Sea of Thieves has finally landed on Xbox One and PC surrounded by a bucket load of hype and sky high expectations. Developed by Rare (the same guys who brought you Banjo-Kazooie), you are now able to play at being a pirate and embark on numerous voyages and quests in order to become one of the most infamous pirates on the seven seas.
Even though Sea of Thieves focuses on co-op, with the lack of single player evident right from the start, for what I have played of it, I really enjoyed. It seemed far more relaxed than games such as Destiny and Grand Theft Auto and I actually enjoyed spending time in the oddly alluring game universe.
But if we are being honest, Sea off Thieves is nothing more than the 2018 equivalent of No Man’s Sky. Before you chew my ass off in the comments, let me explain a few reasons why I think this.
The most glaring argument is just how barren Sea of Thieves is of content. Although the game world has been constructed from an odd blend of cartoon graphics and a hyper-realistic sea mechanic, I find there just isn’t a huge amount to see or do whilst looking for loot (I’ll get into that shortly). I have landed on numerous islands and explored dozens of shipwrecks and instead of finding something worthwhile, I leave with nothing. For a world that is supposed to be rich with adventure, Rare have done a pretty poor job so far. Sure, on a couple of occasions I have found something that I can sell, but they are few and far between.
Voyages and bounties are also equally devoid of content and tend to be hugely repetitive. In fact, someone I was playing with the other night even said he had done these voyages before, running straight to the location of the chest within seconds. For a game that is supposed to be as varied and as huge as Sea of Thieves, that literally blows my mind. Within the space of twenty minutes, we had managed to find six chests, three of which one of my friends had found before.
The progression system also seems a little vague. So far I have reached level 6 with the gold hunter faction and I have received no benefits whatsoever from them apart from the chance to eventually look for higher value treasure. I’m not sure what level I need to be, but so far all the treasure chests I am digging up are providing me with less than 100 loot. Aside from the same voyages and bounty quests, Sea of Thieves does not offer the gamer anything else until you grind to the highest possible level.
However, what time I have spent in the world of Sea of Thieves I have hugely enjoyed, but I don’t seem to find myself being drawn back in on a regular basis. I picked up a copy of Far Cry 5 on release day and I have found myself being sucked into that more often than Sea of Thieves. I have always been a sucker for a single-player campaign, and I think that is what I feel the game needs.
What Rare have to be careful with is that Sea of Thieves doesn’t turn into another No Man Sky’s. The title carries a heavy price tag when you compare it to the content that is available for you and would be better suited as a game preview instead of a fully-fledged game. Rare have already announced that they will be supporting it for many years to come, but No Man’s Sky took several updates and a huge amount of backlash for it to become the game that it is now.
Eventually, Sea of Thieves will be the best co-op game that the Xbox One can offer as the foundation has already been set. But it is a long way off. At the moment, there are over a million players getting stuck into Sea of Thieves, but once the novelty has worn off, gamers will start yelling for more. And Rare had better be able to answer them.
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