First it was ninjas, then zombies (so many zombies) and now pirates seem to be the next group up to plate of pop-culture obsession, thanks in part to two major AAA releases sailing into view with Rare’s Sea of Thieves hitting the Xbox One and PC in early 2018 and Ubisoft’s Skull & Bones coming to the PS4, XBO and PC later in the same year. And while directly comparing these titles is hard, it’s not often that two games share a theme so closely and are drawing are drawing so much interested from like-minded gamers. So I decided to to look at the pros and cons of both games to try to get an early idea as to which game will be better between Sea of Thieves and Skull & Bones.
Let’s start by looking at Sea of Thieves and why it may just be the better title out of the two. For starters, what we’ve seen so far from the game does seem to offer way, way more gameplay variety than Skull & Bones with players being actually able to leave the confines of their pirate ship and explore islands & caverns for lost treasure and other things that pirates tend to look for. This variety helps give the game its unique pacing where you can freely go from your ship to exploring land (or under the waves) yo your heart’s content and at your own pace, allowing you to experience a more “realistic” (and I use the term very loosely unless the game has a scurvy mechanic) life of a pirate than the ship-combat focused Skull & Bones.
Sea of Thieves also sports an incredible art style that gives some wonder and merriment to the world of pirates, making it feel like something out of Peter Pan or even Pirates of the Caribbean in a lot of ways, which definitely helps the game feel more welcoming to new players who just want to have fun in the open-world it presents. In fact it feels like a return to form for Rare, a company that (in) famously has been stuck in a bit of rut ever since they were sold to Microsoft in the early 2000’s. Sea of Thieves feels like a return to the more whimsical worlds of games like Banjo-Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day and Kameo: Elements of Power and the game definitely looks like its jam-packed with all the things that made us fall in love with Rare in the mid to late 90’s.
Skull & Bones on the other hand is a much more ‘realistic’ take on the Golden Age of Piracy, where players must command their armadas skillfully and carefully to be able to come away with the most loot. It’s definitely a much more focused experience than Sea of Thieves but its this focus that gives the game its strength as it looks to focus in on one element rather than trying to be multiple things at once. And remember, the developer behind Skull & Bones is the talented team at Ubisoft Singapore, the guys who gave Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag its marquee naval battles, a feature which helped that game become a high water (pun intended) mark for the series. You could also argue that there aren’t many games to there trying to do what Skull & Bones is, giving us a deep multiplayer combat experience on a grand scale and with a lot of depth to the mechanics. This opens up a whole new world of gameplay possibilities as not many developers have attempted to make an arena where you take command of ships of this size before and operate them within relatively tight confines.
In terms of presentation it really comes down to your preference (stylized vs. realistic) as to which of these games you’ll like more, but there’s no denying that Skull & Bones is a gorgeous looking game. The environments all look sharp, crisp and detailed, with waves crashing against the jagged rocks on the shoreline and things like shipwrecks, coral and debris visible beneath the waves. That’s not even to mention the spectacularly well detailed pirate ships, with their tall masts, mounted cannons and crews running to and fro adding a real sense of immersion and realism to the game.
Of course, this whole argument might be completely moot as both games are only similar thematically and are actually quite different when it comes to gameplay with the former being a multiplayer focused action/adventure and the latter being a tactical naval combat game, so direct comparisons are going to be pretty tough and what we’ve seen so far points to both games actually turning out quite good. That being said, if you are only going to get one pirate game in 2018, my money would be on Skull & Bones being the better game (but not by much), seeing as how the opportunities offered by its gameplay and the pedigree of its developers make it hard to imagine the game turning out anything less than excellent. One thing’s for sure though, if you have an interest in pirates or are just looking for a game to take you somewhere not many other titles go, then these are two titles to set your sights to.
