the dawn of “quadruple A” stocks does not seem to be all that promising.	Read review
Stevivor	Hamish Lindsay	Not Recommended	02-16-2024	Ultimately, I don’t really know who Skull and Bones is for. Diehard pirate nerds may get a kick out of the more “realistic” nature of things as opposed to Sea of Thieves, but after nearly 6 years the latter certainly does most things better. For the MMO, looter shooter gang among us (i.e. me) there’s just not enough meaningful here, and for there’s no depth there for the RPG crew either.	Read review
The Game Crater	Jayden Hellyar	6 / 10	03-05-2024	Skull and Bones falls short of expectations, particularly in its lackluster narrative and repetitive gameplay loop. The exciting ship combat, deep customization, and visually stunning world can’t fix the emptiness you feel when sailing the high seas.	Read review
The Games Machine	Alessandro Alosi	7 / 10	02-21-2024	the risk of being repetitive or boring in some situations, the insipid narrative and a perfectible technical sector work against it, yet not everything is to be thrown away because Skull and Bones has potential, I can perceive it while I sail its seas juggling between PVE clashes and other players who, like me, aspire to the title of pirate king. Unfortunately, the problems during development end up being reflected in a live service which, despite the intriguing pirate setting, in the current state of things appears incapable of standing out from the crowd to rival the giants of the genre.	Read review
The Outerhaven Productions	Scott Adams	3 / 5 stars	03-06-2024	Skull And Bones is a game that has glimmers of fun that show what it could have been. The game is competent but not worthwhile in its current state.	Read review
TheSixthAxis	Adrian Burrows	7 / 10	02-26-2024	Skull and Bones is a very odd game and there are plenty of aspects to it that will leave a great number of players stone-cold. But, there is also something wonderful about it as well; the sense of exploration, the cathartic combat, the glorious visuals, the welcoming online community, and the ridiculously catchy sea shanties. In short, like the very best pirate, Skull and Bones will be loved by some, and hated by others. For my part, and in spite of its issues, I love it.	Read review
Tom’s Hardware Italia	Giulia Serena	65 / 100	03-20-2024	Skull and Bones is not only not the “quadruple A” promised by Ubisoft, nor is it a game capable of bringing to life the pirate dream of all those who have ever dreamed of being able to command a black-flagged ship.	Read review
Use a Potion	Unknown	7.5 / 10	02-26-2024	Skull and Bones is an enjoyable sea-faring romp that has thrilling naval combat, but the grind-heavy gameplay loop can get a little tiring over time. It’d be something if there was a bit more to do on land to give the gameplay loop more variety, but with most of your progression based upon your antics at sea and grinding for resources, it doesn’t take long before you find yourself doing a lot of the same things over and over again.	Read review
WayTooManyGames	Kyle Nicol	5 / 10	02-22-2024	Skull and Bones isn’t the absolute shipwreck that many expected it to be. However, after such a long period of time waiting for this come out, never truly knowing whether or not Ubisoft had actually cancelled it, it’s hard not to be disappointed with this corporate and generic end result. This is a shallow, empty, lifeless experience, where its admittedly solid core gameplay cannot carry the rest of its disappointing elements on its own. There is still some fun to be had, sure, but this isn’t worth the current pricetag, especially with other, much better pirate-themed games available in basically every modern system you can imagine.	Read review
Wccftech	Nathan Birch	7 / 10	02-21-2024	It can be difficult to square the decade-plus Skull and Bones development cycle with its lack of features in some areas, but this isn’t the wreck many expected it to be. The game’s naval combat is simple yet engaging, its world is striking, ship customization is satisfying, and there are plenty of varied things to do, even if most of them don’t involve getting off your ship. Skull and Bones can be repetitive and it doesn’t exactly capture that devil-may-care pirate lifestyle, but keep expectations in check and there’s fun to be had sailing these pleasantly predictable seas.	Read review
WellPlayed	Nathan Hennessy	5.5 / 10	02-22-2024	Perhaps Ubisoft’s most mediocre new IP launch to date, eliciting neither excitement nor offence.	Read review
WhatIfGaming	Rizwan Anwer	6 / 10	02-24-2024	Skull and Bones has some fun naval combat mechanics and a largely engaging sandbox experience that’s brought down by live-service trappings and a lack of freedom outside of controlling your ship. There’s a lot of room for improvement, and Skull and Bones has the potential to realize its setting by reexamining the games it’s influenced by.	Read review
Worth Playing	Tony “OUberLord” Mitera	5.1 / 10	02-27-2024	Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave Skull and Bones with anything that it can really claim as one of its strengths. Its ship combat is weak, and for all intents and purposes the on-foot gameplay is nonexistent. What little story the game has is threadbare at best, and it gives the player no good reason to slog through the grind. It is saddening, as the game could’ve been something great, especially since there aren’t a ton of pirate games out there. However, there isn’t much about Skull and Bones that I will remember a year from now.	Read review
Xbox Achievements	Josh Wise	50 / 100	03-04-2024	Skull and Bones is a dull exercise in checklist progression, spiced here and there with some impressive sailing.	Read review
XboxEra	Jon Clarke	6.8 / 10	02-19-2024	It may not be the “AAAA” game Ubisoft touted, but with a solid enough foundation, a decently planned bevy of seasonal content ahead of it, and the uniqueness of making the ship and gear the focus, it may be finally on the right course after all.	Read review
Zoomg	Sadegh Tavazoyi	4.5 / 10	02-19-2024	Skull and Bones has potential but the result is disappointing. the gameplay gets boring after the first hours and the game fails to deliver story wise.	Read review

