Sea of Thieves closed beta preview: Not all treasure is gold

We got our hands dirty on the poop deck with the Sea of Thieves closed beta. While roleplaying pirates was fun, our experience also raised some concerns.

“There’s someone in the water, port side, port side,” our captain yelled into his mic. “Someone cover the ladder. Ahhh! We need to prepare the cannons on starboard for the enemy ship coming back around!” My crew had just finished digging up a chest on one of Sea of Thieves‘ many islands when another player’s ship swung by for an impromptu attack. We had multiple chests already aboard our galleon, and we weren’t about to let the past couple hours of work collecting them go to waste.

My crew quickly lowered the sails and put up the anchor – hard to win a battle at sea if you’re a sitting duck. I ran to cover the port side ladder, only to see the enemy pirate attempting to board our ship yelling into his mic that he was being attacked by some sharks in the water. One shot with the blunderbuss and he was quickly taken care of. Our ship raced off into the open ocean, constantly exchanging cannon shots with the enemy.

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Alas, this crew knew what they were doing, positioning themselves perfectly out of our cannons range yet close enough that they could still inflict shot after shot at our ship. Before long, this battle became one of survival more than aggression, as my crew all worked nonstop to board up the holes in our galleon and bail water. But she was taking on too much water, and despite our best efforts, she sunk into the deep blue sea along with our precious loot, never to be seen again.

These types of interactions are where Sea of Thieves really seems to shine. This open world, pirate roleplaying sandbox lets players hit the open seas and make their own story. Whether that means looting and plundering, exploring islands and finding treasure, or just getting drunk off some grog and playing seas shanties, Sea of Thieves is the pirate game you want it to be. The game is all about your progression as a pirate – no pay-to-win mechanics for better guns, no loot boxes for ship sails. Sea of Thieves is all about how well you can actually BE a pirate.

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But what’s a pirate without a crew? While you can certainly play Sea of Thieves by yourself on a smaller vessel, the immersive pirate experience is not nearly as enjoyable. There is something to be said about sailing the beautiful seas (and I do mean tremendously beautiful) by yourself. Once you get the hang of balancing steering and sail management by yourself, it’s a relatively calming and immersive experience. Until another crew shows up and blows you into pieces.

While perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the Sea of Thieves closed beta, fighting other players both in close combat and at sea certainly wasn’t the only thing to do. The primary structured gameplay in Sea of Thieves involves for-hire voyages from different NPC factions. In the closed beta, the only available missions were from the “Gold Hoarder” faction, which involved solving riddles or following maps to various islands in search of treasures. Go to some islands, dig up some chests, and sell them back to the faction leader for gold. Rinse and repeat.

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These voyages were about as straightforward as they sound. The maps and riddles were relatively simplistic, and while at first, I felt like a budget Nicholas Cage in treasure hunter, these missions quickly become repetitive. I think this in part was due to how unfulfilling finding these treasures became. A pirate loves his treasure, right? You manage to dig up this mysterious chest on an island in the middle of nowhere, what’s the first thing you want to do? Open it! But for whatever reason, you can’t. You can only sell them back to the Gold Hoarder NPC. For god’s sake, what’s in the box?!

It doesn’t help that the mission variety in the beta was severely lacking. These treasure bounty voyages were the only structured form of gameplay, though new factions with different voyage types such as escorting cargo and combat-focused missions will be added in the full release of the game. Voyages weren’t the only thing lacking in variety, however. Most of the islands scattered across the map felt very much the same, with very little to explore on them. My only hope is that Rare was holding a lot back for the closed beta in this regard. I understand how much Sea of Thieves is stressing the theme of exploration, but from what I saw, my adventures felt a tad underwhelming after the first couple of hours.