I paid $80 for this “Made in Singapore AAAA” game so you didn’t have to.I can’t believe we had to wait 10 years for this

I really like Ubisoft skull and bones. At the end of the day, I’m Singaporean and I want a game that I can proudly say to other people, “Look, this was made in SG, it’s amazing.”

Unfortunately, when asked that question, it seems that the only option is to look away and deny its existence itself.

Over a decade of development hell, Skull and Bones has had many ups and downs. Although originally designed as a spin-off of his Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag In addition to naval battles, there was once a land version as well.

The game has gone through multiple directors and appears to have been influenced, at least indirectly, by Ubisoft’s accusations of toxic workplaces and sexual harassment. meanwhile, sea ​​of ​​thievesa similar pirate-based game, was released in 2018. skull and bones Development stalled.

Fast forward to 2024 and US$200 million has been spent, some of which was mitigated by subsidies from the Singapore government. skull and bones It’s finally available and playable.

Be prepared for a long journey

The game felt easier to play compared to the closed beta experience, perhaps due to the slightly increased damage dealt to enemies, but it’s still a sleep-inducing experience. You sail to a place, do something, and come back.

skull and bones Due to its vast size, you can expect to spend a lot of time getting around. I managed to find Singapore in the East Indies and traveled there to a known pirate den called Telok Penjara, but by the time I got there I was trying to stay awake listening to the sounds of shacks for about 15 minutes. It took about 20 minutes.

There are a lot of fetch quests, so expect to sail around a lot without doing anything. Of course, you could probably save yourself some trouble by acquiring the outpost in advance and being able to fast travel, but that also requires you to get to the outpost in the first place.

Once you arrive at the outpost, there’s nothing to do on land. However, if you have a treasure map, you can run around and find it. That in itself isn’t much fun, and I’d rather stay on the ship than go ashore.

story continues

Ship combat is fun…but only in small doses.

Speaking of ships, you treat them all the same (at least that’s how it felt to me). Perform boarding actions by firing a variety of weapons, shooting down enemy ships, and automatically plundering ships with the press of a button.

this is Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flagcan engage in hand-to-hand combat.

To be fair, ship-to-ship combat is fun for a little while, but it gets boring after a while.

I like that there are a variety of weapons to choose from, each with different effects and tactics. You can also aim more precisely and deal more damage by hitting vulnerable areas.

And when possible, try to run the board and loot. Because you’ll get more loot than you sink. But that’s all the good things I have to say about this game.

After playing the open beta and purchasing the game, I decided to give up when I was almost at rank 5. Because at that point it felt like we were just repeating what we had done in the closed beta.

In fact, I feel like I’m just repeating what I wrote in my first closed beta review.

However, there is one new thing that wasn’t in the closed beta.

This is the introduction of a Singapore-style pirate who becomes the Pirate King and accompanies him on his journey to find the One Pie. Sorry, wrong game.

Don’t get me wrong. I honestly enjoy hearing local accents, but they look horribly out of place in-game. The audio also sounds unpolished, like it was added at the last minute.

Additionally, most of the characters you meet early in the game have European or African accents, which makes her sound completely out of place.

I expected to hear more of a Singaporean accent in Telok Penjarah, but even though some of the characters looked like locals, they spoke in clipped, almost Chinese accents.

Even Admiral Rahma, who is staying at Telok Penjara, doesn’t sound like a Singaporean. To be honest, it sounds like Filipino to me. And it’s not like there weren’t already video game characters with Singaporean voices.

Skull and Bones is useless

If it’s a quadruple A (or AAAA) game, it won’t even offer the gameplay or fun of A.

Your money would be better spent playing other games like Tekken 8, Helldivers 2, or even the upcoming Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth.

skull and bones It could have been great, but unfortunately it was a failure. I’m sure no one working on this wanted to make a terrible game, but this game includes all of the homework hints submitted to meet the grading requirements.

The sooner you can walk the plank and move on, rather than pretending otherwise, the better.

Aloysius Low is a former CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He is very interested in cats and is currently reviewing products on the following sites: canbuyornot.com