My brother and I ( and sometimes my wife ) play multiplayer games together. We are practically the definition of casual gamers, we love to play, but do not dedicate our lives to playing games, we also have actual lives.
We have played many MMO’s and also run a Minecraft server ( heavily modded )
We are not now nor have we ever been PVP style players, we avoid PVP games like the plague in most cases as that just is not what we enjoy.
Decided to pick up Sea of Thieves for myself and give it a try
I understood from the start that Sea of Thieves was a PVP game with no quarter, no way to option out of it. We decided to try the game anyway because we liked the premise.
Launch Day, had a hard time getting onto a server ( we all know the issues ) but when I did I was a little taken aback by the control scheme, but realized it was an attempt to level the playing field with console users ( we are PC users ).
The game is beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, on land it is very immersive, at sea it is over the top immersive, the feeling of sailing a ship although not quite accurate is still astoundingly real feeling. I actually am an old salt, I was in the United States Coast Guard stationed for 2 years on an Ice Breaker that spent 9 months every year at sea. I am a Golden Shellback for any that knows what that means. I am also a Penguin and a Polar Bear.
I was immediately transported back to being on the open sea, it was fantastic.
Gameplay on the 3 mission types was simple and straightforward, challenging enough to not be boring, but easy enough for a casual gamer to immediately get into it and feel successful.
The stunning success in the use of stylized graphics to represent this virtual world, is noteworthy, it adds a lot to the game.
I called my brother and talked him into purchasing a copy, and started playing Duo
Our adventures over the next 3 days was amazing, the straight gameplay was fantastic and we would return to port feeling like we had accomplished something, even thought all we were accomplishing were fluff items that gave us no advantage in the game, not what we were used to, but enjoying it still.
The emergent gameplay however was phenomenal, our fear of other players, our sometimes desperate attempts to avoid combat, was hilarious. By the third day we were tired of running, our ship was fired upon by a passing sloop and we turned on it, chased it down and sank it. During our victory celebrations we were boarded by the survivor who killed one of us before the other got him. That sobered us a bit.
We met a friendly pirate and he trio’s with us so we got to sail the Galleon, what a fantastic ship, and what work to sail properly… wonderful stuff. A new fiend we would sail with any day.
The next day we were set upon by a sloop while we were digging for treasure on an island, we were pillaged, plundered I tell you by plague ridden, Pirates! The battle that ensued was something I will never forget. I swam under their ship with a keg of gunpowder and released it so it would float to the bottom of their ship where it exploded. They had our ship leaking from cannon fire. There were sword and gun fights on both decks, in the end both ships sank and only my brother survived. With 2 sinking ships and he swam for our treasure and piled some 8 chests and 6 skulls and a few other items ( spice boxes and such ) on this island, he was a castaway with no ship.
I respawned with a new ship and had to sail some ways to try and locate him, finally found him, and we loaded the treasure onto our new ship and sailed for port and finally cashed it all in.
I then purchased a copy for my wife and we too have Duo adventures and sometimes trio with my brother and I. Looking forward to a full Galleon crew with out new friend.
I could tell sea stories for days but I should stop.
Conclusions:
The game is beautiful, the straight gameplay is solid, the finding of treasures by instructions is particularly fun.
The PVP aspect is crucial to a game like this, without it, the game would lose its charm very quickly. I would not change a thing about PVP, and coming from me that is quite a statement as we are not in any way PVP players.
Suggested changes:
If I could have any changes I wanted, I would increase the wait for a respawn, make death hurt more, not in gold, but in time so it affects everyone equally, longer and longer depending on the kind of death and the frequency of death.
I would also make re-spawning with a new ship happen VERY far away from your actual demise.
