My Sea of Thieves Beta Journal - Day 1
Like any first day in a new role, my first day as a pirate was a mix of feeling lost and then suddenly included. My first trips included some fun treasure hunting, but also a lot of time feeling lost at sea.
My first journey begun in the tavern (where some would say most good stories begin). Having seen the many trailers, I went straight to the bar to get myself some beer. However it turns out I need a mug for that, fair enough. I look around but find nothing, so venture out onto the island. There's not much to the island: one or two shops at most. Eventually I head to the ship, where I expect my first exciting voyage to begin.
Sadly my first time on the ship was far from memorable. Sea of Thieves does very little to inform you on what to do, or where to go. So feeling totally lost I relied on my crewmates to know what to do, but sadly they seemed to be as confused as I was. So after a bit of directionless sailing I decided to quit the game and give it another go with new players. Throughout my experience today this is a feeling I felt far too often. Of course you can’t expect a game like this to completely hold your hand, but a bit of guidance would have been nice.
Upon my second game being loaded I spawned aboard a ship which was already on the move. Gladly the players within my crew seemed like veterans of the high sea and knew where to go. This is where the fun of the game really kicked in. Working together we: rose the anchor, dropped the sails and set to our destination. At this time I didn’t know where the destination was, or what the purpose of travelling there was…but nevertheless I had a blast dancing aboard the ship as one of the crew played the accordion while the other steered (I was having far too much fun to notice where the other crew member was - probably actually doing something important). Holding up on the directional pad allows you to choose from a variety of poses and movements, and holding down allows you to choose a comment to share with your crew.
When we finally arrived at our destination we lowered the anchor and jumped into the sea to swim towards the island. Sadly again at this point I felt completely lost and pretty useless. I’d not seen the treasure map and had no idea where to look. The crew were struggling too to find the treasure, and were digging all over the island. At this point I also wondered how to dig and where to get the shovel from, something again which the player is never told. Sadly we never found that treasure and I had to leave that game too.
A bit later I begun my first game which took me to ship which was abandoned in the middle of the sea. I spotted the crew on a nearby island so jumped in to the sea and begun to make my way towards them, only to see they were being attacked by sharks. Sadly the sharks also spotted me and soon begun to attack me. I didn’t last long. This took me to an interesting death scene in which I was in “The Ferry of the Damned”, a ghostly ship where dead pirates appeared as either skeletons or ghosts. I’m not quite sure what the point of this was, but after looking around a bit I headed towards the glowing portal which took me to my fourth, and most successful game.
This time I started in the tavern once more, and headed straight to the ship with my crew. One of the crew members had a location in mind (which i could see after they showed me the map), so we set sail for the island. When there she led the way and we managed to find two treasure chests! I proudly helped carry one even though I did none of the digging. On this island we encountered quite a few enemies too - skeletons which attacked us and chased after the treasure we’d taken. Using my gun and sword for the first time I helped to take the skeletons out. Combat is very simple - use Y to cycle through the weapons and press the right trigger to fire or swing. It’ll be interesting to see how combat works when facing other pirates.
We took our loot back to the island where we started and sold both chests for a nice sum. At this point I had 170 coins so I went to the shop with the intention of finding a spade so I wouldn’t feel so useless when watching someone dig for treasure. But the shovel cost 540! Even the accordion was well out of my price range. I could have spent most my money on a beer mug but I decided to save my money for now.
Overall I had a great time occasionally, but found myself feeling lost way too often to be fully entertained. Also I was pretty bummed that I didn’t get to take part in ship vs ship combat. But I fully intent do embark on another pirating journey tomorrow, so subscribe and keep tuned to Triforce Reviews to read about my travels on Sea of Thieves tomorrow and look out for my upcoming review!