Sea of Thieves Anniversary Update is exciting, but the love/hate relationship continues

Sea of Thieves is one of the more controversial games in recent memory, at least in terms of polarization. I'thousand non sure I tin call up a game that has created such a passionate reaction across the entire spectrum. People seem to either love Rare'southward pirate adventure or loathe it. And then in that location are a few people like me, who only cannot figure out whether they actually like the game or not.

The Anniversary Update has made it fifty-fifty harder to figure out, adding piles of new content and intersecting mechanics. It'southward this update that really exemplifies what Rare has been gunning for since the game launched — easily-off adventures where players create the drama, rather than the game itself.

The new Tall Tales stories and PvP-focused Arena help to condense the adventure more succinctly than Sea of Thieves did at launch, but Ocean of Thieves still exists on those polarizing extremes between euphoria and deep frustration. And wherever your hazard falls on that spectrum, the excitement in between is largely unique to Ocean of Thieves, for better or worse.

Yarghhh matey

Sea of Thieves

It'southward a pirate'due south life for me.

Sea of Thieves is an online pirate adventure game similar no other. Plunder ancient tombs, battle the Kraken, or get drunkard and throw up on your friends. All is off-white in beloved and piracy.

A renewed pirate world awaits

Ocean of Thieves adds a range of new content, including fishing, ship-mounted grappling hooks, and cooking, simply the headline features are the new PvP Arena, and the Tall Tales story quests. Both of which add some much-needed depth to the year-one-time title.

"Tall Tales" are essentially story missions, strung together in an episodic format. A range of characters throughout Sea of Thieves, armed with professional-level voice interim and unique, ominous pirate music, put you on a series of adventures leading to a treasure hoard on a hidden, mystical isle.

Similar the rest of Sea of Thieves, Tall Tales are set up up for dynamic hijinks. They take place in the regular world, meaning that all the perils that exist in Sea of Thieves today, similar the Kraken, Megalodon, and Skeletal raider parties can all spawn to scupper your trip. Not to mention players themselves.

From the very commencement quest conversation, you become a sense of greater investment in the game, budgetarily speaking. The Mysterious Stranger all of a sudden has some professional-level phonation acting and many of the cutscenes that occur come with unique animations and effects that elevate the experience. Information technology may seem like a small thing to praise, but Sea of Thieves yet feels relatively defective in this department, with NPCs that by and large feel like function of the furniture rather than living, animate characters. If this step up in character commitment is indicative of Bounding main of Thieves' future, then it'south a thousand pace in the right direction.

Without spoiling too much, the Tall Tales are split into missions that, again, feel similar in construction to what we know already, with some notable twists. New book-style items like journals and ledgers give players some much-needed context, on tiptop of more than complex riddles to solve than the existing "10 marks the spot" maps that take, until at present, made upwardly the bulk of Sea of Thieves' PvE content. I mission will have y'all tracing the last moments of a ship back to its wreck, besieged by skeletal haunted pirates.

Another volition have you charting the stars themselves with an enchanted telescope to discover a begetting. Y'all'll swoop into sunken ancient ruins beneath the waves, practice boxing with more than powerful skeletal lords, solve booby-trapped mystical puzzles, and, of course, get piles of gold along the way.

Along with Sea of Thieves' Hunter's Call trading company, which adds rewards for hunting animals and fishing, and the condensed action of Sea of Thieves' Arena PvP fashion, Tall Tales just piles on additional reasons to jump into Rare's mystical pirate story. The big highs come with craterous lows, however.

A double-edged cutlass

Like other Ocean of Thieves adventures, Tall Tales' quest items are concrete objects, significant they can be lost at bounding main without proper intendance. Of course, this adds tension and drama to what would otherwise be a fairly simplistic serial of fetch quests. Sea of Thieves is very much virtually the journeying, rather than the destination.

In one chance, my hapless crew and I had to take a bunch of items dorsum to a quest giver in order to complete the voyage, when ominous music began to filter through Sea of Thieves' gorgeous ocean waves. Indeed, it was Sea of Thieves' big nasty shark, the Million, who set almost munching on our boat. With one of our crew AFK, who shall remain nameless, the Megalodon fabricated brusque work of our boat, turning it into kindling, swallowing the chap who had been holding the quest item.

If you lose the quest items for Alpine Tales, you're pretty much doomed to starting the mission all again, some of which tin take upwards of over an 60 minutes.

