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After taking part in the primary few hours of Cranium & Bones in a pair totally different iterations final yr, I used to be understandably wanting to skip over the standard origins of my pirate captain getting washed ashore in rags and get with the plundering. As luck would have it, Ubisoft answered my prayers by letting me go hands-on with their upcoming ship-based piracy RPG for over 4 hours to take their endgame and seasonal content material for a spin. And whereas the unfinished product I performed wasn’t at all times essentially the most intuitive or polished expertise, it’s clear the builders have put lots of thought and energy into offering a lot of methods for gamers to continue to grow their pirate legend far past rolling credit, from battles with big sea creatures to an formidable seasonal content material roadmap. I, for one, can’t wait to play extra.
The very first thing that caught out when leaping into Cranium & Bones’ endgame content material was simply how superior the ship buildcrafting can get. Whereas I obtained a superb style of the early customization choices through the beta weekends final yr, seeing dozens of cannons, ship hulls, mortar weapons, and extra, every with their very own particular results and passive bonuses, was dizzying. One ship I constructed was optimized for dealing injury over time with each weapon slathering the enemy with oil and flame, whereas one other one I constructed to help my teammates with the power to heal allied ships by peppering them with cannonfire. There wasn’t practically sufficient time to check out all of the choices, however seeing all the probabilities laid out earlier than me has satisfied me that Ubisoft actually isn’t messing round in the case of customization.
With my fleet of uber-powerful vessels assembled, I dove headfirst into a number of the tougher world actions full of high-end rewards. Hostile Takeover, an exercise much like the Plunder encounters from the beta, had me and my fellow picaroons struggle off waves of more and more {powerful} ships and had been well-compensated for our wanton destruction. In the meantime, Legendary Heists despatched us after a strong ship carrying helpful cargo and surrounded by half a dozen closely armed allies. Whereas each of those actions had been the identical good ol’ pirating enjoyable I’d already skilled throughout low-level play, I’ll admit I used to be fairly disillusioned with simply how samey they felt to all the things else I’ve already performed. I imply, sinking waves of enemy vessels isn’t precisely boring stuff, however I discovered myself ready for some form of twist that by no means actually got here.
For instance, throughout Legendary Heists, after you kill the pirate captain and make off with the loot, you’re given a restricted period of time to get the cargo to an outpost, presumably giving others the chance to tear you off and take the loot for themselves. However Cranium & Bones doesn’t give any form of indication that this PvP alternative has begun or encourage others to go after you in any manner, resulting in what quantities to little greater than a quiet experience by means of the Indian Ocean to show within the bounty with little fanfare. It’s additionally bizarre that these large world actions, which bug you with a giant popup alert each couple of minutes when one turns into out there, solely let three gamers into the exercise, which makes them really feel fairly anticlimactic and smaller scale than I anticipated. Even worse, for those who’re in a celebration of three gamers like I used to be, becoming a member of considered one of these actions doesn’t routinely signal your social gathering members up together with you, which result in these awkward moments the place the world occasion’s seats crammed up earlier than the entire crew was capable of be a part of, so one or two of us simply needed to sit again and look forward to the occasion to finish, sadly unable to revenue from the affair.
The primary season, known as Raging Tides, pit us in opposition to a lethal, poison-obsessed pirate named La Peste.
Fortunately, these disappointing encounters weren’t all that was in retailer for me with Cranium & Bones’ endgame, as my crew and I realized after we accepted a bounty to tackle an enormous sea creature that’d been plaguing the waters. As I watched this large serpent-like monster submerge himself then pop as much as swallow my pal’s ship complete, I felt much more constructive concerning the sorts of issues I’ll get to sit up for with the endgame. It was additionally nice that when we slayed the beast, we had been in a position to make use of its uncommon and helpful stays to craft {powerful} consumables and tools to energy up much more.
I additionally obtained a preview of Ubisoft’s plans for the primary full yr of help for Cranium & Bones, which incorporates 4 seasons, every with their very own theme and new enemy to cope with. The primary season, known as Raging Tides, pit us in opposition to a lethal, poison-obsessed pirate named La Peste, who bombarded the ocean with extremely lethal poisonous clouds and despatched tiny suicide-bombing dinghies after us to blow up in our faces. It stays to be seen how a lot content material every of those seasons will ship, however with this epic struggle as a sampling, I may see myself including Cranium & Bones to my live-service rotation.
Travis Northup is a author for IGN. You may observe him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and skim his video games protection right here.
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