My Sea of Thieves Beta Journal - Day 3
Ahoy there mateys and welcome to my day day 3 journal. Today I tried something different - I went solo. Was I a successful scoundrel like the greatest Solo? Well, not quite. But it was a new option well worth trying!
Sea of Thieves has been marketed as a multiplayer adventure game, and rightly so. For me it was surprising to see an option to sail solo. The game offers a warning that this is the more challenging option and should only be chosen by “experienced” pirates, but personally I think it’s a mode that should be encouraged for new pirates. Playing alone lets you learn a lot of the mechanics - many of which are never fully explained to you.
I began by buying myself a new treasure map (quest) with my hard-earned money I made yesterday. I found it pretty difficult to locate the island from the treasure map on the ship’s full world map. In order to locate the island you want to travel to you have to open the treasure map and check out the shape of the island, and then spot this island on the world map. Turns out the island I was looking for was just South of my current location, but I spent a long time searching the edges of the map for the island. They weren't the islands I was looking for.
When I was ready to set sail I let the sails down (there’s just one set on the smaller ship) and raised the anchor, which is much easier on a smaller ship. The wind was kind to me and I quickly arrived on the island. Despite the best efforts of a few pesky skeletons I used the map and the location of the X to find the buried treasure. I found it pretty annoying that when I was trying to study the map the skeletons would still appear, but guess that adds to the challenge.
Once I’d sailed back and sold my treasure chest I was feeling pretty good about myself. So I splashed out on the most expensive map and set sail on my next adventure. During my travels I sadly found the seas completely empty so have no idea how difficult it is to battle another ship when in single player. That did not stop me from destroying my ship though…turns out if you don’t put the anchor down fast enough you don’t stop: so I crashed on the beach of the island and watched on as my ship sunk. Not a great feeling.
Having managed to maroon myself I went on search for the next treasure. When I found the chest I hoped to find another ship, or at least another way to head back. But sadly no such option appeared. Did I use hair from my back to make a raft? Nope. I swam to the glowing mermaid thing in the ocean and got transported back. At this point I was ready to get back to some multiplayer action so left the game to join another.
My second game was over as quickly as it started. As soon as spawned I heard a huge crash and ran out to see a ship firing on us…down we went. At least I got a slight taste of ship on ship combat right? Not sure it counts, but still. At this point I decided to hang my pirate’s hat up for the night.
Overall it was a fairly successful day. Turns out it’s much easier to travel off alone and find treasure, but Sea of Thieves loses a lot of its charm in the process. For players with few friends who have an Xbox this is a problem Rare should think about. Personally I think this game is just crying out for local multiplayer.
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