Since AC: Black Flag, I have searched for the perfect pirate
game. Some have popped up in the last few years, there’s Blackwake, Blood and
Gold: Caribbean an also Ubisoft have announced Skull and Bones, a game that
uses Black Flags pirate ship combat. However none of these really scratch that
pirate itch. Blackwake focuses on PvP multiplayer and working as a team to be
successful almost like a pirate Chivalry. Blood and Gold: Caribbean is at its
core a re-skin for Mount & Blade, but the developers seem to have stopped
touching the game anyway. Whilst not much is known about Skull and Bones, it
seems to just be ship combat with a focus on PvP. So when Sea of Thieves was
announced at E3, I was excited. When it was shown it had interesting ship
combat, it had melee and firearms, there was treasure hunts and though it
encouraged teamwork it was also accessible as a solo player. I thought this was
it, the pirate game I’d been waiting for.
As it turns out, Sea of Thieves is a game that gives me
nothing but mixed emotions. It is really exciting, but at the same time equally
flawed. I have played a couple of hours so far in solo and as a duo (with my
brother). I do plan on putting a bit more time into it and jumping into a
bigger group and seeing if that changes much gameplay wise, but I highly doubt
it will have much of an effect.
The first thing you notice when you start up Sea of Thieves
is the lack of character customisation. The game randomly generates a group of
pirates that you get to pick from, which is infuriating because the characters
look really fucking cool, however because you don’t create them, the character
you pick doesn’t really feel like it’s yours. I wish I got to design what MY
pirate looked like, especially in a game were the only real progression is to
get gold in order to customise your outfit, to me it doesn’t make sense to
start from a base that you haven’t created. This leads me onto my next point,
progression.
The progression in Sea of Thieves is barely existent, there
are three factions, and you do quests for each to be rewarded with gold and
faction rep. As far as I’m aware Faction rep just unlocks more ‘difficult’
quests, whilst gold is used in order to buy new clothes and equipment. The
clothes and equipment you can buy seem to have no effect whatsoever on
gameplay, no numbers get bigger, no abilities unlock, they are purely cosmetic.
The fact all the progression is horizontal is no surprise,
Rare said it would be numerous times in their press releases since its
announcement. As an idea it’s a choice that makes perfect sense, it allows for
new comers to jump right in and not have to worry about getting blasted by a
Super Mega Canon that fires flaming heat seeking shot. It makes the game a
level playing field (assuming you aren’t playing alone). However, in practice
the horizontal progression feels massively flawed.
Maybe it is because my tiny reptile brain is so used to
numbers getting bigger, that I need that little endorphin rush to fully enjoy a
game. Why is it that I don’t care for buying any of the cosmetics? It’s not
that they don’t look good, some of them are really interesting (even though
there isn’t many items to buy at launch), is it because they don’t offer me
anything new? What I plan on doing is saving up all my gold and wearing nothing
but the rags I started in, becoming the secret millionaire of Sea of Thieves.
But have we become so goal orientated that having a sandbox
to play in with friends and have fun simply isn’t enough? Even the quest loop
in the game is awful because there’s no real reasons to do quests unless you
want different cosmetics, also this isn’t helped by the absolute lack of
variety in the quests given from the three different factions (however it’s
possible at higher levels quests get different and change but I haven’t seen
that reported anywhere yet).
However, even in the face of all these negatives, I’ve had
boat loads of fun with Sea of Thieves (I hate myself for that). As said
earlier, all my time has been spent either in solo or as a duo with my brother
so I am yet to experience the large ship. However the act of sailing in this
game is absolutely amazing, the teamwork needed to sail a ship efficiently is
so well designed, I often find myself heading towards a storm to test our abilities
as sailors. Sailing the boat is so well designed, that it never really feels
like you are just waiting to go from A to B, you are constantly moving around the
ship, angling the sails, checking the map, acting as lookout, preparing the
cannons or god forbid… repairing the hull from damage or relaying buckets of
water from your rapidly sinking ship.
Sea of Thieves is a game that relies on emergent gameplay
and the unplanned experiences you have -arguably more than any other game I can
think of - and in my experience so far it has succeeded, however how long can
Sea of Thieves lean on emergent gameplay before everyone has the same stories
to tell each other and experiences get repetitive? Nevertheless the time I’ve
spent so far sailing the seas and finding treasure have been incredible.
Adam (my brother) proposed a quest for the merchant’s guild,
we were tasked to track and capture two different type of pig and deliver them
to an outpost, how hard could that be? As we lifted up the anchor and drifted
away from the dock we met at the map to discuss where we were best headed to
find these pigs. We agreed on Snake Island, a group of three small grass
covered isles that were sure to be home to the pigs we sought. We sailed north,
leisurely, we were in no rush and besides it was sunrise so we relaxed and took
it in because Sea of Thieves is absolutely breath-taking. *DING DING* “That’s
the Island” Adam hollered as he ran to raise the sail in order to slow down our
approach. We got within 200m of the isles and I took a cage, jumped into the
sea and swam toward the centre landmass as Adam docked the ship.
