Piracy is dead in the Caribbean, but in Skull & Bones, the pirate game from Ubisoft Singapore, it's alive and thriving in the Indian Ocean. A cinematic trailer for the game at Ubisoft's E3 press conference sets the tone, but the real meat is in the gameplay video above.
Here are the details listed on the video's page:
Dominate a Dangerous Open Ocean: A shared open world that reacts as you plunder rich trade routes.
Customize Your Pirate Experience: Choose your captain, recruit your crew and build deadly ships.
Naval Combat Redefined: Use your weapons, spyglass and even the wind to stalk and destroy your prey.
Play Solo or Coop: Raid the Hunting Grounds alone or group with other players to hunt larger prey.
Explosive Multiplayer: Enter the Disputed Waters and fight for supremacy in a variety of game modes.
The gameplay video shows off a variety of ship customizations, from different cannons and weapons to cosmetics like the figurehead of your ship. As in Assassin's Creed 4, the ocean is dotted with powerful forts you'll need to assault or avoid until you're powerful enough to take them on. There's definitely ship boarding, though the video skips past whether there's any third-person melee combat as there is in Black Flag.
There is, of course, multiplayer, given this is a "shared world" game, but it seems like this will largely be about forming co-op groups to take on tough AI ships. We'll have to wait to see what PvP looks like, and how integrated it is into the game.
It's out in 2019. You can sign up for beta access here.
