With the continuation of these clunky and backwards trodding adventures that are riddled with adventure breaking glitches (Such as emissaries not giving the flag needed to conquer forts), I felt it would be nice to look back at what Sea of Thieves have done right within the precursor to adventures, tall tales, and more specifically, the tutorial.
The tutorial is an interesting introduction to the game, from the on set you are greeted to a beautiful view with palm trees, lush vegetations, a sandy beach, with a beautiful crystal clear ocean off in the view. The pirate lord immediately appears to start you off in the path to find the sea of thieves and where the majority of the game takes place.
Amazing introduction, that also introduces you to your combat and exploration tools, providing not just background description of how they came to be in your possession but doing so by allowing you to play through the acquisition of said tools. In fact, the only thing I'd change about the direction in this section of the tutorial is the pirate lord being the one to show up. The devs really had a chance here to build up suspense and up the value of mystery towards the pirate lord but by showing him too early, all that is disappointingly lost. One thing I never felt as a result was respect nor awe towards the pirate lord, he always came off as someone silly and his "imposing atmosphere" that all pirate lords should have was nowhere to be seen or felt.
Regardless, once you collect your items, you can either continue the tutorial or go off and explore on your own. This is an amazing idea, that centralizes what type of pirate the player wants to be. They can either go off and explore on their own or just get on with it to gold and glory. If a pirate doesn't wish to continue with an adventure due to danger, laziness, or lack of resources, they shouldn't have to be forced to continue it, they simply throw all their cards down and collect their reward, after all, treasure is ultimately what pirates are after. The island itself is filled with interesting set pieces such as waterfalls, or a ship wreck to encourage adventuring or exploration on its own though.
Speaking of treasure, the hidden store room is a great treasure/ reward for explorers, although I would have liked for the key to be a bit bigger or more obvious. The key as it stands, tends to blend too much with the environment to the point that even if one did correctly follow the puzzle clues, they might still not find the key. Speaking of rewards for exploration, going through the caverns of the island only to be rewarded with a row boat is also not a good rewards, a small gold stash would be a great incentive for those who manage to complete the path. The dark and mysterious ambiance of the cave as well as the myriad of switches, gate or bridge anchors/ pulleys are a great way to keep players hooked to follow this mysterious path.
Regardless if one explores or not, the player are then asked to fix up their ship, perhaps the only issue with the entirety of the tutorial, that is even more so emphasized here, are the amount of pop ups. The tutorial does a good job of not hand holding players too much, but at times it can come off as a bit excessive. Personally, I wouldn't include any pop up hints. At most, the player should be given generic hints, such as how to activate tools. Things such as using bucket to scoop water, raising the mast, lowering sails, fixing ship, etc should be left to the player and their own level of common sense/ intellect. The idea, is that the tutorial should present the player with circumstances that contain some problem that the player must fix, without fixing the problem, the player should be unable to continue. Psychologically, this is called shaping, providing the player with a situation that allows them to learn the ropes by presenting them with situations that will demand that they learn mechanics that help solve the issue. This type of tutorial presentation is also considered an effecting teaching strategy for students in an educational environment.
The only issue I found with this section of the game is that it allows players to progress without having to blast any cannonballs, some players are thrown into the game without this knowledge because the tutorial continues to ever move forward. This issue is tied to the large moments of rest/ nothingness when sailing out of the tutorial island. The megladon, could appear a little bit earlier, and provide the cursed ship a more flexible time frame to appear and be out and about to allow the player to attack it before the kraken finally shows up and sinks said ship.
Ultimately, my idea for a tutorial, to start of as a prisoner of a kingdom/ nation, who breaks free and attack their jailer, capturing said ship, in which one then uses to sink nearby ships, and escape into the sea of thieves while being in hot pursuit of an entire fleet is not too different in achieving the goals that Rare's tutorial manage to accomplish. Overall, the trial substitutes the looming threat of a "Union" armada fleet seeking to conquer the sea of thieves for showing what the game has to offer including megladons, cursed ships, and the kraken. It is an amazing display of theatrics that instead, shows the looming threat of what the sea of thieves has to offer, and I believe that is a very great teaser and addition to the game. The tutorial closes with the player, a pirate sailing off into the Sea of Thieves horizon seeking reputation, glory, treasure, or more adventures! The Rare Logo appears and fades with finally the Sea of Thieves logo showing up big and bold on screen, it fades along with the day cycle of the game, and close curtains. The tutorial kicks you into the main game, Amazing! What a hype build up!
The set up for this tutorial, although not perfect, is masterfully crafted in a way that encourages players to explore and find their way while still introducing players to the story and what the game has to offer, and for those reasons I believed that Sea of Thieves tutorial deserved some love as we reminisce about what makes it so great.
What do you all think? Is there something memorable about the game that you fell in love with on your first experience? Is there a mechanic or experience that is memorable that you feel deserves some love?
