Played it for a bit, hated it. The opening act was just weird, I’m in the open seas and the first thing that happens is that I hit some kind of boundary and had sixty seconds to return to the quest area. Seriously, why?
Aiming and firing cannons like I’m in control of a turret is also weird. I grew up playing Sid Meier’s Pirates in the late 80s and so I judge pirate games based on that. I found the simplistic ship combat game of that title more fun than Skull and Bones, since you and the enemy could only fire from the broadsides which affected how you would attack and how you would evade since wind direction and speed would heavily affect your maneuvering.
Then there’s the hamfisted writing. The dialogue coming out of characters‘ mouths isn’t even remotely believable. There were several borderline “Jill, here's a lockpick. It might be handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you” moments in execution.
I had little interest in the first place, and the open beta helped confirm my suspicions. Gameplay is meh, it’s aesthetically mediocre at best, outright ugly in some spots which I suppose coincides with it having been delayed for so long. Even with a lot of games I end up disliking, there’s usually at least one aspect that stands out. Everything was just bleh. I can’t help but compare it to another Ubisoft product like The Division, and I can only shake my head at the stark contrast.