A loud thunderous bang rings in my ears. The waves push the ship from side to side and water splashed onto the deck. I hear the bell ringing and look up as a cannonball drops towards me. I rush under the deck to prepare to prepare the inevitable damage. When I emerge back up there are pirates boarding my ship and there is a loud bang with a flashing light right in front of my face.
After playing games developed by Rare, This latest instalment reminds me of the hundreds of hours I spent on Banjo & Kazooie. The animation is very similar but it also looks very modern and up to date with enhanced graphics. The waves in the game are incredible visually for a cartoon style game and create a lot of tension when you don’t know what is on the other end.
You can use bells throughout the ship to signal enemies approaching or land in front if it’s misty. I really like this because if your crew doesn’t have headsets they can easily communicate through the bells to get the entire crew ready for battle. The ships have different amounts of cannons depending on the size of the ship.
It doesn’t take too long to load up the cannons but it is quite hard to aim. If they hit the ship you must act quickly to patch up any holes. The ship can sink If you don’t act quick enough. I really liked this because it made the battles even more fast paced and made playing solo really difficult. I like that you have to use a bucket to get the water out of your ship. It makes the game feel a bit more realistic.
The action wheel is a great addition to this game because you have a lot of tools that you would use a lot in one place. You have the planks, a shovel and a compass are a few on the action wheel that is used a lot. You also use a certain button, Y on Xbox, that you press to quickly switch your weapons. All of this together makes it very easy to switch between goals very quickly and efficiently.
Every time you log into the game you have the option of what ship you want to set sail on. This is great if you have been playing on your own on a Sloop, small ship, and then find a crew and want to play on a galleon, large ship. I liked this because it was very adaptable to the situation you are in but it also makes it harder in the game to switch.
There is a lot of customisation options available for all of your equipment and your ship. The issue I have with this is all of the customisation is cosmetic so you spend a lot of gold on something that doesn’t really progress your game. I would have also liked that the items have different values. You can buy a basic looking weapon for the same price as a gold plated and gem encrusted weapon.
Overall, I enjoyed the game. It did get a bit repetitive and didn’t have much progression. However, it was quite fun trying to find locations on the map and treasure hunting. With a lot of game preview/ early access games coming out now I feel that rare have taken on this trend but called Sea of Thieves a full game. It needs to get more content to feel like it is actually finished.
The islands could have done with a bit more danger like more enemies and of different types. One of the main changes I would like to see in the game is an AI enemy crew who appear while you’re sailing to battle you in the middle of the ocean. This would make traveling more fun instead of going from point A to B and looking out for other players that may never appear.
GameCritUK 