Skull and Bones shares 30 minutes of "narrative gameplay"

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"It tells a story about our world, and we do that by finding messages, journals, and talking to characters"

Skull and Bones screenshot
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Just days after confirming another delay for its beleaguered pirate game, Skull and Bones, Ubisoft has revealed a 30-minute slice of "narrative gameplay".

As we reported at the time, Skull and Bones' latest delay earlier this week pushed the game to sometime in 2023-2024, marking a bleak financial report, the conditions of which reportedly saw the company "laughed at" in acquisition talks even before a controversial email from CEO Yves Guillemot effectively pinned responsibility on staff. 

The statement did, however, promise that we'd get a new gameplay showcase, and yesterday, January 13, that's exactly what happened - you can watch it below: 

"The player follows a trail of something that they think is going to be interesting and likely going to lead to some kind of treasure or some kind of score," director Joel Janisse explains in the video that takes us through an "investigation" (thanks, PC Gamer) starring a brother and sister squabbling over who has rights to the throne.

"But it also tells a story about our factions and our world, and we do that by finding - for example - messages in bottles, scraps of lost journals, and sometimes talking to different characters in the world. And through that, we're able to tell a story."

It's particularly interesting that the team calls this "narrative gameplay" given Ubisoft took great pains last year to stress that "Skull and Bones is not a narrative-driven game", only offers "narrative pieces" instead.

"Our determination and focus remains the same - offer the best in-game experience possible to our players from day one," the devs said in a statement posted when the delay was announced.

"This extra time will help us in providing further polish and balancing to our game experience, following your feedback from previous tests. 

"We also have an array of exciting content coming up on our social channels and ready to be shared with you," it added. "Starting tomorrow, with our latest episode of The Deck, bringing new and exclusive gameplay footage focused on our game's lore." 

Keep up to date with all the best games set to launch next year with our guide to new games 2023. 

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Vikki Blake
Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.