Sea of Thieves (XB/PC/Game Pass/PS5) - Over 35m players. Coming to PS5 on 30th April. 2024 details.

After almost four hours, I've finally delivered my first quest booty. First was the hijack, then I crashed and sunk my ship, then got eaten by sharks. The third attempts was the golden one, and I uncovered that thousand grogs chest with one of the maps, so I made a tidy bit of profit.
I can see why the game wouldn't be for everyone, but for those that stick with it - or at least can get invested - there's something decent here.

DarkRula wrote:That RPS review's right. Finally completed a voyage and make it back to the starting cove, only to have a crew of two come along and hijack my sloop. Killed three times, and there was nothing I could do.

Don’t go back if others are there, we got chased by a galleon in our sloop and out manoeuvred them, persistence is key but servers are acting up tonight.

Not everyone will like the game but I think basing an opinion on its wonky servers tonight is a bit premature.

Apart from ship type at start I don’t see what’s confusing about anything else. A treasure map for instance is easy. Find the island, usually close to you and set sail for it... ???

Am I missing something?

Now if servers are f**ked and you aren’t getting maps it’s a problem. If you lose items or can’t take out guns eat a banana then drown yourself, worked for me.

All in all a terrible launch as not only is it kinda broken but is rightly or wrongly it’s giving people the wrong impression.

I'm level five with the Gold Hoarders now, so I'm doing alright for myself. I'm finding that raising the sail almost fully before reaching an island helps slow down enough to manouvre close by.

DarkRula wrote:I'm level five with the Gold Hoarders now, so I'm doing alright for myself. I'm finding that raising the sail almost fully before reaching an island helps slow down enough to manouvre close by.

Yeah that’s a handy technique.

One of the biggest problems I have (Or I guess had) with navigation is perhaps a simple and almost petty thing. The default zoom level of the map on your ship doesn't display the names of the islands, and there are no on-screen prompts telling you that it's possible to zoom the map in and out. I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out where I was supposed to go when I got a voyage saying a skeleton was last seen on a particular island, and having no idea where that island was or how to get there since none of the islands on the map had a name.
My first thought was you had to explore islands and 'discover' them to make a name show up, but even the island I was on at the time didn't have a name. It was only when I just randomly tried pressing the trigger buttons on my controller whilst I had the ship map open that it suddenly started zooming in/out.

It's just another case where the game tells you nothing. All it needed was a little on-screen prompt at the button telling you "RT = Zoom In, LT = Zoom Out" to avoid that problem.

DarkRula wrote:I'm level five with the Gold Hoarders now, so I'm doing alright for myself. I'm finding that raising the sail almost fully before reaching an island helps slow down enough to manouvre close by.

I've been straightening the wheel and then dropping the anchor, will try your method as well.

Photek wrote:basing an opinion on its wonky servers tonight is a bit premature.

That’s not what the vast majority of players who have posted in here this evening have said. The problems run a lot deeper than being able to connect to a server or not.

Lagamorph wrote:I think I'm done with this game, it just isn't for me. I've tried and I've tried but it just isn't clicking at all.

There's the very early beginnings of a good game here somewhere, but it's buried beneath poor design like all your stuff vanishing/resetting between play sessions (With no warning that this will happen), PVP bullshit that actively encourages spawn camping and creating a bad time for players, the servers simply not being up to the job of actually running the game despite the fact it's always online and the worst offence of all being that the game does nothing to teach you anything and being utterly unfriendly to newcomers in general. No tutorials, no explanation of how the mechanics work it just dumps you into the game with the expectation that you've already spent a few hours before you even pick up the game either watching tutorial videos or watching other people play it first. Ontop of that there's very little actually here. The game seems to be a huge example of all style and very little substance.
Honestly, the final release feels more like what I'd expect from the very first beta version of a game.

Maybe in a year or so after a huge amount of content patches there'll be something here, but the community will probably have long since moved on by then.
All I can say is that I'm glad this was on Gamepass. If I'd spent £50 on this then god I would feel ripped off.

So it looks like it's everything I thought it would be after watching videos of the beta. I actually think the 'organic discovery' is a smart design choice in the wake of Dark Souls, BoTW, Monster Hunter, etc. It sounds like it's moved even further in the lack of direction than these games to the point that people have no idea what their goals for playing are. I hope those who enjoy exploration over hand holding enjoy it but I need a bit more of a guided experience.

Seems very earlty-access-y. Played for a few hours with a mate, all his equipment randomly vanished so he quit out and restarted to see if it fixed it and that's when the servers went down so I was left on my own Came across another ship that was going back to the same outpost as me but it was just one guy and he was friendly so we just played some tunes together before going out separate ways.

Hime wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:I think I'm done with this game, it just isn't for me. I've tried and I've tried but it just isn't clicking at all.

