Plain sailing through the Skull and Bones final closed beta

18.12.2023 - 12:51 / thesixthaxis.com

Skull and Bones has been through a lot. Born from the success of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, there was demand for a fully-fledged pirate game using the same style of high seas adventuring, but as it beset by delays and production issues, the game seemed permanently stuck in development hell. Now, some ten years on from Edward Kenway’s adventure, Skull and Bones is finally less than two months from release, and we’ve finally gone hands on with the game during its final closed beta.

With access granted to Skull and Bones’ opening six hours, things open with a battle against a fleet of ships, a battle you are destined to lose no matter how many British ships you sink. Once you get through that you find yourself floating on some driftwood, which in turn becomes the character creation screen as you stare deep into a puddle. That could easily have been the end of your newly created person, just floating until you dehydrate, drown or get eaten by a shark, but you’re luckily rescued by a couple of other pirates on a tiny dhow. You’re immediately made captain of the ship, armed with little more than spears and a can-do attitude, meaning that everything in the sea poses a legitimate threat. Even sharks.

Once you find land, you’re introduced to various other key elements, like accepting missions, combat, and gathering resources. With the basics under your rope belt, you’re then given leave to head for the open waters of the Indian Ocean. Arriving at the first pirate den in your dhow, you’re off to a decidedly humble start, with every other NPC pirate making fun of you. Then again, you have no reputation behind you and a rubbish ship, both of which you need to immediately rectify.

To build your first ocean-worthy ship you need resources like wood, metal, and torn sails. These are needed to craft axes and other tools before you ask the shipwright to build your ship. Torn sails are meant to be common materials found in the sea or on wrecks – strangely required for making an axe – but it took an annoyingly long time for me to find some. Going out in a dhow when there are bigger ships out on the water armed with cannons is not exactly safe, and throwing a spear at one of them is far from advisable. What isn’t helpful is that dhow has a top speed of six knots, and when you have to traverse great stretches of ocean, the early going is stupefyingly slow.

Once you finally get a proper ship, you can accept several contracts and go on missions for the pirate leader, Scurlock. He has gripes with the various factions that sail the Indian Ocean, and those factions also have gripes with each other. As you complete missions and contracts, your infamy will grow, and as your reputation increases, you gain access to the ability