Sea of Thieves (PC) - Review

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 30 March 2018 / 7,340 Views

Rare, a studio whose games I enjoyed immeasurably as a child, is not back to form quite yet. Sea of Thieves is the closest the developer has come to the glory days of old in quite some time, and in some ways it is an amazing game, but there are just too many flaws and it's so lacking in substance that I couldn't help but feel disappointed. Have you ever heard of the expression, when looking through houses, “it has good bones?” If so, you probably already know where I’m going with this.

Sea of Thieves has the basis for an amazing gaming experience. The art style, realistic ocean waves, vast open world to explore and discover, lack of radar (and therefore a never-ending sense of anticipation and excitement about what is around every corner), and a number of other features make this look, at first, like an incredibly fun game to play. But play for a little while longer and you'll realize that there's not much else there to hold your attention. I eventually started to feel the emptiness of the world in regards to both the number of players I encountered as well as the amount of meaningful NPCs and enemies I met. Both the helpful characters and the ones trying to kill you are bland and forgettable.

The game centers on your hand-picked pirate (which unfortunately is barely customizable). You then log in and either play by yourself or play with a small group of up to three other players, and set sail on the high seas. At first, it's a lot of fun, but I quickly realized I was enjoying it partly because of what I expected would happen next. I was waiting for something like the dynamics in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, where you work with your crew of fellow pirates, building relationships, taking part in quests, being treated to moments of dialogue and story-focused cut scenes, upgrading your ship to become more powerful (not merely acquiring cosmetic upgrades), challenging other ships and crews that are at a similar level and obtaining rewards for defeating them, and so on.

I was expecting tangible rewards that would offer interesting new features or places to explore, and which would add a sense of progression to your adventuring. I wasn’t expecting an implied message - one felt throughout the game- that more or less said "work in progress".

I was at least expecting some narrative thread. Black Flag had an amazing story, in my opinion; the best one in the franchise, and Sea of Thieves, by comparison, is just shallow. What is the point in it? What you end up doing in each play session is randomly hopping from island to island, which feels about as fun as going on a voyage of various planets in No Man’s Sky (namely, plenty of fun at first, but the novelty quickly wears off).

You'll find treasure on your target island, will fight against skeletons (and potentially other players) using a fairly simplistic combat system, safely store aforementioned treasure in your ship, take it back to an outpost, and finally turn it in so that you can level up. That's pretty much the core of Sea of Thieves.

Disappointingly, your reward for maxing up your levels is basically a "stay tuned for further updates" message. Excited? No, me neither. Over and over again I’d hear people talk about (rather excitedly) the fact that if you hold the melee sword button it will allow you to move quickly over the water before you start swimming, allowing you to sort of catapult your character. If people are excited about that, what does it say about the rest of the game? I rarely if ever heard talk of amazing fights and encounters, or a stunning sequence of events, or the discovery of an awesome treasure.

And so the game becomes dull rather fast. Usually, when I’m bored this quickly by a game it's because of a pacing issue; I've just yet to get to the good stuff, the true meat of the game. With Sea of Thieves, there isn't any meat. In many ways, it feels like something more attuned to gaming late 90s or early 2000s, with some added modern bonuses.

On the upside, I can’t help but be amazed at how intriguing the world looks. I was in awe of the storms, the Death Eater-like skulls in the sky, the ominous waves, and the never-know-when-something-is-going-to-go-wrong feeling that you have while playing. It's just a shame it's so shallow and that there's rarely anything captivating beyond the art style. The game would work better, I think, if it was an MMORPG, with literally hundreds if not thousands of other players around you at all times in constant battle. Other ships were quite rare in my playtime, and battles were rarer still; most of the other ships I saw simply fled or weren't crewed by other players because they were busy treasure hunting on a nearby island. Sea of Thieves would be more enjoyable if it encouraged a greater sense of group comradery and shared goals, rather than focussing on individual player levelling.

