Was anybody surprised this was just going to be another “Ubisoft: the game”. They’re all the same because it’s the same 6 people who define was makes a good game, and what features are needed in each.
That’s not really the core issue, to me. I tried the open beta, and the real problem I found is that it’s not even as good of a pirate role playing game as Ubisoft’s previous efforts in Assassin’s Creed.
I loved AC Odyssey, and that’s an ancient Greek game, and you know what it had that Skull & Bones doesn’t on release? Actual foot combat. The ability to board enemy vessels and fight man to man. The ability to just step away from the helm and walk about your ship. The ability to dock anywhere you like and just swim to shore.
I could not believe that Skull & Bones had no sword or pistol play, and that docking could only be done at certain points with a fade to black transition separating exploring the open world from exploring on foot with no combat.
They’d already done it better elsewhere in games that weren’t even expressly pirate RPGs. Why couldn’t they have the wherewithal to do that, but expanded and multiplayer?
Oooh, I had been interested in this lightly due to wanting more pirate shenanigans other than just Sea of Thieves, but this sounds pretty bad.
Tldr old man yells at clouds for an ideal personalized pirate game
I want a game that’s a cross between “Sid Meiers’ Pirates! Live the Life” and the pirate portions of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. With graphics like Black Flag.
I want to be able to choose and customize my own ship, not be stuck with a Brig like ac4 and I also want to be captaining from the deck, not floating above the action like Pirates! does it.
I also like the damage model from Sea or Thieves. It’s not a “1hp you’re floating and shooting at 100% and at 0% you explode/immediately sink” it’s a “you’ve been hit, you’re almost definitely taking on water so get to damage control or even if you win you could still lose”
If ever there was a game that could have utilized the voice control features some consoles tried, it’s a game where you’re captaining a ship and calling out orders.
Imagine you’re in the middle of a fight against a sloop, and they get off a lucky hit, so you have to call out orders (or hit the corresponding button menus) to get some of your crew on patching the holes, getting your top deck to load up chain shot to take out the sloops sails so you can board and capture it for a nice scouting vessel. And if you want more immersive realism like how some driving games go all out with clutches all the way up to tire/ambient road temperatures you can fiddle with settings to make sure you need to call out all orders or face debuffs in combat. Forgot to call out your orders leading up to firing? Ooh sorry now you need to wait an extra 3 seconds to shoot a full salvo.
It’s a niche game though, it’d never be able to make the money back that would need to go into it to get all the features running smoothly with each other.
Probably one of the most boring games I’ve played in a while. I spent three irl days trying to get someone to pvp me but was only able to join a pvp event twice because they’re so rare. The events make you sign up and during the events if someone’s not signed up you can’t attack them. The events also only allow 6 people so I never saw anyone I could fight in either events
Sea of Thieves is still around. Was just playing it this weekend.
And it’s still getting active content updates. They just came out with the Monkey Island stories late last year, and the Pirates of the Caribbean ones before that.
Between those, and just sailing around doing your thing, that’s a good amount of time spent being a pirate. And it’s fun/looks pretty damn good too.
Sea of thieves is good if you have friends…
Or like playing pvpve or solo. Although I heard they’re working on or already came out with “no pvp” servers? Idk I don’t keep up with it since I stopped playing.
Not “no PvP” servers. Single crew servers. Only you and your crew. Those have been live since December, but they’re quite heavily limited. Can’t use captained ships, can’t progress the trading companies past 40 and you get only 30% of the base treasure value. Still, not having to deal with some jerkwad thinking their fun entitles them to ruin my fun more than makes up for that for me.
I play a game called Arkane Odyssee, which is a really amazing pirate game. I’m not going to mention what platform it’s on as it’s a bit embarrassing but for pirate pvp, and pve it’s got a great story and gameplay.
I liked the division 2 for a few hours and it got super repetitive super fast
Games like that very quickly become “go here scan that defend X so you can make your gear numbers go up”
I admit I no-lifed Destiny 1 and The Division 1 when they first came out, but nowadays I only play those kind sif games if they’re free to me, and usually not for very long.
There was a time when “number go up” would give me that dopamine hit my brain desperately craves, but not anymore.
I did finish TD2 eventually but more because I felt an obligation to finish what I started, than it being a good game…
