Been playing the closed beta and I know it’s a beta but the game releases in 7 days. Not a whole lot you can do in that time.
The game is still really unpolished and feels jarring. The opening section has you in a rather large vessel but the thing turns on a dime. Only water craft able to turn like that is a jetski and even that didn’t have the super tight turning radius this thing did. There was also no time in turning. It felt really jarring, especially when Black Flag did it so well.
The voice acting of the characters you start with is extremely uninspired. I don’t blame the actors but the director who decided this was okay. It’s so jarring and disconnected. Characters aren’t even consistent on pronunciation of simple things.
The combat is hyper simplistic. It’s just hold left trigger to aim and then hold right trigger to fire. A quote I said to my buddy while playing was “Huh. My pirate ship is fully automatic.” The cannonballs just kept firing more and more until I needed a reload, then more and more. Everything is bulletspongey and nothing visually seems to change or update to sort of reflect the damage that you’re doing. Most vessels you fight against have multiple giant red boxes where the helm is located and those boxes are explosive and almost guarantee a one hit kill. It just feels so basic and simple and boring. When you complete the opening battle and get your own small craft, you start getting attacked by sharks who are leaping out of the water to attack the boat. Not you. The boat. Because that makes sense. And you have to attack and kill the sharks by throwing harpoons at it, also super simple point and click. Think the fish fight in Resident Evil 4 Remake or even RE4 OG.
Walking around on the ground is painful. You can’t sprint, for a start, and the character will either keep walking for another few feet when you stop or suddenly stop. This leads you to getting used to the trail so you stop preemptively and end up 5 feet away from the thing you need to do, forcing you to start walking again and that animation is also way too long.
One of the locations you have to go to at the start is called ‘West Island’. I’m sorry but how simple and boring do you have to be at the start of the game to just lazily call it West Island because it’s in the west?
This game is awful. It’s a patchwork disaster which is only made more concerning by that article saying that the third creative director just left the game before it even launches.
Jesus, can’t blame the guy for ditching if that’s what they came up with after 7 yrs. I never had any hopes for it anyway but the increasing price tag for these so called AAAA games are infuriating.
AAAA games, these guys will just keep increasing the price and the As.
Good lawd, i genuinely feel bad for you. And they’re expecting $70 for this. I’d expect more from a f2p mobile game.
The last I heard about this game it was another article about it being delayed again and who knows if it will ever finish. Now I hear it’s out in 7 days? WUT.
I found Sea of Thieves already quite boring, but it did get the atmosphere right. Also the ships had to be properly staffed and controlling them felt like what I expect it to fell like. Also they managed to put out new content even though it was cheaper from the start. In other words: Ubisoft can suck it.
Oof, thanks for the review, I was looking forward to this game but didn’t keep up with it past the trailer. Looks like a solid pass for me. I’ve been enjoying the safer seas from Sea of thieves after grabbing it on sale.
Always good to see a new pirate on the sea of thieves! Safer Seas is great for a basic tutorial, but don’t be afraid to jump to High Seas as soon as you are familiar with the mechanics. Do not wait until you’re level 30.
The new quest table in season 11 makes it safer and easier than ever to earn gold as a solo player, so there’s no point in taking the 70% reduction from Safer Seas.
The first thing you want to focus on is buying a captained ship. This will massively increase your convenience in selling loot, and is really the only thing you can buy that actually “upgrades” your character.
The next thing you want to focus on is … whatever you want! Progression is just cosmetics and getting better at the game. It’s a true sandbox.
If you want to get better at PvP, just fight every ship you see. You will sink a lot, but each time you will get a little better. Don’t be afraid to lose fights and lose treasure to other players. There will always be more loot!
For useful tips and tricks aimed at new players, I recommend Phuzzybond’s guides on YouTube.
Happy sailing!
I grabbed it because I can play in pve with friends. We’re all old people now and can’t take the toxic shit that came with the game from hardcore kids who play and fuck over new players. You probably won’t ever see me in high seas, it’s to toxic of a player base unfortunately.
