Sea of Thieves

Pros

• Colorful cartoon design matched with beautiful water physics
• Simple systems that make teamwork a necessity and a delight

Cons

• Lacking in long-term content
• Progression system catered solely to cosmetic items

Sea of Thieves is an open-ended and open world online game that puts you behind the wheel of a ship and lets you pillage the dangerous seas with your own crew of pirates. After a long series of smaller party titles from legendary developer Rare, Sea of Thieves constitutes their first major foray into a major game for a long time. While there's a lot of promise in this game, there are still some rocky shallows along the way, and its long term success will come down to how well they continue to adapt to the demands of their player base.

Games have been moving away from linear, narrative driven experiences for a while now. While games like Minecraft and Rust reward players for their commitment to the game and present them with a deep bench of crafting and customization options, Sea of Thieves looks to take this communal and open-ended model and make it available to more casual gamers. When you jump into the world, you're presented with a ship and the open seas and no real direction. It's a game of exploration, whether that means seeking out distant islands in search of hidden treasure, fighting swarm of skeleton pirates, or tracking down the trips of other players to pillage their own stores. "Emergent gameplay" is a popular buzzword in gaming today, and Sea of Thieves gets it right. Through its simple loop of opportunities, it allows players to create their own stories.

Unfortunately, those stories can sometimes be shallow. The simple fact of the matter is that even with new content being added regularly, there's not a whole lot to do. Rare has been steadily adding new features that encourage cooperative game play. These include horde mode style battles against skeleton armies and roaming kraken that force crews to work together to conquer them, but dedicated players will likely rip through this seasonal content in short order and revert to the same tiny loop of activities available to them. That's not necessarily a disadvantage. Sea of Thieves is a game designed as much for hanging out with your friends as it's tailored to be a deep gameplay experience. While you can travel alone, that's missing much of the point. The best adventures involve groups of people working together to steer their ship, raid other players, and venture out into the wild unknown. The game comes supported with matchmaking and chat features, and it's best played in small bursts, as a way to catch up with friends and family you can't see everyday.

While there may not be too much to do in Sea of Thieves, that might be for the best. Not all games are designed to soak up all our lives or serve as deep challenges, and Rare is rushing to make sure the content matches the demands of their players.

Pros

• Colorful cartoon design matched with beautiful water physics
• Simple systems that make teamwork a necessity and a delight

Cons

• Lacking in long-term content
• Progression system catered solely to cosmetic items