As I made my way out of the surf and trudged up onto the
beach I heard Adam sheepishly mutter “Uh oh…. This is bad”. Without thinking I
dropped the cage and headed towards where he was making dock, “You don’t wanna
see this” he exclaimed. As I followed the beach around in search of our ship,
it’s then I noticed it. A ships bowsprit, our ships bowsprit, poking through
the trees. “I told you, you didn’t wanna see it”.
We both jumped aboard and began repairing the ship in an attempt
to keep it from sinking. With all the damage patched, I left Adam on bucket
duty whilst I tried to manoeuvre back into open waters. After a couple of
minutes of messing with sails and raising the anchor, we found ourselves in a
decent position to dock. And to our surprise, we heard the sound of pigs. Adam
grabbed a cage and headed toward the island with me in pursuit. And as we got
up onto the beach we seen it, the spotted pig, our buried treasure. We pounced,
within seconds the swine was ours.
I directed Adam to the other cage whilst I took the pig on
board and readied the ship. Soon after, my brother jumped aboard with another
pig, however, it wasn’t the right type. No problem “Just release it an go find
the right pig” I said.
“It won’t let me” said Adam. “I don’t think you can.”
Shit. I knew what this meant. I knew what we had to do. Adam
had made far too many mistakes so far, it was up to me to rectify this one. The
image of George standing above an oblivious Lennie sprung to mind. I drew my
gun and with one squeeze we were back on mission. “You absolute dickhead” my
girlfriend shouted, she had been watching me play all along and had enjoyed it
up to this point.
Almost deflated, I remained on deck as Adam went looking for
another pig. When he returned we didn’t even mention what had just took place,
we just quietly sailed toward Ancient Spire Outpost to deliver the livestock. As
the outpost came into sight after what seemed to be 20 minutes of sailing in
silence, I seen what I dreaded. *DING DING, DING DING* “That’s a Galleon!” I
shouted “We have no chance! Get out of here!” Adam took a sharp right as I kept
my eyes on the Galleon to make sure they weren’t giving chase.
We seemed to be in the clear, the Galleon was docked, and we
were far away enough and out of sight of the ship. That’s when Adam suggested I
should sneak onto the island, hide on it and then signal when it’s all clear.
After positioning the cannon just right, I loaded myself in and soon found
myself hurtling through the air. Thankfully I didn’t have much of a swim to
make dry land.
I positioned myself in a bush, and looked through my
spyglass. After a couple of tense minutes trying not to be spotted I noticed
the captain of the Galleon turning the ship, his team angling and lowering the
sails. “Thank God” I thought. They were leaving. I notified Adam who had took the
ship and hid it at another island (the south side of Devils Ridge) that it was
all clear then I used the merman teleport to get back to our ship.
Worried that we may encounter the Galleon I checked all the
cannons were loaded, that’s when I noticed the silence. No longer could I hear
annoying oinks of our cargo. “Adam, what the fuck have you done?” I yelled as I
ran below deck to check the cages. Empty. The cages were empty. “That’s what
you get for murdering that pig!” my girlfriend muttered under her breath. Adam
swore he hadn’t done anything. Even now we are both unsure what happened,
though we think they starved as I recently seen you could feed caged animals
with bananas.
With our cages empty, and time running out we decided to
rummage through Devils Ridge and pray we would find the pigs we needed. As I
breached through a tree line I stumbled upon a barrel of gunpowder, I figured
that was some profit at least. “Bring the cages” Adam exclaimed. I made my way
to him and as if by an act of God, there they were, the two pigs we needed.
Quickly we got them aboard and headed north to our final destination.
We finally arrived and delivered the goods, was it all worth
it for 1500 gold coins? I don’t know but I can tell you now it was a lot of
fun. To celebrate me an Adam went the pub, got drunk, puked and decided to call
it a night. Yes, Sea of Thieves has its problems, but it also has its moments.
Almost everyone who has played the game has stories similar to mine and maybe
that is what’s more important than making numbers get bigger. In my opinion the
game is exactly what was advertised, an open world pirate sandbox where you get
to hang out with friends and go on adventures. However I do hope the game is
supported with content updates as Sea of Thieves really is a fantastic base
with so much potential.
I plan on playing more Sea of Thieves with Adam, and I can’t
wait to get my other brother online with us too, then we’ll get to try out the
Galleon. The game is worth trying with Game Pass especially if you have a bunch
of friends who you can play with, even the dullest of quests become interesting
when you are hanging out with the people you know, and I think that’s where Sea
of Thieves really shines, being a fantastic space to hang with friends and create
your own stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment