Tales from the Deep: My Experience with ‘Sea of Thieves’

Since its release, there’s certainly been quite a lot of negativity regarding Rare’s latest release, Sea of Thieves. Most of the complaints come from the title’s distinct lack of content on release, with some even going as far as to compare it to No Man’s Sky. There just doesn’t seem to be much to do in the way of voyages as there are only three types in the entire game. All of the items are cosmetic as well, meaning the pirates themselves never grow or level up. It’s an experience that feels overly simplified at times, with many players wondering what the future holds for the game.

That being said, there’s still loads of fun to be had with the game as long as you’ve got a full crew. The freedom Sea of Thieves provides sets the stage for a variety of interesting things to happen, especially when other players are encountered. Here are a few interesting stories from my experience with the game.

Be warned, Sea of Thieves is not the game for making new friends with people you meet on your journey.

A Lawless Sea

Be warned, Sea of Thieves is not the game for making new friends with people you meet on your journey. 99% of the time, other players will attack your ship on sight, so it’s usually better to be preemptive and attack first. There are no rules when it comes to killing other players; if they have a stash of treasure and you take them out, that treasure is yours to plunder. We’re pirates, after all, not saints.

One unlucky player happened to run into my entire crew while he was attempting to bring his loot back to an outpost. Instead of letting that happen, we gunned him down, stole all of the loot in his ship, sold it for ourselves, and crashed his ship into the side of the island we’d been on, and the ship sank to the bottom of the sea. This may seem cruel, but it’s exactly what he would have done if he had been in our situation. For better or worse, the current climate in Sea of Thieves is ruthless and violent.

There was one point where I wanted to give another crew the benefit of the doubt. They were in the middle of raiding a skeleton fort and it was clear that they needed help. I decided to swim over to them on my own and offer my assistance while my crew waited back at the ship for my response. Instead, of talking, they killed me immediately and returned to their quest. Enraged, my crew decided to circle their ship and turn it into swiss cheese with our cannonballs. Not only did we take down the rest of them, we finished the tail end of the quest they were on and coveted all of the rewards for ourselves. It pays to be cruel.

With the right crew, Sea of Thieves can be an awesome experience.

Quick Thinking

I have certainly had my own share of experiences on the other side of the coin, however. My crew and I were once on a treasure hunting quest that involved digging at multiple sites on a single island. After we pulled up the second chest, we turned around and saw that our ship was nearly destroyed due to an attack from an enemy galleon. I turned to my crew and told them that there’s no saving the ship, the only thing we can do is hide the treasure chests in some bushes on the island and hope the enemies don’t find them after they kill us. With no ship to respawn on, we re-entered the corporeal realm on an outpost on the other side of the map. We found our way back to the island we were killed on, and, lo and behold, our treasures left were untouched. The enemy pirates had been fooled.

The Kraken Emerges

I’m sure most Sea of Thieves players have a Kraken story by now, but mine is a bit different. We were heading back from a quest with only one treasure chest in our ship, so we weren’t too concerned about getting attacked. However, this was the first time in my experience with the game that the Kraken appeared underneath our ship. We tried fighting it off, but it pulled our ship underwater in a few minutes. I went down with the ship, but the second went underwater, my pirate was rocketed across the map at a blistering speed. Clearly, some glitch took place during the fight, and I didn’t stop moving until I came in contact with an island that was miles and miles away from where the rest of my crew was.

I ended up finding a new ship and bringing it back to my crew, which took quite some time. Lucky for us, the one treasure chest that was on our ship when the Kraken attacked was floating on top of the ocean. Everyone piled back into the ship with the chest and we sailed off as if nothing had happened.

With the right crew, Sea of Thieves can be an awesome experience. If you can look past it’s flaws, there are a lot of memorable moments to be created. Just don’t expect to have much fun playing by yourself, especially because it makes you an easier target….