As I write this late review for Sea of Thieves I can’t help but feel the need to justify myself. I really wanted to love Sea of Thieves, I think it’s a fantastic concept that could truly grow into something special. But as I kept playing it, I was waiting for more to present itself to me. More to do. More to find. Unfortunately, after many long hours with the game, and some server issues (that have since been fixed) I’ve decided that I’ve had enough time with Sea of Thieves. In short, it’s not a game for everybody.
Sea of Thieves throws you into the world with little to no fanfare beyond a brief introductory cutscene. You’ll be on your own to work out what it is you want to do in the world – choosing your own character and being given your own ship. There’s a little bit of exposition at the beginning, setting the scene, but there’s no story or campaign per se to play through. Rather, Sea of Thieves feels like a pirate simulator of sort, giving players a wide-open playground to mess around in either solo or with their friends. It’s an interesting concept, but one that is barely sustainable.
When you’re not scouring an island for treasure or one of your targets, you’ll be sailing the high seas. Sea of Thieves offers a small ship and a big ship, which ideally scales depending on the size of the crew you’re partied up with. I expected Sea of Thieves to have a simplistic system for sailing but it’s surprisingly complex. You’ll have to adjust your sail length and sail angle to take advantage of wind directions, and the incorrect configuration can be the difference between smooth sailing and catastrophic disaster.
What I love about Sea of Thieves is how it encourages teamwork. When you crash into an island or some rocks, your whole team will rush to the bottom of the ship to repair it. Most of the time these moments can be overwhelming – there’s several holes in the hull of the ship and it’s filling with water rapidly. One crew member must board up the holes while another must drain the water from the ship. It sounds like a simple process, but it will only work if every member of the team is working together.
Once you complete your contracts, you’ll be given treasure of some sort to escort back to an outpost. Outposts are basically shops, allowing you to sell your wares and use the gold you receive to buy new equipment, new weapons and clothing for your character. This is the only real sense of progression in Sea of Thieves, but because the quest design is so ho-hum, you’d be able to complete quests without ever once visiting a shop.
While the gameplay loop is simple and mildly repetitive, most of the fun in Sea of Thieves comes from the moments that’ll emerge while you’re playing with your friends. I’ve previously affectionately referred to Sea of Thieves as an anecdote factory, and it really is. Whether you are just mucking around on the high seas or having to divert resources to battle an incoming enemy, Sea of Thieves rarely plays out how you want it to. And that’s a good thing as it’s unpredictable.
As a full-blown purchase, I don’t think Sea of Thieves is quite worth it at whatever price you might purchase a physical copy at retail. On the flipside, Sea of Thieves has the potential to grow into something great too – and as such it feels like a bit better value when offered as part of the Xbox Game Pass rather than being purchased separately. Buyer beware, however, as I just couldn’t enjoy this without playing with friends and I’d imagine most would fall in that boat too (pardon the pun).
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It's true Sea Of Thieves is missing quite a bit but give it time and developers will add more to it the "factions" could bring in New and Exciting things, New Ships added, New Weapons, More NPCs, More Rewards like a chest after beating the Kracken, Be able to see The Kracken, The Fairy Of The Dammed Emerging and chasing after you when you collect a certain amount of Skulls, The Ability to signal other ships or leave messages in bottles for other players, Set Traps. there are some ideas to go on