Review — Sea of Thieves — Who’s Ready for an Adventure?

I’ve grappled with how I feel about SoT for a long time and ultimately I recommend it. Let’s talk about why…

I’ve grappled with how I feel about SoT for a long time and ultimately I recommend it. My hesitation comes from one thing: the single-player experience. I’m typically a solo player. I used to game with friends multiple times a week. Then it became just once a week. Now I’m lucky if I game with anyone else once a month. So naturally, many of my general game sessions are in games I can play alone. Of course, many games allow you to be paired with Rando’s, Sea of Thieves included, but I’m just not that kind of guy.

Sea of Thieves is very much a multiplayer game. I know you can play alone, I’ve seen my friend captain a 6-man ship on his lonesome and he enjoys the thrill of it. Best pirate I’ve ever seen. But man, I’m not compelled to hop on by myself in a little 2-man sloop. I don’t feel the pull. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the game wasn’t designed for solo players anyway.

So I’ve always played Sea of Thieves with friends, and I’ve always had a great time. Didn’t think it would get that way starting. The combat is simple, the menus and UI somewhat unintuitive, all of it tied together with a bit of jank and simplicity. The basic player functions are certainly not where Sea of Thieves shines, and had the experience not improved beyond the tutorial island I may not have booted it up ever again after all.

Sea of Thieves shines because it is an exceptionally great ADVENTURE simulator. Rare has programmed so many different scenarios, aspects about pirates, and myths of the seas, that it is impossible not to have some wildly fun adventure every time you play. No session is ever entirely predictable. You enter the game with your friend(s) and the adventures you weave are possible because the game is full of little systems and mechanics that beautifully overlap each other to help create memorable micro-stories at every turn, all fueled by you and your friend’s booty-fueled pirate ambition.

And the more you play the more you’re rewarded. I don’t particularly agree with the additional monetization on top of the purchase price, but you don’t have to interact with that stuff if you don’t want to, and in fact, you can earn quite a lot of “premium” currency just by playing the game without paying. It’s all used for cosmetics anyway, so you don’t have to necessarily even worry about it. Throughout your adventures, it’ll add up. One day you’ll have enough to get a dog, or a parrot, or some cool ship theme with loads of trinkets. It takes time, but what better way to show your seniority in a game about treasure and loot?

This is not to mention that the devs regularly introduce new narratives, quality of life changes, and more through their seasonal model, which can for the most part be interacted with completely for free. It is wild to me (with my Destiny 2 brain rot) that they let all players PLAY the seasonal stuff, regardless of whether or not they purchase the season pass. Buying the game upfront has its benefits!

In thinking about those whom I’ve spoken with who aren’t interested in Sea of Thieves. I think most people (including those who have expressed their disinterest) could play this game with their friends and enjoy their time with it. The gameplay loop might be a bit slow depending on what job you set out to do throughout your play session. But you bring the right friends together and it really can be an absolute blast. If you’re skeptical, wait for a sale. Know that you’ve got potentially hundreds of hours of adventures to go on, and that really, what you’ll get out of Sea of Thieves is what you AND your friends put into it.

So, overall I recommend it. It might not be the most polished game, or the most interesting right from the outset. But it has the potential to give you and your friends tales of adventure to last a lifetime.

Originally published 23 October 2023 at https://backloggd.com.