I left this review on steam but wanted to share it here as well to see what the forum pirates thought. I wrote this with respect and want effective discussions instead of the usual comments about how "solo players do nothing but whine". I want to know what people think about what I've said and where they agree / disagree. The following is my review:
I hate to write negative reviews for things I love but there are some major aspects of Sea of Thieves that make me want to avoid recommending it.
Starting with the solo experience. I get it's a game that wants to emphasize co-op but not everyone wants to play that way which is why you're able to play solo but it's absolutely atrocious. Playing on safer seas feels low impact, you can't progress company rep beyond Level 25, a large amount of treasure isn't even available and you can't access your captained ships making loot selling a real pain since you can't use the sovereigns.
I don't expect emissary to make its way to safer seas since I understand it's a high risk high reward system contingent on the risk of pvp but there's no reason to limit most other things other than passively bully its playerbase into public servers.
And then we get to the problem with public servers. There is practically no advantage to teaming up with random folks you come across and much more benefit to pvp. I'm fine with the risk of pvp and often enjoy it myself. What I don't enjoy is not even being able to start a voyage before someone decides to make me a target even when I have no loot or emissary for them to claim.
For a game that has this whimsical and unique style with a good combination of cool and goofy throughout, it is dominated by cutthroats who only seem to get more and more support from Rare through their continued updates focusing on PVP.
Here's what I propose they need to do:
- Lift some restrictions of Safer Seas such as the reputation cap
- Take a good look at how to make the solo experience less one-sided (maybe create servers for solo players to opt into that ONLY have other solo players)
- Encourage partnering and teaming between crews (and before someone mentions alliances, significantly more than half of alliances end in betrayal)
- Make the Tall Tales more rewarding. It's HOURS of content with very little payout. The only benefit is the cosmetics and even then those keep you in the tale for even more time for a single reward.
I love this game. It's appealing, the mechanics are smooth, the style is beautiful and the adventures are insanely fun. It's not fun being unable to appreciate what's good about the game when less than an hour in some troll comes by exclusively to ruin your day.
