Sea of Thieves

[Galant]

Any Hexites play Sea of Thieves?

Anyone care to crew up?

[DemonAndrew]

How's the game? I was planning on buying it when it released on steam but the price was a bit too steep for me, at least initially.

[half_empty_soul]

Read it hit 15 million players ... impressive

[Galant]

Honestly, I was really, really impressed. There's a lot to like about it. Graphical, especially with the settings turned up, the water is really, really pretty, along with the rest of the scenery, but overall it does a great job of bring around different weather conditions, storms, peaceful seas etc.

The 'world building' if you want to to call it that, is good. The NPC's etc. fit well. And then the PVE elements are decent and there's enough of it so that you're never far from some sort of action or activity. There are also some day/night interactions that serve to make the time cycle more than just a cosmetic feature. There isn't much in the game that feels wasted. Even things like fishing and cooking are worthwhile. At first I didn't bother 'wasting time' fishing, or cooking. There's plenty of fruit to be found lying around to keep your reserves supplied. But then when you realise that cooked food gives you an additional health reserve - and when PVP encounters can often be decided by a small amount of health, I liked to always have some cooked food handy, and you have to keep an eye on that food too. Overcooked and it's no good, or really neglect that frying pan when you're on your boat and the you'll find your putting out flames. Catching the different varieties of fish available, with different bait, in different seas, might well keep some players entertained for a while, or else it's something to do if you've got a long way to sail. In fact, fishing isn't a horrible source of income if you can get some trophy fish and sell them to the outposts.

There's enough variety to keep different players focused - go full PVP if you like, or try to avoid it and get your treasure through questing, or PVP skeleton hunting, or some other way.

I loved that there is no ability levelling in the game. Since there's always a chance you'll run into more PVP interested players it's nice to know that it will just come down to your skill, or player numbers, and that there are no 'unwinnable' battles because some level 50 monster can one shot you without blinking. I'm not much of a PVP fan but I've dabbled and it's fun.

The other random PVE interactions, like the sea going black right as a Kraken decides to pay you a visit, or the Megs' showing up, add further depth and if you want to just go hunting for those guys in order to collect the treasures they drop or even just the meat which, when cooked right, is worth quite a bit, can be a nice way to spend half an hour or so - although you're not guaranteed to encounter them.

I played through the first 5 tall tales and they've been a decent way to engage in some on-going storyline quests if random missions found in bottles or elsewhere start to feel repetitive. You've also got the different 'factions' you can become an emissary for, temporarily, to earn reputation with them, and flying their flags might also make you prey for the PVP faction that will want to hunt your flag - increased reward, increased risk.

Just playing the game, though, was fun. There's a learning curve just because there's a lot to do. Sailing the ship, even just the small sloop, requires you to raise or lower the anchor, raise or lower the sails, angle the sails into the wind, load the cannons, and steer, of course. As you bring her into dock or coming alongside an island you'll learn to slowly raise the sails, rather than just drop the anchor, and gently float to where you want to be. You'll keep a look out for other sails. A random skeleton ship might spawn nearby rising out of the waters like the Dutchman from Pirate of the Caribbean. If you playing for long you're almost certain to have one of those Sea of Thieves moments where everything just hits you at once. I tried my luck taking on a skeleton ship solo, in a sloop, and it wasn't going so well. Eventually I gave up on combat and tried to outrun the skeletons, the fight, and the run, went on from daytime to night time, I was adjusting sail, steering, patching holes, bailing water, just trying to get away. Things were getting worse and worse, the skeletons were aiming well that time, and my ship start to sink, so I decided that rather than lose what little treasure I had, I'd grab the chest at the back and jump off the ship and swimming away. In I go and the first sight that greets me was the gaping mouth of a meg passing in front of me. My wife heard my reaction. I dropped my chest and swam the other way waiting for the chomp not wanting to look back. My plan was to swim as far from my ship as possible because I knew a mermaid would spawn to allow me to fast travel out of there. Honestly, the adrenaline was pumping, I had expected to jump out of the frying pan of skeleton ship and a sinking sloop into an encounter with a giant shark. So I swam and swam, food at the ready so that when the first chomp came, I could heal up. It did, and I ate. I swam, and then I saw the Meg overtake me. So I turned around to swim the other way and what was there, a regular shark.... I about pooped myself. What else might show up unexpectedly. Happily, a mermaid did spawn and I lived to tell this tall, and getting rather long, tale. But yeah, sooner or later everything will conspire against you, at least once.

So... I won't drag this on, but the sailing is interactive and engaging and fun. You can play solo, in a sloop, although you might often avoid certain encounters - skeleton sloops you can take out, galleons not so much. Megs you can take out with patience. You can run around islands solo, and as for PVP, it depends who you run into. I've won some and lost some, and run from others.

Combat is simple but intuitive - pick a combination of two weapons from cutlass, blunderbuss, pistol and rifle - melee, shotgun, pistol and sniper rifle, essentially. 5 shots for each of the firearms before you need more ammo, and some good mechanics with the sword (and no ammo concerns). There are lots of tricks to master, like sword-lunge jumping and quick ways to get around ships. Throw-able items feature, and in ship combat there are varied regular, cursed and ghost cannonballs.

So there can be a lot to master, but that mechanical depth keeps makes playing worthwhile - that's where the real 'leveling up' takes place.

As for the online community, I played a lot of solo but also tried the matchmaking. I had a few dud encounters with people who had neither mic nor keyboard - and it's a game where communication is rather vital. But I had far more good experiences. People from all over the world with whom I had a good time sometimes following my lead, and sometimes me following them. I've learned from others, I've taught others, and it was fun. And having crew mates adds real value to the experience. You can engage in combat and other quests far more efficiently and effectively.

So it was both a good solo and multiplayer experience for me.

Anyway, enough rambling, I'm far from an expert, but if you've got any questions let me know.

[Galant]

One other comment on pricing. I wasn't sure about the price either, so I signed up to Xbox Live for PC. £4 per month. The game is included and it's cross platform Xbox & PC (but not Steam).

[AGTDenton]

I have the Windows Store version so that I could play with my xBox friend. It worked really well and don't know why more games don't do it.
I've not played since summer '18 and a lot has changed since then. Graphically great. The water is impressive to say the least.
Short sessions are a waste of time to progress anywhere. You'll often find yourself on it for 3/4 hours. The game is very rewarding when you have a crew that is coordinated, those sessions you don't want to end, but get a bunch of scallywags and your patience wears thin very quickly.

Back in '18 there was a lack of things to do but they really did start pumping out big changes and features. I probably won't recognise it when I next go on it.
If you're an old school Rare fan from the Nintendo days, there's a couple of Easter eggs with regards to sound effects and music I've noticed. Certainly from Killer Instinct.

[Ivanhoe123]

Thanks for the detailed review Galant, sounds like it's definitely worth trying. I really like the idea of the lack of traditional levels and that you effectively level up by learning the tricks of the trade. It's a much more realistic system and it's so frustrating in other games being nailed by an almost unbeatable opponent, just because they are too many levels above you. I'll look to buy it after I get my new rig put together.

[AGTDenton]

Now this could be very interesting to SoT fans