There's the very early beginnings of a good game here somewhere, but it's buried beneath poor design like all your stuff vanishing/resetting between play sessions (With no warning that this will happen), PVP bullshit that actively encourages spawn camping and creating a bad time for players, the servers simply not being up to the job of actually running the game despite the fact it's always online and the worst offence of all being that the game does nothing to teach you anything and being utterly unfriendly to newcomers in general. No tutorials, no explanation of how the mechanics work it just dumps you into the game with the expectation that you've already spent a few hours before you even pick up the game either watching tutorial videos or watching other people play it first. Ontop of that there's very little actually here. The game seems to be a huge example of all style and very little substance.
Honestly, the final release feels more like what I'd expect from the very first beta version of a game.

Maybe in a year or so after a huge amount of content patches there'll be something here, but the community will probably have long since moved on by then.
All I can say is that I'm glad this was on Gamepass. If I'd spent £50 on this then god I would feel ripped off.

So it looks like it's everything I thought it would be after watching videos of the beta. I actually think the 'organic discovery' is a smart design choice in the wake of Dark Souls, BoTW, Monster Hunter, etc. It sounds like it's moved even further in the lack of direction than these games to the point that people have no idea what their goals for playing are. I hope those who enjoy exploration over hand holding enjoy it but I need a bit more of a guided experience.

Thing is it's not 'hand holding' that it's lacking. I wouldn't call some basic introductions to controls and mechanics 'hand holding'. I'm not asking for waypoint markers telling you where to go, once I figured out how to find islands and get there I was perfectly happy with the system of finding your way around. The problem is that the game never told me how to find my way around, or much of anything else really.
It never told me how to use the map, it never told me how to make my ship go, it never told me I have to raise my anchor, then unfurl my sail, then angle my sail before I could really get moving.
It never told me that for the Skeleton missions you need to keep beating waves of generic skeletons in a super basic horde game until the named skeleton shows up.
It never told me that if I quit the game then all the cargo I've picked up will vanish and my ships stores will reset to default.
Telling me those things absolutely isn't hand holding, it's the game explaining its own mechanics for the first time.

I was going to buy this on the Windows Store today but I think I might wait a while instead. Hopefully by the time Microsoft fix the early access issues and add more content, it'll feel more like it's worth £50.

Lagamorph wrote:

Hime wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:I think I'm done with this game, it just isn't for me. I've tried and I've tried but it just isn't clicking at all.

There's the very early beginnings of a good game here somewhere, but it's buried beneath poor design like all your stuff vanishing/resetting between play sessions (With no warning that this will happen), PVP bullshit that actively encourages spawn camping and creating a bad time for players, the servers simply not being up to the job of actually running the game despite the fact it's always online and the worst offence of all being that the game does nothing to teach you anything and being utterly unfriendly to newcomers in general. No tutorials, no explanation of how the mechanics work it just dumps you into the game with the expectation that you've already spent a few hours before you even pick up the game either watching tutorial videos or watching other people play it first. Ontop of that there's very little actually here. The game seems to be a huge example of all style and very little substance.
Honestly, the final release feels more like what I'd expect from the very first beta version of a game.

Maybe in a year or so after a huge amount of content patches there'll be something here, but the community will probably have long since moved on by then.
All I can say is that I'm glad this was on Gamepass. If I'd spent £50 on this then god I would feel ripped off.

So it looks like it's everything I thought it would be after watching videos of the beta. I actually think the 'organic discovery' is a smart design choice in the wake of Dark Souls, BoTW, Monster Hunter, etc. It sounds like it's moved even further in the lack of direction than these games to the point that people have no idea what their goals for playing are. I hope those who enjoy exploration over hand holding enjoy it but I need a bit more of a guided experience.

Thing is it's not 'hand holding' that it's lacking. I wouldn't call some basic introductions to controls and mechanics 'hand holding'. I'm not asking for waypoint markers telling you where to go, once I figured out how to find islands and get there I was perfectly happy with the system of finding your way around. The problem is that the game never told me how to find my way around, or much of anything else really.
It never told me how to use the map, it never told me how to make my ship go, it never told me I have to raise my anchor, then unfurl my sail, then angle my sail before I could really get moving.
It never told me that for the Skeleton missions you need to keep beating waves of generic skeletons in a super basic horde game until the named skeleton shows up.
It never told me that if I quit the game then all the cargo I've picked up will vanish and my ships stores will reset to default.
Telling me those things absolutely isn't hand holding, it's the game explaining its own mechanics for the first time.

Jees chill and yes, all the stuff you said is hand holding. You think I knew any of this when I booted up the alpha? You press buttons to see what happens. Criticise the game for all you want but not telling you to zoom in on a f**king map, it never told you to raise the anchor? It has button prompts for everything, unfurl your sail? Jesus wept.