Thankfully, our detail survived the Megalodon set on and was floating in the water. We managed to rescue it with a rowing boat, which had survived Meg's onslaught and proceeded to row our way out of danger. This is the kind of experience that represents some of Body of water of Thieves' best moments, filled with loftier ocean drama wholly dynamic, as a consequence of the game's overlapping and intersecting systems. The dynamism of players, however, can still create a very frustrating feel indeed.

This is the kind of experience that represents some of Ocean of Thieves' all-time moments, filled with loftier ocean drama.

Those dynamic moments when you raid another player'south vessel, steal their loot and live to tell the tale also represents some of Sea of Thieves nearly exciting scenarios. It is called Body of water of Thieves later on all, not Sea of Friends. The game is only as good as the amount of interaction you're willing to have with players — playing solo, avoiding all confrontation remains a pretty hollow experience. That said, Tall Tales has, peradventure unwittingly, given griefers additional tools, camping quest NPCs in order to screw around with other player'due south story progression. When a player steals your chests, it feels like fair game, as the rewards tin be lucrative. When they steal your quest items, even so, it'southward an human activity of pure griefing, since they're useless to anyone besides those who are on the quest. This has made for a couple of especially annoying experiences on my end, especially every bit someone with fairly limited time to replay lengthy story missions over and over.

Beyond Tall Tales, Loonshit itself feels like a Version 0.5 feel, at least at a systemic level. In a perfect setting, such equally the i I experienced at Rare HQ a few weeks back, Arena tin be incredibly fun. It condenses chest-stealing activeness down into 20-ish minute matches, rewarding teams for annexation, plundering, killing, sinking, and handing in chests as apace equally they can.

When you're in a squad with experienced friends all on microphones, information technology's a unique PvP experience that showcases Bounding main of Thieves best moments. If you solo queue, however, Arena has generally been a pretty poor experience.

As of writing, Arena is fraught with quitters, who suffer no penalties for leaving early. It will matchmake replacements on the fly, but I take found myself spawning in on a sunken ship while the previous team had rage quit, which makes for a lame experience on both ends.

Bounding main of Thieves' melee gainsay also feels clunky, crying out for some love at Rare's finish.

I've also spawned on teams where people were just standing around AFK, hoping to get some sort of lucifer bonus at the end, even if it meant doing virtually nothing for xx minutes. When you start losing, information technology feels like in that location'south little incentive to see the lucifer through to its conclusion. Teams of randoms frequently simply "surrender" halfway through, getting farmed by organized groups.

Arena also puts a bit of a spotlight on Sea of Thieves' PvP mechanics in general, where mouse and keyboard players have an obvious advantage both in terms of communication and aiming. Sea of Thieves' melee combat also feels clunky, crying out for some dear at Rare's end. It just all feels and so unresponsive, especially when you stack it up against similar melee combat games similar For Honor or the recent medieval PC combat game Mordhau. I constitute myself getting spawn killed too at ane point, unable to motility while another player stuck a blunderbuss in my back. The fact y'all're only able to apply a lunge set on and a 3-hit philharmonic swipe simply feels aggressively lazy, when melee combat is then central to the pirate fantasy. Thankfully, Rare has signaled to the community and to myself in a previous interview that they plan to make improvements on all of these systems.

What comes side by side?

Bounding main of Thieves' Anniversary Update is a tantalizing wait at what the future of Rare'due south pirate chance game looks similar. Tall Tales is such a gigantic jump in quality across the lath, showcasing the ingenuity of Rare's evolution team, and the dynamism of the gameplay systems they have put together. Only as some aspects improve, information technology shines a spotlight on other areas that are lacking.

The well-nigh encouraging affair here is that Microsoft is sticking with the game. Recently, I've been thinking how Body of water of Thieves could be compared to Minecraft in a sense, that it depends on your willingness to create your own fun with the tools on offer. Minecraft has ten years of development under its belt, nevertheless. What might Bounding main of Thieves await like with a like amount of on-going evolution and investment? Information technology's truly exciting to retrieve about, and hopefully, we'll learn more nearly what's next for Rare's oceanic odyssey at E3 2022.

Sea of Thieves merch

If you're a Sea of Thieves fan, bear witness off your piracy with these keen souvenir ideas.

Sea of Thieves: Athena's Fortune (From $7 at Amazon)

Athena'southward Fortune charters the infamous pirate Ramsey and his quest to notice the legendary treasure stash, fraught with peril, plunder, and enough of piracy.

Tales from Body of water of Thieves ($20 at Amazon)

Tales from Sea of Thieves is essential reading for whatever fan, granting a huge amount of background lore on the game and hints of possible time to come content.

Official Sea of Thieves keychain ($10 at Amazon)

Show off your love of the open sea with this epic keychain (not existent silver... sadly.)

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

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