It’s here! Sea of Thieves has been released and after a technical alpha and two betas, I’m playing the full game, awesome!!
Straight away, this game looks incredible. You find me any online multiplayer game with water that looks this good. Sure, it’s one of the core features of the game, but damn…….It moves and looks so realistic, absolutely stunning.
Brass Tack/Gold doubloons
Let’s cut straight to the chase here. I have had, and will continue to have some great fun with Sea of Thieves. The mostly open-ended gameplay and the ability to share it with friends is perfect.
This is all the joy that was somehow removed from Destiny 2. Sailing a ship is like a mini-raid on occasion. Proper co-ordination and team work will get you through a storm, keep you on track at good pace, allow you do drop anchor and park up at a good spot. There’s so much intricacy in all of the basic systems that you have to use to get anywhere on your ship, it’s lovely.
Better yet, you come across some other pirates. Say you spot them off in the distance starting to give chase (al la Captain Phillips)……What do you do? Weigh them up against what you have on-board. Is it worth fighting them if you have treasure you’ve like to drop off? Is it the perfect chance to try that sweet handbrake turn and let loose with all of your cannons before they have time to react?
Sea of Thieves is another game where every minute is made up of decisions being made constantly. There’s no “end” per se, and should you die or lose your ship, you’ve lost nothing but the treasure you might have been hoarding. So you’re essentially free to do as you please.
When you can get on (launch issues were expected), this is a game about just having fun, getting some gold and having a good time with your friends. I like to think of it as team building for the VasDown boys, ready for that next killer raid we want to finish!
It’s all good fun until……
I’ve played this solo, and honestly I think it was the best way for me to learn how to do everything required on a ship. I did my first voyage and got myself some treasure, learned how to sail, how to follow the map, how to check the “X” and dig.
I learned so much, and honestly really enjoyed it.
Thinking about playing without friends now, though, or at least other people, seems like a really hollow way to play the game.
Who would I get drunk with and have vomit on me in the pub (that happened a lot, thanks Dan…..)? Do I really want to keep running below deck to check my heading, leaving the ship to steer itself? At this stage, it’s best to say that the solo experience isn’t as fun. Much like life in many ways, I suppose.
Friends make things better, and Sea of Thieves, much like Destiny and even games like PUBG, proves this in every waking minute of gameplay.
Short-lived joy?
It isn’t an uncommon response to this game to question the longevity of it. With not a massive amount to do, the joy itself comes from the adventures you make. How long until something else comes out to take us away from it?
Of course there will be content added over time, and I’m sure Rare have some wonderful things up their sleeves. Truth be told, I’m happy just sailing and getting some treasure with my friends at the minute.
The core of the game is perfect, the mechanics work really well, it looks stunning and sounds incredible. Why can’t that be enough, at least for now? We don’t all need loot boxes and microtransactions. We need more fun, and spaces to have adventures with others. That’s what Sea of Thieves is, and it’s the perfect remedy to the high-pressure, hyper-competitive nature of current gaming trends.
We’re going back to good clean fun, everyone is on a level playing field, and we can all be as daft as we like with minimal repercussions. Perhaps that’s the magic of Rare’s latest endeavour? Gaming should be fun, so, I don’t know……maybe we should just have fun?
Moving on
I’ll be playing as much Sea of Thieves as I can in the one month of Microsoft Gamepass that I got. Will I buy it when that expires? That will be the real tell.
In the meantime, the Ninja Refinery Twitter and Instagram will no doubt be full of images and clips from our adventures. Let’s see what the high-seas bring!!