The more we played, the more cumbersome this thought became: Skull and Bones makes us want to return to the deck of our old pirate ship in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (here is the review of Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag). Despite the long wait and the many changes of direction undergone since 2017 to adjust the aim, the game failed to convince us, as we told you in our review of Skull and Bones. So we dusted off a copy of the fourth numbered episode of Assassin's Creed, to remind us why Edward Kenway's adventures are so attractive.
Naval maneuvers compared
Assassin's Creed 4's naval gameplay was more enjoyable and fluid than that of Skull and Bones. This is because the maneuverability of the Black Flag ships allowed them to perform rapid reversals and other virtuosities impossible in the real world, such as reaching enemy vessels by greatly increasing speed, and then blocking them with a sudden braking by pivoting around the anchor, more effective than a handbrake.
We needed skill to master these movements and exploit them to our advantage, but they gave great satisfaction. On the contrary, Skull and Bones places the tonnage of the boats used on the player's shoulders, which move and turn more slowly. Even thus weighed down, the vessels can still perform satisfying maneuvers, cinematic ramming and so on, but this dimension of the experience offered greater satisfaction in Black Flag.
Moreover, Skull and Bones features mechanics that are absent in its inspiration, such as the ship's energy bar. This indicator represents the tiredness of the crew and prevents us from sailing the seas at the maximum speed allowed for too long, while Black Flag acceleration and braking are almost instantaneous.
Boarding!
Skull and Bones' raids are resolved in a few seconds, with a brief cinematic and a menu from which to select the treasures we intend to plunder.
The reason for this simplification is evident: the developers wanted to clearly distinguish the “main” moments of navigation, those which have the boat as the protagonist, and the instances considered “accessory”, where we directly control our character. In Black Flag, however, the package of pirate experiences included actual boardings, with Edward Kenway who together with his men physically attacked the boats to eliminate their crews and plunder them. We would also have liked to be able to take a tour of the ship and at least explore the deck, but nothing: the Skull and Bones sailing ship is currently inaccessible, and frankly we can't understand why. The two Ubisoft products interpret naval battles differently even starting from similar assumptions. Let's be clear: once the opposing vessel was locked on and the fight began, not even Black Flag was surprising or innovative. At the very least, he entertained us with a change of gear and a run across the deck, to order the crew to open fire, throw the harpoons, or to throw a barrel of explosives onto the enemy's side.
Otherwise, during the navigation sessions in Skull and Bones it is as if we completely identified with the ship, forced into a multi-ton body that can only lower or unfurl the sails, shoot with the press of a button and little else: the immersion in pirate fantasy.
Same historical period, different places
Both Skull and Bones and Assassin's Creed 4 are set in the seventeenth century, the so-called golden age of piracy, but take us to very different geographical areas. Black Flag takes us sailing in the Caribbean waters where piracy itself was born, between the famous island of Tortuga, and the famous port of Nassau, in the Bahamas. It is undoubtedly a fascinating location to visit and full of activities to carry out, missions to accept and much more, whether you do it by ship or when you go ashore. While Skull develops in the Indian Ocean, along the coast of West Africa, which at the time was disputed between the various factions of local indigenous people and the French fleets.
The Black Flag landings were always welcome experiences: identifying a point of interest on the map, or with the telescope and reaching it after a long navigation was exciting, almost as exciting as discovering what we would encounter once on land. On the islands with white sand and crystal clear sea you could solve different side quests and find secrets and collectibles in quantity. The locations crossed ranged between white beaches and lush tropical forests, dotted with human settlements, pirate and bandit bases or ancient ruins with hidden loot.
Not to mention the “swimming” missions in search of underwater holes and more, which many remember with pleasure because they added a variable to the exploration and broke the monotony.
In Skull and Bones the environments that can be visited on foot are corridors essentially devoid of any attraction. The African islands that dot the game map would have lent themselves very well to becoming places to sift through to find resources and it would have taken little to give a broader meaning to the existence of the outposts, perhaps by inserting rewards to find and some puzzles to solve. Instead, you only find shopkeepers and not very interesting NPCs.
Furthermore, the character cannot jump or run: he can only advance at medium speed, from dialogue to dialogue, from menu to menu, until he gets tired and gets back on the boat. In short, Black Flag's situations on land were more engaging. Their validity also made water travel more significant, because it became the means through which to get to a new place to visit.
Where are Blackbeard and the legendary pirates?
Assassin's Creed 4 is full of famous characters from pirate history. From character design to the reconstruction of their personalities, everything is designed to enhance the stories that concern them and connect them to the lore of the Ubisoft universe. They are special, both when we talk to each other and when we face them and exchange cannon fire, ramming and saber blows with them. Above all, the legendary Blackbeard stands out the most, but among the legendary faces we interacted with there were also Benjamin Hornigold, the pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny, their captain Calico Jack and the “gentleman pirate” Stede Bonnet.
The main protagonist himself, the Welsh privateer Edward Kenway, was something more than an avatar for the player: he was a real pirate with a backstory and – over time – increasingly clear objectives to achieve. Skull and Bones, for now, is completely devoid of characters or even just such important and well-defined extras, at the expense of the plot and the entire narrative sector. There isn't the same epic nature, the transport and all we have is a customizable pirate who never speaks, immersed in a story without twists and memorable characters.
To be precise, Ubisoft has enriched the game's roadmap with some of the so-called “Pirate Lords” mentioned above and present in Black Flag, providing for their inclusion as endgame activities. We don't know how they will be transposed, but based on the treatment given to the rest of the narrative we can't tell you how in-depth they will be. In conclusion, the writer has made purely personal considerations, knowing that some readers may prefer the shared world of Skull and Bones and its approach to navigation compared to the solo experience of Black Flag. Yet, the latter remains undefeated if you think about the completeness of its package of pirate experiences (and emotions).