One week into the Anniversary Update and I am absolutely loving it!
Tall Tales
Although the Tall Tales feel a bit repetitive they are an amazing addition to the game! The new narrative really gives more body to the world and lore of Sea of Thieves. The unlockable cosmetics are cool but do I expected more complete sets, instead of single items. If you haven't finished the Tall Tales yet, my suggestion is to avoid Social Media for a while, because your feed will be full of spoilers of amazing moments you want to experience yourself.
The Hunter's Call
Fishing is a welcome addition! It's a dish best served if you are waiting for your mates to show their treacherous faces. Once they are on your vessel, you can be assured that all they'll do is fishing and you are the one taking care of the ship. Luckily you can always annoy them by reeling them in with the harpoons. I am missing some sort of voyage to go along with this faction. And is it too much to ask for an awesome fisherman outfit to unlock? Progression seems to be a bit stale and isn't really spiced up by cooking. Just throw something in the pan and wait for a couple of seconds. I hope we can see something like making meals by following recipes and using multiple ingredients in the near future.
The Arena
The issues the game has had since it's release are still very much present and they definitely shine through in The Arena. It's such an amazing and fun game mode, that's sadly ridiculed with bugs, lag and performance issues. The goal of the match is simple, but you'll notice that the players that sneak off to dig up chests are in a huge advantage, since that type of play is more rewarding than battling it out with your rivals.
Player base
I do believe that the Arena has divided the player base, considering the fact that almost every pirate I meet in the Adventure Mode seems to be friendly. I don't believe that is such a bad thing, because there will always be crews like mine that will make sure that these seas will stay competitive and sailed by thieves.
I have also seen a lot of dedicated players jumping back into the game and on the lookout for a crew to smash the seas, be it in The Arena or on the Adventurous Seas. I have even heard stories about Open Crews being successful, something I never would've expected.
Extended Ship Damage
It's such a glorious sight to see someone's mast falling down by a well-placed cannonball. It's even more exciting when your own has taken a beating and you have to figure out how to fix it. I believe the developers did their absolute best to balance the new ship damage, but there a still a few complaints surrounding the matter. A lot of players complain about the amount of work it takes to fix your ship and yes, if you get ambushed chances are big that your ship will meet the bottom of the sea. I think the damage to the Hull, Capstan and Helm are balanced well enough, but if everything on this ship is falling apart it's all hands on deck! My biggest issue is the fact that the anchor can be dropped by an incoming cannonball. With both anchor down and no wind in the masts, it's impossible to escape and the only thing left is to keep your vessel afloat and stop your attackers.
Conclusion
There is still a lot to fix, patch and fine tune in this game, even more now all this new content is dropped, but you still have my full dedicated confidence that this game will grow even more successful. Tomorrow the first patch will be released and I hope it will be a long list of fixes. I hope we'll see these patches on a weekly basis again because I believe it is definitely the way forward!
