Cranium & Bones – Closed Beta Impressions

Once I first acquired my palms on Cranium & Bones throughout its final closed beta in August, I used to be shocked that this legendarily elusive sport truly existed. Now, with a launch date in February of subsequent 12 months quick approaching, it could appear any doubt that this seafaring journey received’t see the sunshine of day is fading. Now I simply wish to know if it’s going to be good, and after one other six hours in the latest closed beta this previous weekend, I discover myself extra hopeful than ever that this plundering simulator may truly seize the eye of me and my associates. Although the latest beta included some odd and sudden adjustments to the story, my associates and I dove deep into the waters of this ship-based journey’s RPG mechanics and got here away pleasantly stunned.

First off, for those who haven’t seen our preview from a number of months in the past, you must go and examine that out, as a result of the overwhelming majority of my reward and cautious optimism nonetheless applies. Having an opportunity to develop my sea legs a number of months in the past, me and two of my fellow skallywags spent chunk of the weekend tinkering with our boats and exploring as a lot of the map as we may earlier than working into horrifyingly overpowered enemy crafts that turned us into driftwood in a single second flat.

Upgrading and customizing your very personal piracy vessel stays one of many coolest issues Cranium & Bones gives, and that’s very true after the primary few hours as soon as I acquired the means to craft class-based ships with particular strengths and weaknesses to swimsuit my playstyle. In my opinion, I wish to prioritize DPS and revel in getting in shut and smashing the enemy craft to items, so I constructed “The Rammer,” a ship that’s nice for doing as a lot injury as attainable. In the meantime, the opposite members of my occasion constructed a tank-y ship known as “The Defender” and a support-focused ship known as “The Sentinel,” in order that after we fought as a crew, we had the right range of specializations we would have liked to utterly crush any poor landlubbers who dared set sail in our seas.

Combining these completely different ship varieties with varied sorts of weapons like long-ranged sniper cannons that do a number of injury versus others that blast massive volleys of close-quarters fireballs, and attachments that modify varied resistances and armor scores, made Cranium & Bones really feel like a real naval RPG, and it felt like my crew had solely simply begun scratching the floor of what’s attainable, with dozens upon dozens of extra highly effective choices locked out for vessels of our stage.

“Upgrading and customizing your very personal piracy vessel stays one of many coolest issues Cranium & Bones gives.”

After the earlier beta, I praised Cranium & Bones for having a narrative that was surprisingly extra fleshed out than I used to be anticipating, and whereas that also held true on this second beta, there have been additionally some actually weird adjustments to the narrative I don’t absolutely perceive. For instance, within the early moments of the earlier beta I discovered a dying pirate captain, Abel Rassler, who served as a leaping off level for the remainder of the story, however on this newest model, once I went to loot that very same ship, the nice captain had already expired, leaving me to quietly seize his stuff earlier than leaving.

I’m actually undecided why this main story change occurred! Possibly Ubisoft acquired suggestions that there was an excessive amount of speaking within the early a part of their cannonball-focused pirate sport, or maybe they simply lower this half out of this beta since members had been solely allotted six hours of playtime, nevertheless it wasn’t the one huge one I seen. There have been additionally a number of important dialogue adjustments, and certainly one of my predominant crewmates had been changed by a brand new character altogether. It’s fairly shocking that, in any case these years of growth, they’re nonetheless making important story adjustments within the 4 months for the reason that final beta. However then once more, I suppose that’s what betas are for. Right here’s hoping that’s not an indication that the script’s going by means of too many last-minute rewrites this near launch.