Sea of Thieves Early Impressions
If you were really lucky (or smart), you were able to secure a spot in line to play Rare’s Sea of Thieves at the Xbox Showcase yesterday. It took the better part of an hour, but I managed to be standing in the right place when a slot opened up. The game is amazing, by the way. Should I have lead with that?
You play one of four pirates setting out on a journey for treasure and comical danger. The co-op vibe keeps pretty pleasant all throughout, at least it did at the showcase. My crew and I had to work together, or else the ship just wouldn’t move. You want to steer? Well, the sails block your view. So, someone else has to tell you which way to go. Raising or lowering the anchor takes more than one person to do, and adjusting the sails needs to happen on the fly. In other words, teamwork makes the dream work.
There were plenty of touches throughout that helped inform the tone. Among my inventory, I found a mug full of grog, an accordion, a compass and a shovel. Each item does more or less exactly what you’d expect. It’s pretty hard to walk those narrow docks when you’ve a head full of grog. And who doesn’t appreciate a little music to accompany your treasure hunting and seafaring?
We picked an island on the map and headed there, sure that riches awaited us. We almost missed said island entirely, but we did get there. Pirate ships are surprisingly hard to steer. Oh, and I might have fallen off the side of the boat a couple hundred feet from land. I had to do some swimming, but I managed to make it eventually. I wasn’t even eaten by any sharks!
At one point we discovered a treasure chest. Amazing news, right? We’re all gonna be rich! Of course it was cursed. Whoever picked it up was instantly drunk. Not a good place to be in when the skeletons are hunting you down. So we continued shopping around. The next chest looked great. No one died or got hammered upon picking it up. We got it back to the ship just fine. Suddenly it started puking up sea water. Then the bottom deck began flooding. Yes, that’s why you have a bucket among your things.
Unfortunately, we were unable to successfully transport a single treasure chest back to an outpost before the demo concluded. Still, the act of working together to operate a full-sized pirate ship was singular experience, one I can’t wait to expand on when the full game is eventually released.
