Skull and Bones is an open-world pirate game with a big focus on sailing, ship combat, and customization. The game has been through a tumultuous development cycle since it was initially revealed all the way back at E3 2017. After a long period of silence, the game finally remerged this year with a new look and the news that it should be released in the near future. Developer Ubisoft has provided various trailers and gameplay videos, and the latest deep dive covers some of the core mechanics of the game. The new gameplay video for Skull and Bones can be watched below.
The extensive new deep dive comes from IGN, and it gives players a look at how its open-world pirate adventure will work in practice. Since Skull and Bones is a pirate game, much of the gameplay will take place at sea. Ubisoft has said that the water itself will be a dynamic environment to explore. Lead Technical director Kris Kirkpatrick explains that the water is “essentially a deforming mesh, and that deforming mesh informs the physics.” In simpler terms, that means that the ships are interacting with the sea waves in real time.
Kirkpatrick also goes on to mention that other physics will affect how the ship interacts with the sea, including buoyancy and drag. These factors affect “how far into the water the boat will go, how slow they will go through it. Each ship should feel different based on the size and how heavy it is.”
Factors like wind direction can affect the speed of a ship, but the developers stress that despite how many new physics systems are in play, Skull and Bones will not feel like a simulator. Players who choose to learn about these systems will gain advantages and learn to become more skilled navigators. Dynamic weather such as rain and storms can also affect ship handling and be a dangerous threat. Player ships might take damage, flood, and the storm itself could make it harder to spot enemy ships approaching.
A lot of interested players have wondered about how the on-land gameplay of Skull and Bones will work. Ubisoft confirms that players can step off their ships to explore islands, but unfortunately, not every island in the game will be explorable. The company notes that dens and outposts are two special types of locations that players will frequently visit. Ryan Barnard, the game director, says that on-land gameplay involves “socializing, crafting, building up your fleet and taking contracts in the game in either a den or the outpost.”
The new gameplay demonstration also covers player customization and some of the biomes that will be explorable on the full map.
Skull and Bones will be released on November 8 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Stadia.
