Older boat, smoother sailing – I prefer Black Flag over Skull and Bones

It didn’t take long to get disillusioned. I’ve been looking forward to Skull and Bones for years and, despite all the bad omens, kept my hopes up. But the truth soon became clear. Above all, Skull and Bones shows how a pirate game shouldn’t be. You can read more about this in my colleague Phil’s review.

The number of concurrent gamers playing this «AAAA game» shows that many players feel the same way. So far, the live-service pirate adventure hasn’t cracked the one-million-player mark. At the same time, the number of gamers enjoying the spiritual predecessor Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is growing. These rose by over 200 per cent around the release of Skull and Bones. So, looks like gamers want to slip into the boots of a pirate, just not in the world of Skull and Bones.

This confirms my personal sentiment, as well as what I hear in my environment. If you want a proper pirate adventure, you’re better off playing Black Flag over Skull and Bones – despite the age difference. In my opinion, Skull and Bones manages one thing above all – reminding us how good Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag really was.

Power fantasy in the Caribbean

While Skull and Bones is a live service game designed to keep the audience glued to the screen for as long as possible with regular seasons, Black Flag was a story-driven single-player experience. So they’re starting from completely different points already. I wouldn’t necessarily compare them if Skull and Bones hadn’t been titled a Black Flag spin-off from the start. Black Flag’s influence can’t be denied, some of the mechanics have even been adopted one-to-one. That’s why I’m all the more disappointed that a game with ten years of development time and a budget of 200 million US dollars can’t hold a candle to its older brother.

Let’s take the cutscenes as an example. Black Flag has more believable animations, more vivid characters and more convincing dialogue. Skull and Bones tries to introduce an RPG element with dialogue options, but these hardly influence the plot. No matter what I click, the NPC I’m talking to responds the same.

Another example is the world in which the stories take place. The Caribbean in Black Flag is breathtakingly beautiful, vibrant and almost seamlessly explorable. I can leave the helm at any time, jump into the sea and swim ashore to explore an island. Loading screens are rare, and I can also board other ships.

In Skull and Bones I control a ship, not a person. I constantly sail past wooded coastlines or seemingly busy foundries and think to myself: «I’d love to explore this place on foot». However, my player character only gets to stretch his legs in isolated hubs hidden behind loading screens and is very restricted in his actions even then. He’s forced to do annoying things, but more on that later.

Black Flag focuses on things that are fun about the (highly romanticised) pirate life. Sailing while belting sea shanties, chasing merchant ships, firing cannons, swinging on a rope and boarding, exploring islands, beating up ruffians, conquering forts, plundering shipwrecks, searching for treasure, hunting wildlife and drinking rum with my pirate friends. The world is my oyster and nobody can stop me.

This power fantasy is the most enticing thing about Black Flag. In this game I can lose myself, forget time and – as simple as it sounds – be a pirate.

Cooking pot instead of high-sea battles

Unfortunately, Skull and Bones doesn’t manage to convey this feeling. Instead of feeling like a pirate, I feel like a goon. I laboriously search for blueprints, harvest resources in an unimaginative mini-game, craft a new ship’s hull myself at the blacksmith and then cook my crew their damn fish. Throughout the process, I have to be careful to not overfill my inventory. Can you imagine Captain Jack Sparrow – a real pirate, of course – doing any of these tasks? My point exactly.

When I set sail, I move my ship in the direction of a glowing icon to deliver a package or to talk to someone. Not particularly exciting assignments for a pirate. If I do find myself in a naval battle, I have a wide arsenal of weapons at my disposal. But every time I see the damage numbers of my attacks and my enemy’s dwindling health, I’m overcome with sad boredom. I want to shoot, not grind.

Black Flag allows this. Yes, my arsenal is very limited, yet I feel a lot more powerful when my full broadside pierces the enemy ship and my upper deck is covered in smoke. I nimbly aim the swivelling, smaller cannons at my opponent’s weak points and stab the captain in the following boarding sequence (not just a cutscene!)

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag also serves the naval battle power fantasy better. So, instead of waiting for my crew’s stamina bar to recharge so I can sail at full speed again, I’ll just reinstall a ten-year-old game.

Incidentally, it could even be completely overhauled in the coming years and re-released as a remake. After all, rumours surrounding a Project Obsidian are circulating on the internet from trustworthy sources. Whether the fabulous Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag really needs a remake is a discussion for another time. But until then, like thousands of gamers in the Animus, I’ll be hitting the high seas once more. Full speed ahead!