Skull and Bones Credits

DIRECTOR(S):

Franek Roznowicz, Elisabeth Pellen, Juen Yeow Mak

PRODUCER(S):

Karl Luhe

DESIGNER(S):

Simon Lemay-Comtois, Guhem Marin, Andy Tan

PROGRAMMER(S):

Yvan Laval, Jussi Markkanen

ARTIST(S):

Franco Perez

WRITER(S):

Joel Janisse, Axel Droxler

COMPOSER(S):

Tom Holkenborg

LINKS:

Developed by Ubisoft Singapore. All titles, content, brand names, trademarks, logos, artwork, and associated imagery are trademarks and/or copyright material of their respective owners. © All rights reserved.

Find the games you're looking for

Popular Keywords

Platforms

Skull and Bones

Critics Consensus (Skip It)

Game Info

Where to Play

Ratings & Reviews

74

60

Where to Play

Embracer Group CEO Takes Responsibility for Restructuring, Announces Major Company Split

Assassin’s Creed Jade Release Likely Delayed to 2025 as Tencent Shifts Focus

PlayStation 5 Pro: Leaked Specs Reveal a Major Upgrade, Release Hinted for Holiday 2024

Xbox Games Hit New Platforms: Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded Coming to Other Platforms

Xbox Reaches Beyond Consoles: 4 Games to Rival Platforms, and What It Means

Skull and Bones Credits

Franek Roznowicz, Elisabeth Pellen, Juen Yeow Mak

Karl Luhe

Simon Lemay-Comtois, Guhem Marin, Andy Tan

Yvan Laval, Jussi Markkanen

Franco Perez

Joel Janisse, Axel Droxler

Tom Holkenborg

Find the games you're looking for

Popular Keywords

Platforms

Skull and Bones

Critics Consensus (Skip It)

Game Info

Where to Play

Ratings & Reviews

74

60

Where to Play

Embracer Group CEO Takes Responsibility for Restructuring, Announces Major Company Split

Assassin’s Creed Jade Release Likely Delayed to 2025 as Tencent Shifts Focus

PlayStation 5 Pro: Leaked Specs Reveal a Major Upgrade, Release Hinted for Holiday 2024

Xbox Games Hit New Platforms: Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded Coming to Other Platforms

Xbox Reaches Beyond Consoles: 4 Games to Rival Platforms, and What It Means

Skull and Bones Credits

Franek Roznowicz, Elisabeth Pellen, Juen Yeow Mak

Karl Luhe

Simon Lemay-Comtois, Guhem Marin, Andy Tan

Yvan Laval, Jussi Markkanen

Franco Perez

Joel Janisse, Axel Droxler

Tom Holkenborg

Subscribe