I will admit, I have not played the beta as of yet. I don’t know if I will. At the moment though, from other peoples feedback, videos I have watched, and previous experience from the alpha, it seems lacking. I trust Rare to give us something to blow our socks off, but with barely a month or so until release, I am really, really worried. It is a fun game, with plenty of gimmicks and fantastic moments, and it does let you create your story, and have a great time. The only issue, as others have pointed out, is content. This has been an issue since the beginning, but before now I wasn’t worried, as “the in-house build has so many different things, it’s so much better, there’s so much more to come” and so far, that had held true. I was around before swords, and I remember being so excited to sail through a storm during the E3 demo, and solve all the riddles! The sloop gave me dreams of grandeur, of being the underdog and crushing a galleon alone, or swooping in at the last minute to save a fellow sloop.
I digress. From what I have seen, Sea of Thieves is not what I had dreamed of. I will buy the game, the controller, all of it, because I distinctly enjoy it. It is MY type of game. To most of my friends, however, I am forced to honestly say “At the moment, from my experience and those around me, this game is not worth $60”. $40, maybe. But the issue is replayability, lack of meaningful progression, and lack of content.
There is little replayability because of the lack of meaningful progression. I’m sure there are more cosmetic items out there, ready to be made, but how many are unique? All of them so far are just retextures of the same thing. The hats hold the same general shape, the coats, everything. There is no true uniqueness, but I can see this not being an issue, as they should be relatively easy to make. The ships, as of right now, have no customization what so ever. What has been promised since the beginning is not there. This worries me. This lack of progression extends further than this, however.
The lack of progression is not that there is none. You can progress in the guilds, unlocking more cosmetics and better quests. But what other bonus is there? You unlock better quests, you get more gold, you look like the snazziest pirate out there, but what of it? There is no meta. There is no competition, nothing to keep players coming back other than what they create themselves. Sure, there might be events. Maybe some interesting moments created. But where is the customization? There should be options for customizing your ship, how you see fit. You can put more cannons on the ship, but you will move slower and sink faster, due to being lower in the water. You can add maybe some layer of protection to parts of your ship, but once it’s penetrated water comes in faster, and you are slower due to the fact that you’re heavier. You can go faster by removing cannons, but that decreases your potential firepower. With this customization, it is still an equal playing field, as all buffs have a debuff, so to speak. There is so much more potential to this game.
There is a lack of content. A lack of things to do. This ties in with all points made thus far. Like I said, there’s so much you can do that YOU create. It truly is YOUR story. But there isn’t much offered from the game. The most fun I’ve had had nothing to do with the quests, nothing to do with PLAYING the game. It was when I met other people, and we created something great. The Great Alliance, 3 Galleons against the world! A fellow sloop and I taking down a galleon, then divvying up the treasure. Sure this uses the game’s mechanics, but not the system put in place that we have to play to progress. People chase others, spawntrapping and killing, because of a lack of other things to do. You get that excitement, that risk in a ship battle. Nowhere’s else, though.
TL;DR: this game, while fantastic and certainly great in it’s own right, is not (currently) worth the price tag. In a post-No Man’s Sky world, we have been promised plenty. A lot has not been delivered. I am worried for the game, but I will trust Rare until I have zero reason to trust them. I understand I am just one person, with one opinion. This game has potential, it just needs that extra push. Listen to us, please. @Labarge28 mentions similar points in his comment in the beta feedback tab, @General-Carnage makes a few points similar regarding the ship, there is so much potential for this game, I cannot stress it enough. But at the moment, and moving into the future of Sea of Thieves, I worry that it will not fully tap into that potential. If you read this whole thing, thank you. Leave some feedback, I would love to have a discussion about this. I apologize if anything I have said is incorrect, as stated earlier I was unable to play the beta, and don’t know if I should have.
EDIT: Also I’m sorry if it’s hard to follow, I struggle with writing coherently. I can try to explain myself better if asked.
