So, for those of you who don't know anything about Sea of Thieves, it is a new game due for release on the 20th March on the XBox One and Windows, and has been in development since November 2015.
Shiver me timbers!, What's the game about?
Quite simply, you are a pirate, and you can either set sail in the shared world on your own on a small vessel seeking your riches, or you can team up with 1 or 3 other people and sail a medium sized ship (2 man crew) or a large ship (4 man crew). The game offers a matchmaking feature, so if you dont have any buddies online, you can hook up with other pirates who need the extra set of hands on deck.
The game offers a rich landscape, with changing weather patterns to keep you on your toes whilst sailing between islands, and the occasional storm to throw you off course (storms cause your compasses to go haywire, and spin rapidly, so you have no idea from the compass if you are heading in the right direction). The characters are cartoonish, adding to the appeal and humour of the game. The ability to choose how you want to play gives the game a much needed extra dimension (which is often missing from AAA titles these days), as you are no longer going to a specific location to grind for rewards, but you can choose to go and hunt for the treasure with your crew, or simply hunt down other people and steal their treasure chests and send them to Davey Jones's Locker.
Land ahoy - Hunting for treasure - This is by far one of the more interesting parts of the game, as you purchase a treasure map, and it will either have an island shown on it (with a convenient red X or two highlighted), or a riddle to solve, and you need to look at the large map on your ships map table to locate it where you need to sail to. Once you have located the island, you need to pull up your anchor, and set your sails (which you can raise and lower, as well as change their position to catch the best wind) before steering your ship to the island. Once there, you can either trim your sails, and make a nice sedate approach, or just drop the anchor and come to a grinding halt which sometimes spins you round to face the opposite direction. Grabbing your trusty shovel, head to land and locate the treasure using the map or find the next location in the riddle (if you have parked your ship a bit far out, you can climb into a cannon and fire yourself at the island as well). Once you are in the right area, start digging, and if you are in the right spot, you will hear a satisfying thud of your shovel hitting the chest and receive a notification that the chest has been found. After digging it up, you may even receive further treasure maps. After digging up all the relevant treasure, you need to return them to an outpost, and sell them (all the while being careful to avoid other ships, just in case they want to try and steal your loot). You may even come across the occasional shipwreck which you can swim down to and search for loot and extra supplies.
Ship ahoy - Stealing treasure - Finding another ship to loot can be a bit difficult, but if you do find one, there is something satisfying about boarding them and stealing their loot (or just sinking them because you can). You have a range of personal weapons (cutlass, pistol, blunderbus) to use when boarding, in addition to your ships cannons, but the opponents have the same choices of weapons to defend themselves. If you are struggling to get close enough to board, like with parking a bit too far from the island, you can always fire yourself from a cannon to land on board, and drop their anchor so you can get near enough to transfer any loot without having to avoid sharks on the swim back with it.
Additional fun things about the game - Apart from the usual pirate fare of digging up treasure and looting other ships, the game offers some hilarious additions which are the staples of any (maybe not so) serious Pirate King or Queen. The first one is that you carry 2 musical instruments with you when you start (whether this carries over to the full game, or if you have to buy them remains to be seen), which you can whip out and play at any time you want (one appears to be an accordian and the other looks suspiciously like a hurdy-gurdy).
If another crew member gets their musical instrument out, and starts playing along with you, they play in time and add to the musical effect.
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of Rum - Another nice addition is GROG. What pirate would leave port without a big barrel of the stuff? Simply get your tankard out of your inventory, and head down in to the hold of your ship, fill your tankard from the never ending barrel of GROG, and sup it down like a true pirate (GROG is also available from taverns at outposts). Drinking GROG does have the effect of making you a bit wobbly, and drinking too much not only makes you very wobbly, but has that well known side effect of making you spew all over the place.
So, if a pirates life is for you, head on over to your local games store, or head to the xbox store, and place your order now me hearties.
The game is published by Rare (the people who brought you Banjo-Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Grabbed by the Ghoulies and many more), a UK based gaming studio. You can find more information about the game at https://www.seaofthieves.com/game
Those who purchase a digital copy from the Microsoft store get the Play Anywhere feature (may only be available on certain packages), and the game will also be available with the XBox Game Pass on the day of launch.