Despite claims it is a “quadruple-A” live-service experience, Skull and Bones’s user Metacritic score has taken a pummelling since the pirate ship game was released on Friday, 16th February.
Based on the 222 user scores recorded to date, Skull and Bones’ user score is sitting at just 2.8 out of 10, making it the lowest-rated game of 2024 released thus far when ranked by user score alone.
Complaints are centred chiefly around its “underwhelming and lacklustre” gameplay, a “poorly designed” end game, and claims that it is “boring”, with many players comparing it unfavourably to Sea of Thieves and even Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, the latter of which is now 11 years old.
“Where is the other half of the game? 10 years in development and we get a downgraded [Assassin’s] Creed game. Awesome,” said one unhappy player.
It’s not all bad, though; 18 per cent of players have dropped a positive comment, with one saying: “Thank you Ubisoft for this amazing AAAA title I’m truly loving it, chef’s kiss. I’m eager to see what this genius mastermind of a company puts out next!!!”
The critic score fares a little better and currently sits at a middling 64 out of a possible 100 across all platforms.
Ubisoft’s boss Yves Guillemot recently called Skull and Bones a “quadruple-A” live-service pirate ship game.
Discussing the long-awaited project with investors earlier this week, Guillemot justified the live service game launching with a £70 price tag as it being a fully-formed experience that was also supported by a battle pass, premium currency, and an in-game store.
“You will see that Skull and Bones is a full-fledged game,” Guillemot said at the time. “It’s a very big game and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. So it’s a really full triple-A, quadruple-A game that will deliver in the long run.”