I think it's clear that Rare created this game with the intention of adding a lot to it over time. Hopefully it will receive the same treatment that the original Splatoon received. If you played that game early in its life and then again a few months later on then you'll know that a lot of features were added to it post-launch and it became a much more rounded package as a consequence. Sea of Thieves is a game that, I believe, with a lot of extra development time and additional content, could be great one day. Right now, however, it's about as empty as a lost bottle found at sea. How I wish, upon looking inside the bottle, that there was something valuable within. Presently, there isn't. Despite all of my criticisms, however, I remain hopeful that time will do Sea of Thieves justice and maybe one day it will be worth revisiting.

VGChartz Verdict

5
Acceptable

This review is based on a digital copy of Sea of Thieves for the PC, provided by the publisher.

Read more about our Review Methodology here

17 Comments

ship31 (on 30 March 2018)

I wonder if they’ll eventually turn Sea of Theives into a Free to Play experience.

I think that would be a good idea since the game is highly reliant on cosmetics and they’ll be updating it with content for the next couple years.

Azzanation ship31 (on 30 March 2018)

It basically is for Game Pass members

Helloplite (on 31 March 2018)

This might be a 5 or a 6 out of 10 game, right NOW. My concern is, if it gets fixed eventually, will you (and other websites) go back and re-do your review and update the score accordingly? Because the terrible reviews might be affecting the game's sales, and therefore its future longevity. It would suck if RARE had planned awesome post-release material that they have to give up due to diminishing interest by the public.

Rather than mark the game for its current content, shouldn't you give it the benefit of the doubt like you do with Splatoon? For all we know, RARE could end up adding so much content to this that these reviews become irrelevant. But the public won't know.

RARE's fault was not being explicit that this is equivalent to an early access game. And of course charging full price for an early access game.

P.S.: Am I the only one who thinks that RARE would make an excellent remake of Wind Waker with this tech?

Azzanation Helloplite (on 02 April 2018)

Some sites review games again, it all depends. Unfortunately this is how it stands now and changing the review wont be fair on other games that released early. I can see SOTs getting reviewed again by some good sites.

Goddbless Helloplite (on 02 April 2018)

IGN will go back and review a game later on if it becomes much better due to updates.

Masked_Muchaco (on 30 March 2018)

I had a blast with this game when I played it at a friend's house, setting sail for the first time was simply magical, but I played it for like a hour, so who knows if I would get bored latter on.

Slap&Ride (on 30 March 2018)

It will get better this year with the following updates, but for now its a good game to look at on Twitch...

TheBird (on 30 March 2018)

Not surprised the sony fanboys are downvoting anything that remotely supports this game. such pathetic human beings.

TheBird (on 30 March 2018)

Azzanation (on 30 March 2018)

Nuvendil Azzanation (on 30 March 2018)

That's not an excuse. The foundational game needs to be substantial enough to grab people and keep them hooked until that free content starts coming. This game is so vapid people are declaring themselves done with it after a week.

And you can't review a game based on hypothetical content that might be good.

Also, it's not all free since they are smuggling in microtransactions post launch.

Madword Azzanation (on 30 March 2018)

A game should be reviewed when its released not in the intention of what it will be like. Of course that doesn't stop a re-review later on down the line, but if people are dropping $60 on a game with no content then thats a serious problem. If its $60 in a years time and has tons of content then fair enough.

Stuart23 Azzanation (on 30 March 2018)

You can't write a review based on stuff that does not exists yet. When you write a review you need to examine the game from what it is right now and for what it does offer right now. Yeah I do believe the game will improve in the future, but it is barebones in content and critics will not look past the lack of content right now.

Azzanation Azzanation (on 30 March 2018)

I agree you can only review what is playable now. And right now you have a mixed bag of players getting bored and players enjoying whate out at the minute. For me i am enjoying it. It will obvious get better over time. I personally I think $60 is too much for the standalone game. Should be a Gamepass exclusive but if future content and updates are free the game will earn its value.