Sea of Thieves Review

Sea of Thieves is overwhelming at first; you're given no direction, and a brief tutorial on how the basic mechanics work. This can lead to numerous frustrating deaths, robberies, and misguided actions as you attempt to sail, build your party, and navigate the high seas. If you're patient and can gather a well-rounded set of players to join, Sea of Thieves opens up into a true pirate game. It just needs more reasons to play.

The journey is essentially directionless, and it's up to you to figure out where to go and what to do.  You pick your predesigned pirate and set off to earn, or steal, gold and other riches. The first task is to find a crew and a ship.

As a crew of up to 4, each person has a job that includes adjusting the sails, steering the ship, navigating using the map, and keeping an eye out for hostile ships, storms, and other dangerous elements. This can be exciting, but Sea of Thieves suffers greatly from repetitive gameplay.

The first time you take a mission, fight a horde of skeletons, and find buried treasure is thrilling. Surviving storms, sinking ships, and getting killed all immerse you in this pirate-themed world. But then the quests begin to repeat themselves as you once again search for treasure, deliver key items, and complete quests with small variants of the same missions.

This routine begins to drain much of the thrill of Sea of Thieves as sailing across the ocean becomes less about being a pirate and more about running errands. Collecting loot to upgrade your loadout, to find more loot, and upgrade some more. And when I say upgrade your loadout, I mean cosmetically.

Sea of Thieves doesn't provide assets that offer statistical upgrades. New items to decorate your pirate or weapons become available as you earn gold. It makes sense to ensure a fair playing field, as being outgunned by a player who has a myriad of powerful items can become frustrating.

There are three factions within the game that include the Gold Hoarders, the Merchant Alliance, and the Order of the Souls. Each one provides promotions, titles, commendations, and items, but nothing that will give you an advantage.

Many of the items require extensive grinding. You do get access to better contracts as you play the game, but the absurd amount of gold needed for these items will require a lot of dedication to obtain. If these items offered a boost in health or weapon strength, I would be more inclined to grind for them, but these are just cosmetics.

Other games have worked well with this model, but unfortunately, it doesn't work here. The limited variety of combat situations began to show after my 5th sea battle. Since everyone is equipped with the same tools, battles typically unfold similarly.

Those who dedicate themselves to plundering will find mixed results. Since you never know what the other players have, rewards are fickle. Without faction rewards for PvP battles, players will quickly figure out that it's easier, faster, and much more profitable to commit to player-vs-environment content instead.

Speaking of environment hostiles, one of the biggest disappointments came when I finally faced the Kraken. The sea turned black, and large tentacles rose from the ocean. The battle was exciting until I dived into the ocean and saw nothing. My heart sank as this mystical beast was reduced to nothing but a few large tentacles. This extends to enemy variety, which is limited to different versions of the same enemies.

Those wishing to avoid the carnage and just play the game without facing other players don't have the option. Whereas other games provide dedicated zones or modes for PvP content, Sea of Thieves does not. During my earlier sessions, I was constantly pummeled by aggressive players, not with the goal of stealing loot but simply to sink my crew's ship.

Ship types are much more varied, offering sizes that house 1-2 crew members or 3-4. The smaller the ship, the easier it is to operate and maneuver; however, larger ships are stronger and require constant communication to operate properly.

When you finally get a well-coordinated team, traveling throughout the ocean is joy, and I hope Rare will capitalize on this with more variations of ships with personal cosmetic options and upgradable choices.

What truly wowed me with Sea of Thieves was the water and sailing. The changes in current and other environmental factors meant there was no point in resting. Everyone had to be aware of what was going on to ensure the safety of our ship. Whether it's repairing broken parts or even locking an unruly player in the brig.

Graphically, Sea of Thieves is beautiful. The game's atmosphere is complemented by the art team's excellent use of warm colors and lighting. The sound design is also fantastic, as water crashing on the ship or hearing your sword make contact with a skeleton. 

Sea of Thieves has a lot of potential to become an excellent exclusive for the Xbox One library. The first few hours are amazing, simulating a great pirate adventure that I haven't experienced since Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

However, unlike Ubisoft's take on pirates, it quickly starts to fade as you realize their little reason to continue collecting gold and not much to do. Sea of Thieves teases you with this largely unexplored ocean until you realize there's not much out there.