Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Developer: Rare
Platform: Xbox One, PC
Genre: Pirate Simulator/MMO
Release Date: 03/20/18

2018 was not exactly a good year for Microsoft, considering the oddball release of this and State of Decay 2. The latter to this day still isn't refined and while that game is actively monetizing itself by selling DLCs, Sea of Thieves for its live service moniker has grown quite a lot. Even though Microsoft recently had quite a few duds(ehhmm, Crackdown 3), SoT manages to find relevancy today thanks mostly to Twitch streamers.

I was once an avid player for this game, but I didn't avert my eyes from the issues that plagued this title. To state a few; it lacked content, some aspects felt underdeveloped and it had a messy online matchmaking(still kind of do). But given a year after release, not only they provided the content but it was filled to the brim of stuff to do.

Sea of Thieves isn't anything like we've played in the current mainstream market with fast-paced looter shooters or such. There's a lot to set up before engulfing yourself onto each and every journey across the great yet dreary seas.

Premise

Sea of Thieves is based on an open world where you fight against skeleton crews/ships, sea monsters, sharks and so on all in the allure of finding treasures. Pretty much every land is an island, some bigger than the others. If you get lucky, you'll find a few mermaids as well.

Lots of dangers to be found from the infamous Kraken, various types of Megalodon sharks to well facing off against the unknown if you venture beyond the map somehow.

Though there isn't a simple story to follow here, conversing with NPCs give you tidbits about the world you're in, heck once you've reached the level of pirate legend, you're given backdoor access to ghost pirates that gets you into newer and more dangerous quests. Did I forget to mention it has that touch of Rare's personality around its aesthetics and characters? You will know if you've played their previous games."

Gameplay

SoT is played in first-person: With tasks of shoveling, using your compass and other menial tasks. You pick up two weapons of the four available. Problem is, using range weapons on both is a bad idea in most case because you have a very limited amount of rounds. To mitigate, you can find ammo crates in islands. Then again, there's the sword you could use. You can lunge and block attacks as well. It comes mostly handy against skeletons for crowd control. But even better is when you find an explosive barrel and manage to lore them into the trap before blowing them to raggedy bits.

Before all that you have to initiate by choosing which randomized character to pick. I'll be honest about this, it's quite underwhelming. As they are somewhat generated based on a button press and you have to pick from a group of them which one you prefer. I mean they have height differences and all, but am worried about hitboxes here.

Before starting the game, you pick between 3 ships: A sloop(2), Brigantine(3)or a Galleon(4). Each in-order specifies how big and how many players it can carry. This is a co-op game with PvP, so you have communicate with a mic or use your keyboard if you're using PC. wd

When it comes to taking care of your ship, there's a lot of micro-managing that goes within your voyages. Taking care of your ship is important since it can withstand any damage as long as you repair them with planks but the only way it goes sinking is when it becomes overflown with water at the top deck. You'll also have to manage length of sails and their angle. Use anchor when you want the ship to halt. Using cannons to shoot balls or yourself off the ship. Find and dock a boat in order to use it for taking cargo to your ship, and steering it based on compass bearing. You also have to stock it with cannonballs, bananas and planks for regular use which can be restocked in a bar from any outpost.

To achieve pirate legends status, you need to do voyages for 3 trading companies: Merchant of Alliance, Gold Hoarders and Order of Souls. Getting gold from treasure requires you to hand over specific items to specific merchants. While you rake up gold and reputation points before reaching level 50 on all of them. Once that is done, you will reach endgame and do quests from Athena's Fortune, the forth trading company. I mean this is a live service open-world MMO so you do the grind for mostly cosmetic loot.

Post-Launch Content

So circa 2018, March. This game was released barebones, with only the quests to do while you're fighting just skeletons and getting rare encounters from the kraken of which you could see that there was nothing below sea as a result of a bug. God forbid, amidst all that a group of other player ships come fighting against you. That was the game back then.

Now a year and few expansion releases later, the game looks bigger and better. You have skeleton forts to raid full of bounty. You have megalodon sharks appearing each with a distinctive look and personality. You have to look towards the map in order to avoid areas which skeleton ships might pop out of the ocean like Davy-Jones himself. Skeleton crews you fight against alongside their leaders come in different forms either encrusted in gold or in ghost form. Requiring you to improvise in the situation by finding key weak points. Couple that with higher level voyages and you have to survive against the type that also carries explosive barrels as martyrs.

You can change how the flag looks on the crows nest which indicates whether you're friendly or just howling for murder sprees. You can even form alliances and get a cut of the bounty from other ships. Heck, to make things easier, you can use loudspeaker while speaking from your microphone to catch anyone's attention.

Attacking ships, you can use green cannon balls that makes anyone hit within radius fall asleep or purple balls make the ship become anchored for certain period making them good use as escape or to continue striking the enemy while circling around them. You can also play another instrument, not two, not three but four instruments.

Doing quests for Merchant Alliance, you do various of them that involves more than just picking up pigs or chickens, you can deliver certain set of items without destroying them by carefully handling the cargo. Again, the micro-managing. You also earn another currency called Bilge Rat Doubloons which is used for purchases from Duke like helping you level up reputation of one of the trading companies.

Sea of Thieves has provided more than an abundance of post-launch content to keep players busy. Although I kind of still wish they've worked on the matchmaking problems since am mostly getting into crews with players whom lack the social communication aspect or just troll around. The last part can be unnerving.

(P.S: Sorry about there being no mic audio, I had that off for certain reasons. For context, I was with a rogue crew that was trying to sink everybody's ship so I kind of switched sides.)

Online

Now, the game isn't perfect by any stretch of the meaning. It's hard to get into a game when you wouldn't by chance have your experience ruined by trolls, inexperienced players or some that are pretty much done with the game and want nothing to do with your endeavors. So I kind of wish there was some online recruitment for guilds and such which could have made the pirating co-op matchmaking much easier for some.

Speaking of online play, apparently, having just PvP elements aren't enough. The studio decided to introduce an arena mode where players are literally pitted against each other in battle royale style. It's coming out pretty soon.

Now for those who are precautious about joining a game without knowing which servers you're in; Microsoft has that covered with their Xbox servers. Me living in Bangladesh, I haven't experienced much of an issue besides well network lag which is from my ISPs side.

I mentioned several times that this is an MMO, although this is a more MMO-ish title with co-op gameplay and PvP put in together. You won't stumble onto other players all the time since others are in different servers of the game while you're placed with few other players, you just won't see them much often.

Also, most of the gold you earn will be spent on cosmetics for your character and ship.

Production Value

Straight away, I'll put this as forward as possible. I really care less if people tell me that the Xbox One hardware isn't good enough to handle today's games. Because this title is running full 1080p and it looks astonishing at times. It even runs very well thanks to optimizations. You're in for a treat if you play this on PC as well.

The sound design sounds cartoonish but well intuitive enough for you to recognize like swashbuckling or shooting your guns. Though after listening to that volcano eruption, there's more than just your standard game audio.

Aesthetically, SoT looks great. Islands are lush with a variety of colors, the sky illuminating can be dazzling to be beholden upon and megalodons carry such detail in order to distinguish them from one another. The fidelity is multi-faceted.

Verdict

I mean if you're really into pirate stuff based on pop-culture aspects like Pirates of the Carribean or One Piece, then go for it.

Hell it's a great time to be a Sea of Thieves player as the developers keep on giving. It's good to see Rare after all these years finally finding their footing.

8.0