REVIEW | Sea of thieves - My Impressions from the beta

ahzumer (27)in #gaming • 6 years ago

So, like many of my friends i couldnt resist the hype of sea of thieves. We saw the trailer at E3 in 2017 and were already hooked, so as fast as you could say Bill gates, we already pre ordered. Fast forward to January,the beta was released and our sails were set. Now i decided to write a review about my favorite coop game since Halo 3, i tried to make it as unbiased as possible to not sound like a crazy fanboy but it was hard so,bear with me on this one. I hope you guys enjoy reading it and make sure to follow my blog and upvote this post if you liked it! ARRR

What does it take to create a good game?

Is it great graphics? A deep story? Are there complex, realistic characters?

Or is it sometimes enough to mix clever game elements and have the player do it yourself?

If you ask Rare, the latter is true. Rare? Yes, that's right! The "cult studio" that spawned hits like Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64 and of course Golden Eye 007 over the past millennium, but since the acquisition by Microsoft, only brought casual games to the market - just this studio is currently developing one of the most interesting and most unusual games of the year: Sea of Thieves.

Sea of Thieves is a -Shared-World Pirate Adventure with Survival Elements for Co-op Players-. Sounds like someone from Microsoft's marketing department has fallen asleep on the buzzword keyboard, but do not throw in the towel right now because you're thinking about DayZ or Rust or something.

Sea of Thieves is not comparable to these games. It does not take itself too seriously, nor does it track all the things the competitors are already doing.

Ahoy, you landlubbers !

We are released into an unspecified world full of water and cuddly picturesque islands. If we are in a group of four, the game makes us a chic galleon, which can literally ride the waves thanks to its three powerful masts - provided we have cleared the anchor, set the sails properly.

Each of the four players takes on a task on board. You do not necessarily have to distribute the right roles everyone can fire at the wheel or the cannons. The important thing is that anyone does the job. Just to get off the first pier, a player has to lift the anchor, set the sails, and stand at the wheel. Since the wind is constantly turning, you always have to readjust the sails, that alone is a full time job.

Where to steer, you do not learn from a mini-map or a menu, but a player must climb into the belly of the ship and choose the destination on a map table. This is where one of the key elements of Sea of Thieves comes in: communication.

Without voice chat you are quite in a fix, because otherwise you can give the helmsman difficult directional instructions. Incidentally, he can’t even see where he is steering the pot when the sails are fully set, because an outside view is missing.

So the best thing for a player is to climb into the lookout and let them know where enemy ships or rocks are lurking. There is a lot to do on board, but you should also enjoy the view and relax. There is plenty to do on board, but you should also enjoy the view and let your mind wander.

Anyone who has counted correctly already recognizes the dilemma: occupying cannons, navigating the map, turning sails into the wind, steering and sitting in the lookout - these are already five tasks.

So Sea of Thieves is a constant "shortage management". Actually, four players are not enough to do all the work on the ship at the same time. If the boat licks, for example, you also have to stuff the holes in the hull and remember the water that has seeped in.

What's so fun What sounds a bit like a stressful job is actually a lot of fun. If everyone takes good care of their job and one wheel takes over the other, that is incredibly satisfying. And if not: no matter! At least in the phase in which everything seems new and crazy.

It feels even better when you meet other pirates. Every 15 to 30 minutes you will find a ship on the horizon in the open world. Now you have to weigh: Will you look for the fight, in the hope of abolishing your opponent's treasures? Or do you turn quickly and flee because you do not want to risk your own wealth? Because, as befits a decent pirate game, Sea of Thieves is all about gold and strumming.

What is missing?

The question is: how long does that last in a game? How many times can you laugh at the fact that you can put yourself in a cannon and shoot at foreign ships to pay for their treasures? After how many jobs do you become tired of the Sea of Thieves world?

Hard to say, because Rare promises to publish small content updates again and again. One of them is the Kraken. He is to appear at random at sea, grab pirates from the deck with his arms and finally drag ships with him into the deep sea.

What Sea of Thieves still lacks is a common theme, the pretty pirate world would be so suitable to tell a real story, but that excludes the developers almost categorically. We should not expect a subsequent campaign, say the makers. Instead, they want to make sure that constantly new content or quests are added.