Sea of Thieves – Beta Boating
first Look: Xb1 VERSION
Sea of Thieves is an upcoming action-adventure video game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One… But all I want to do is pillage and plunder, is that too much to ask?
So I finally got my hands on some Sea of Thieves action, and I was given access to the “Sea of Thieves Scale Test!” via the Xbox Insider Hub and downloaded it immediately.
Here are my rantings.
I spent quite some time looking at the scenery from the crows nest, even at night its a beautiful world… You know it is.
FIRST TIME PLAY!
The character selection is surprisingly refreshing, I assumed we’d be making our characters from scratch, kind of like EA’s Mass Effect. The characters randomly generate in so many ways. It’s clear you’ll most probably pass up on a much better character model than the one you eventually settle for…
*Sips Coffee*
… And I’m ok with that. It’s because of this simple method you’ll hardly see a pirate that looks the same. It helps that you can only see your pirate while customising them too, I guess. Picking the characters off a carousel is fun, quick and easy. If you don’t see what you’re looking for just simply refresh your selection, you’ll find your match eventually. Pegged legs and hook hands come later, at this point it’s all about the base of your character. Whether they are plump and sweaty or puny and slight, there will be pirate models you’ll enjoy using and seeing for a long time.
Such a small island, I’m sure its full of riches and wonders.
*Sips Coffee*
I started the game on a Sloop. Game loaded up. Spawned on my docked ship next to a small island then instantly gave out a sheepish “Hello?” There was absolute silence except for the waves crashing against my ship in this massive shared-world adventure game. I took out my spyglass to look at the horizon then took it upon myself to hop off the Sloop, dive into the ocean and start exploring the tiny island. Turns out there were two other players on what I thought was MY ship and as I swam to land they took off. They left me stranded. I was pissed. I waited a bit, assuming they were decent people and would come back for me but they didn’t… I just watched them sail away off into the distance. As I gave up all hope A WILD MERMAN APPEARS! Yes, a merman. This elegant fish man has the ability to teleport you back to your ship, just look for the blue smoke (Colour may change post release) and you’ll be back on hard wood in no time. There are also Mermaids. (Get over it)
*Sips Coffee*
I tried to go west south west, is that a thing?
First time play part 2
I started a new game and decided to roll solo on a sloop. Problem? Yes! THERE ARE TOO MANY COMPONENTS! Running a ship is really too much work for a single person. Granted with time I got a lot better, but the task is daunting when you have no idea what to do. You have to raise the sail, angle the sail, steer the wheel, raise and drop the anchor. Oh… and just in case you want to go a little incognito, you also have to turn out all of the lanterns on the ship and there are quite a few lanterns. My first self-imposed task was to sail to Skull Island and I would have made it too if it wasn’t for them meddling… waves. Truthfully my sailing sucks, so I crashed my ship into an outpost accidentally of course and as it sank I felt fuelled to really learn how to sail that piece of shit. Thankfully the ship re-spawned and I was on my merry way.
A Galleon!! Never try to sail one of these alone.
NEW GAME! SOLO!
*Sips Coffee*
Successfully sailed to an island and docked with no issue. Intended to explore the island but it was too dark, the once beautiful foreign land was now a dark and gloomy looking rock. The simplicity of the game makes it really cool to just do nothing if you want and just sail the seas. Alternatively you can put so much time into treasure hunting or exploring and discovering. I got a great feeling of achievement when I found my first chest, this is because the game does you no favours as there’s no tutorial.
Sea of Thieves stands up against the usual load-up and shoot type of games, you aren’t aiming to best your opponent with quick reactions and I never heard the word NOOB at all. You simply hop into a server and you’re left to your own devices, it’s great to just enter and have fun. It’s truly a great sandbox title where you can do anything… well a lot of things, Xbox are even quoted as saying “Packed to the seams with sailing and exploring, fighting and plundering, riddle solving and treasure hunting, Sea of Thieves has everything you need to live the pirate life that you’ve always dreamed about, BLAH! I just want this game to be fun. I feel like the guys at Rare want this too as they have not even included stats or a tally to compare boring KD’s. Bliss! I expect they’ll be some bugs to contend with on release but I also expect a wide variation of voyages to take my mind off any issues that may occur. Communication is key for this game so one thing that could make this a success is the banter had between one another. Sea of Thieves is out 20th March and it’s a game I will definitely be picking up on release. That’s just me but I look forward to seeing you all online, whether that’s with me or against me… it’s up to the seas but I am sure this is a game we are all looking forward to…right?
*Sips Coffee*