Cranium & Bones: Arms-On With Endgame Content material

After enjoying the primary few hours of Cranium & Bones in a pair completely different iterations final yr, I used to be understandably desperate 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 all the time essentially the most intuitive or polished expertise, it’s clear the builders have put a whole lot of thought and energy into offering plenty of methods for gamers to continue to grow their pirate legend far past rolling credit, from battles with big sea creatures to an bold 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 an excellent 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 harm 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 chances laid out earlier than me has satisfied me that Ubisoft actually isn’t messing round in terms of customization.

With my fleet of uber-powerful vessels assembled, I dove headfirst into a few of the more difficult world actions filled with high-end rewards. Hostile Takeover, an exercise just like the Plunder encounters from the beta, had me and my fellow picaroons battle off waves of more and more {powerful} ships and have been well-compensated for our wanton destruction. In the meantime, Legendary Heists despatched us after a robust ship carrying worthwhile cargo and surrounded by half a dozen closely armed allies. Whereas each of those actions have been the identical good ol’ pirating enjoyable I’d already skilled throughout low-level play, I’ll admit I used to be fairly dissatisfied with simply how samey they felt to every thing else I’ve already performed. I imply, sinking waves of enemy vessels isn’t precisely uninteresting stuff, however I discovered myself ready for some sort 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 kind of indication that this PvP alternative has begun or encourage others to go after you in any means, resulting in what quantities to little greater than a quiet journey via the Indian Ocean to show within the bounty with little fanfare. It’s additionally bizarre that these massive 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, if you happen to’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 occasion members up together with you, which result in these awkward moments the place the world occasion’s seats stuffed up earlier than the entire crew was in a position to be part of, so one or two of us simply needed to sit again and anticipate the occasion to finish, sadly unable to revenue from the affair.

The primary season, referred to 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 once we accepted a bounty to tackle an enormous sea creature that’d been plaguing the waters. As I watched this huge serpent-like monster submerge himself then pop as much as swallow my buddy’s ship entire, I felt much more optimistic concerning the sorts of issues I’ll get to look ahead to with the endgame. It was additionally nice that after we slayed the beast, we have been ready to make use of its uncommon and worthwhile 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 deal with. The primary season, referred to 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 battle 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 browse his video games protection right here.