5 Reasons To Play Sea Of Thieves In 2020
The sandiest sandbox you've ever been in... since you were three years old.
Since its release in 2018, Sea of Thieves has become a cult hit. More than that though, it's probably the best adventure game out there.
Its janky release may have been a slip up on the part of its developer Rare, but since then they've poured near constant content, tweaks and quality of life updates out to push it far beyond what was promised.
As a former alpha build player, I can say with some confidence that Sea of Thieves has outdone its initial promises. It's a game that's so easy to pick up and enjoy (especially with friends) that you won't be even remotely bothered about being robbed blind by pirates in it.
It's simply a one of a kind game that produces unscripted, unique stories almost every time you play it. There's a blend of constantly free flowing gameplay and near perfect immersion, veering from the developers' simple commitment to creating a fun game, that's rarely seen in the competitive market nowadays.
After a shaky start, thanks to a vocal community and committed developers, it's become a flagship achievement for post release development and has set the bar insanely high for any future adventure games.
5. The Quests
Quests are often the main pillar of gameplay pushing an MMO forward. In Sea Of Thieves though, they're used differently. On the face of it, the standard quests are simplistic - go here, bring me this thing and I'll give you money affairs - but that's not the point. They're just a tool to get you out onto the sea where almost anything can happen. You could be attacked by skeletons, robbed by lazier players, haunted by ghost pirates, eaten by a kraken or maybe even trapped forever in an ancient vault... who knows?
If you play enough, these organic encounters form some endlessly funny tales to tell your more fortunate friends. Sailing to and from islands for hours on end to sell a pile of chests large enough to leave your ship in an unstable state is amazing.
However, it becomes even more rewarding when you have to manage to stay ahead of a (slowly gaining) much bigger ship, filled with four greedy players, and get to watch as they're eaten alive by a giant tentacled monster just feet away from you. These emergent stories after all are what makes it great.
Then there's the tall tales, story driven missions that send you and your crew on world spanning adventures to find the endless vaults of the shores of gold. These are intriguing, lore filled, specific questlines that offer puzzles, bosses and a more conventional story to follow, which, when combined with the aforementioned random encounters, form an impressive number of options to keep you busy.
Ultimately the quests are secondary here but they offer a forever rewarding incentive to get involved in the absolute chaos that often ensues while playing.