New details of Skull and Bones narrative elements dubbed 'investigations' were shown during a half-hour live stream following a statement from the developer shared on Twitter that reassured fans that a new release date would be shared "very soon".
Ubisoft may have found itself in troubling financial waters, but its recently-delayed pirate game, Skull and Bones for Amazon Luna, PS5, PC and Xbox Series XIS, looks like it may have found a fantastic way to marry story with exploration, as demonstrated during a new developer Twitch live stream.
During the dev stream, Skull and Bones Narrative Director, Joel Janisse explained: “Investigations in Skull and Bones are really a way to tell a story through a series of steps. 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.
"But it also tells a story about our factions and our world. We do that by finding, for example, messages in bottles, scraps of lost journals, sometimes through talking to different characters in the world and through that we are able to tell a story."
Last week Ubisoft announced that Skull and Bones had been delayed again and would no longer be launching on March 9, 2023. The open-world multiplayer game has had a fraught development since it was first announced in 2018 and has been delayed six times thus far.
Following the announcement, an 'Important update for all our aspiring captains' appeared on Twitter from the Skull and Bones team that stated that the extra development time would be used for "further polish and balancing" as the result of "Feedback from previous tests".
Skull and Bones is in development for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Amazon Luna. It should be out at some point before the end of 2024. From the little I have seen so far, hopefully, it will be worth the wait.
Organic storytelling makes me want to investigate further
If Skull and Bones does not start with an old sea dog pulling the swabs close on a dark and stormy night to tell them a tale I will be very disappointed. However, what does look promising is how the game seems to be taking a similar route to Breath of The Wild and Elden Ring when it comes to narrative. In particular, having items and places in the environment that seem incidental at first become integral to winding story threads.
In a live stream held over the weekend (above), Skull and Bones devs Alexis Cretton and Joel Janisse walked potential players through the game's narrative portions called investigations. Each of these narrative mission paths is triggered by either discovering something interesting in the environment like a flyer or journal entry or simply by wandering past some townsfolk chatting and overhearing a rumour. The point is they sound like they may have hit on a great way to make the stories within the world feel more organic even if they're scripted and with it a way to lash narrative and exploration together in a fun and meaningful way.
Here's hoping the rest of the game is worth investigating too.
