Sea Of Thieves Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

Downs

5. It's Thin On Content & Overpriced

The biggest general concern going into Sea of Thieves was that it just wouldn't offer up enough content for its AAA price tag, and would leave audiences to "make their own fun" in lieu of populating this lush world with things to do.

Sadly, from what we've played so far, that is absolutely the case, and it's staggering that such a piecemeal end product took Rare so long to develop.

From the fact the player can only operate one of two ships right out of the gate, to the fairly sparse nature of the game world - where flora and fauna are disappointingly scant - and a general lack of the swashbuckling pirate fantasy you'd hope for in a game like this, it's a dispiritingly empty game at times.

The quests - or rather, "voyages", as the game calls them - largely consist of generic, repetitive fetch tasks in order to amass more money, but there's no meaningful sense of progression and extremely limited player customisation, the combat is stiff, and even the much-hyped Kraken boss fight is honestly pretty underwhelming.

This is a pitch perfect example of a "AAA" game that should've cost no more than $40/£30, because the utter lack of substantial content on offer certainly doesn't make it feel like a flagship title worthy of a full-fat price tag. Rare insists that the game will continue to grow with updates, but day one, that's really not good enough.