By Andrew Gardewine, Contributing Writer
The video game industry has been constantly changing for the last fifty years starting off with the first ever and very simple game, Pong, to more recent, complex games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Fortnite, Overwatch and League of Legends. The most popular genre of games nowadays is multiplayer shooters with linear gameplay: Kill the enemy teams, win the game. Now, I’m not saying these games are bad, I play and enjoy many of these games regularly. However, there is one game like very few others that goes against the fad and popularity today. Released in 2018 on March 20th, Sea of Thieves is considered an action-adventure game. At face value the game is just a simple pirate game dropping you into a tropical world as a simple sailor to go out and search for plunder, but it is much more than that.
Before release, it was initially announced by its developer, Rare, as a “make your own adventure” game, meaning there is no story, no overarching program or concept controlling what you have to do. You can do whatever you want whether it be simply dropping into the game and searching for other players ships to partake in ship battles against them or fighting off a kraken after looting a skull fort.
Upon release, the game only had three trading companies driving the gameplay: The Gold Hoarders, The Order of Souls, and The Merchant Alliance. The only main goal of the game was to complete “voyages” available for purchase by each of the trading companies. Each of the companies have different objectives for the player to carry out such as: riddles and treasure maps, skeleton bounties, cargo runs and animal deliveries; respectively. After completing the voyage and turning in all of the loot you have received, you earn experience and rise in level for each company. After the player has reached level 50 for each company, the player earns the title of “Pirate Legend” and is granted the ability to receive voyages from the “Athena’s Fortune” exclusive to Pirate Legends. A very simple progression and objective.
However, many people perceived this as a lack of content, but the content wasn’t the backbone of the game; the player to player interactions are what the developer focused on. Sea of Thieves forces people to get out of their comfort zone and be creative and learn to have fun without something or someone telling you how. There’s no tutorial, no computer character or program telling you how to do things. You figure everything out yourself and either rely on your own intuition and abilities or the help of fellow players.
The greatest thing about Sea of Thieves is that there are no microtransactions, loot boxes or other pay to win devises; all of the items and skins in the game are earned fairly and naturally. Also, every update and all of the new events and content they come out with are free. About a month after its release, the developers dropped a new update with an entirely new faction and new set of quests to carry out, with many different updates and new events popping out nearly every month. Recently Sea of Thieves celebrated its one year anniversary, boasting the games biggest update to date, adding an entirely new player versus player arena and a new line of quests called “Tall Tales” that substitutes as a story mode found in most games. However, those are just two of the main new features, there are too many new mechanics that have been introduced in the game to cover. After this big update the game is bursting with content and things to do, especially for those that have never played the game before.
The game is available with the Xbox Games Pass, a subscription program worth $7 a month or available for full purchase for $60 on the Xbox and Microsoft stores (for PC users). However, the games pass has recently started a promotion for $1 a month for the first three months. Making this the perfect time for people on the fence. Go ahead and try out a new gaming experience, get out of your comfort zone, and be more pirate!
Featured Image: Credit of g2a.com
Photo 1: Credit of digitaltrends.com
Photo 2: Credit of dualshockers.com
