Love it, hate it or if you’re somewhere in-between, there’s little getting around the fact that Sea of Thieves suffers from a glaring issue: There’s bugger all to do (and not much point in doing it either).
If gameplay is King, then for some reason Rare decided to appoint the iron throne to a ruler as bad as Joffrey, because at it’s core the game is nothing but a series of fetch quests. You set sail, you gather some stuff (Chests, skulls, livestock), then you bring it back for cash rewards – rewards that can be spent on items that only have a cosmetic purpose. The biggest irony being you that can’t even really see the fancy new tricorne you treated yourself to, as you play from a first person perspective.
However, although the core gameplay objectives are more than a little lacklustre, the general gameplay execution is sublime. The way you interact with everything in the game is basic enough not to be complicated, but involved enough not to be simple. Sailing a ship for example – one of the main things you’ll spend your time doing – involves a series of manual tasks like setting the sails, raising the anchor and relying on the compass for navigation. It’s very hands on if you’re on your own in a sloop, whereas the galleons really require the careful coordination and cooperation of an entire crew! Successful sailing and navigation can be very rewarding in itself. The game world, with day/night cycles and variable weather conditions, is also very remarkable and a thing of beauty. Between the gameplay handling and the game-world, you have a rock-solid foundation to build on – even if you kept the simple fetch quest mechanics.
The reason I believe this to be true, is because of the parallels between this game and Elite Dangerous. In Elite dangerous you do the same basic stuff – you ferry items about for cash, and you might find yourself in the occasional shootout with rival ships; albeit of the space variety. The main difference is though, in Elite Dangerous you can invest the money on proper stuff. Stuff that improves you. Progress!
The counter argument to this is that it would unbalance the game, but the game is already unbalanced. If you head out on your own in a sloop, you won’t stand a chance if a passing galleon with anger management issues takes an interest in you. You’re much better off trying to fly under the radar. Sea of thieves could play into this. When most people think of improvements, they initially think of increased health and firepower – which would certainly be an option – but customisation can be much more than that. For the lone adventurer, how about a sloop upgrade that ditches the weight of cannons in favour of advanced speed and manoeuvrability, in order outrun enemies? What about a water tight deck upgrade so you can lose them in a storm? Or a shallow keel upgrade so you can take advantages of the shoreline. A paint scheme that makes your ship harder to spot? These are the type of options that Elite affords the player and, rather than unbalance the game, it opens it up to different ways to play; it gives your sandbox more options. More reasons to carry on playing.
Another great addition that could be pinched from Elite would be bounties. Being the feared Blackbeard of the seas is a lot of fun, but what if it came with some risk attached to all that piracy and griefing? What if, the more you hostilely engage other ships, the more a bounty goes up on your own ship? Hunter becomes hunted, as players take to the sea to hunt you down for the massive bounty on your head! They could even introduce a GTA-like stars system, where an NPC navy man-o-war spawns in to try restore order to the seas. It would all need to be carefully balanced for risk and rewards, but there’s no reason why piracy couldn’t have it’s own level/faction – where stolen chests are cashed in for bigger rewards than ones that are simply found on islands. Bounty hunting itself could be another new faction, where you take on quests to hunt down notorious pirates on the server. Pirate leader boards! None of these things would drastically change the core game, they would just introduce systems of progress around elements that already exist in the game and give them some meaning.
Sea of thieves is clearly lacking content, but a lot of people can see – or really more feel – its potential. There’s something there; something special. New epic quests and a depth of content might be an answer, but I’m not sure it’s the right answer. There’s something to be said about writing your own story as you play the game, rather than adding new content that writes it for you; I think the answer simply lies in creating more meaningful progress systems around what is already there to ensure the players and their friends keep on writing.
Fittingly (I guess), this one plays like the Mario Kart of fighting games, in that skill doesn’t always seem to be the main decider of outcome. That’s not to say there’s no skill involved, it’s just that it’s a bit of a gang fuck when it comes to the core gameplay. It’s frantic, crazy and fun for the most part, but can at times be a bit frustrating.
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