Ubisoft's upcoming naval IP, Skull and Bones, has a lot of mystery around it. Ever since its announcement in E3 2017, fans have been speculating a lot about its various aspects of gameplay, in addition to many other things. Initially due to release in 2020, Skull and Bones has been the subject of a couple of delays, with no release date currently known.
Most of the news regarding the delays have been well-received by the community, as it can be seen as Ubisoft being conscious of its own development cycles. In other words, it's better to delay than it is to rush out a lot of content, a lesson it may have learned from the reception of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. With so much unknown outside it featuring naval pirate battles, Skull and Bones should very well "steal" one iconic feature of the Battlefield series, which looks to be a perfect match for this kind of game.
Skull And Bones Should Include Battlefield's Destructible Environments
While there's a lot of great things in the Battlefield games, few things are as iconic as the destructible environments. The Battlefield games pride themselves on having this feature, and it's always great when players bring down gargantuan pieces of cover during the match. This lends a peculiar sense of authenticity to the experience, as nothing can be trusted with one's safety in these hostile environments.
If Skull and Bones were to replicate this feature in some way, it could be all the better for it. The touted authentic naval combat makes the inclusion of this feature a legitimate request, as it would be interesting for combat to showcase ships being blown apart piece by piece. After all, it could help the game differentiate itself from other games featuring naval battles as well. Skull and Bones really needs to nail a unique "killer feature" for success, something that makes it stand out from the plethora of failed pirate games, and taking "authenticity" as far as cannonballs hitting wheezing by and crumbling a ship could help do just that.
Skull and Bones is also touted to have Ubisoft's signature systemic world. For the uninitiated, this means that individual elements of the game world are free to interact with each other, which in turn generates interesting stories. Destructible ships in such a systemic world could carry a lot of potential, as players would then have to take a lot of things into consideration before engaging in a battle. In addition to that, there could be unforeseen consequences to this during such gameplay moments if two ships were to hit each other or something were to backfire, for example.
It'd be particularly interesting to see ships topple in the wake of absolutely vicious winds, provided that players don't pay due attention. With destructible ships, such adverse weather conditions could damage the ship as well which can give players a significant disadvantage in battle. In an event where a significant amount of damage is doled out on a ship's weapon systems, they could even cease to function. While this is nothing more than speculation, these features, if implemented, should be done very carefully as such things could lead to players cheesing these elements all too often. Hopefully, fans would see such a feature implemented in some form or another whenever Skull and Bones' release date comes around.
Skull and Bones is currently in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.