Also, you obviously strawberry floating did these things so you’re complaining about what? A big ICON wasn’t pointing everything little thing out? Never play the game again and go play Far Cry and follow dem waypoints.

I’m genuinely confused, I remember turning the anchor and thinking oh the ship isn’t moving yet, what does this button prompt beside the sail do? Oh I can lower the sails, nice one now where do I go? The map, etc etc. But you obviously looked at the boat, then I don’t know, stood on it? Jumped up and down? Somehow managed to raise the anchor then ran around, back onto the island then back to boat and jumped around some more then when you found out you could lower your sails you went ape sh*t for what? Didn’t figure it out earlier? I’m struggling as to why a single player boat that has 3 different button prompts (which are all X) on deck had you flummoxed.

After playing the Alpha they literally described play testing it and seeing how the average person could figure out how a boat works so kept the UI off the screen. Just one last thing, when you found out you could angle the sails into the wind did you not feel a sense of achievement that you yourself were sailing or were you in a blind rage?

Mafro wrote:Seems very earlty-access-y. Played for a few hours with a mate, all his equipment randomly vanished so he quit out and restarted to see if it fixed it and that's when the servers went down so I was left on my own Came across another ship that was going back to the same outpost as me but it was just one guy and he was friendly so we just played some tunes together before going out separate ways.

Yeah servers are f**ked, Kill yourself if items go.

Buffalo wrote:

Photek wrote:basing an opinion on its wonky servers tonight is a bit premature.

That’s not what the vast majority of players who have posted in here this evening have said. The problems run a lot deeper than being able to connect to a server or not.

Apart from Laga having some sort of ‘episode’ what problems are you referring too that aren’t server related?

Btw what an absolute travesty of a launch.

All gold should be restored once servers are back up when you log back in.

Photek wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:

Hime wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:I think I'm done with this game, it just isn't for me. I've tried and I've tried but it just isn't clicking at all.

There's the very early beginnings of a good game here somewhere, but it's buried beneath poor design like all your stuff vanishing/resetting between play sessions (With no warning that this will happen), PVP bullshit that actively encourages spawn camping and creating a bad time for players, the servers simply not being up to the job of actually running the game despite the fact it's always online and the worst offence of all being that the game does nothing to teach you anything and being utterly unfriendly to newcomers in general. No tutorials, no explanation of how the mechanics work it just dumps you into the game with the expectation that you've already spent a few hours before you even pick up the game either watching tutorial videos or watching other people play it first. Ontop of that there's very little actually here. The game seems to be a huge example of all style and very little substance.
Honestly, the final release feels more like what I'd expect from the very first beta version of a game.

Maybe in a year or so after a huge amount of content patches there'll be something here, but the community will probably have long since moved on by then.
All I can say is that I'm glad this was on Gamepass. If I'd spent £50 on this then god I would feel ripped off.

So it looks like it's everything I thought it would be after watching videos of the beta. I actually think the 'organic discovery' is a smart design choice in the wake of Dark Souls, BoTW, Monster Hunter, etc. It sounds like it's moved even further in the lack of direction than these games to the point that people have no idea what their goals for playing are. I hope those who enjoy exploration over hand holding enjoy it but I need a bit more of a guided experience.

Thing is it's not 'hand holding' that it's lacking. I wouldn't call some basic introductions to controls and mechanics 'hand holding'. I'm not asking for waypoint markers telling you where to go, once I figured out how to find islands and get there I was perfectly happy with the system of finding your way around. The problem is that the game never told me how to find my way around, or much of anything else really.
It never told me how to use the map, it never told me how to make my ship go, it never told me I have to raise my anchor, then unfurl my sail, then angle my sail before I could really get moving.
It never told me that for the Skeleton missions you need to keep beating waves of generic skeletons in a super basic horde game until the named skeleton shows up.
It never told me that if I quit the game then all the cargo I've picked up will vanish and my ships stores will reset to default.
Telling me those things absolutely isn't hand holding, it's the game explaining its own mechanics for the first time.

Jees chill and yes, all the stuff you said is hand holding. You think I knew any of this when I booted up the alpha? You press buttons to see what happens. Criticise the game for all you want but not telling you to zoom in on a f**king map, it never told you to raise the anchor? It has button prompts for everything, unfurl your sail? Jesus wept.

Also, you obviously strawberry floating did these things so you’re complaining about what? A big ICON wasn’t pointing everything little thing out? Never play the game again and go play Far Cry and follow dem waypoints.

I’m genuinely confused, I remember turning the anchor and thinking oh the ship isn’t moving yet, what does this button prompt beside the sail do? Oh I can lower the sails, nice one now where do I go? The map, etc etc. But you obviously looked at the boat, then I don’t know, stood on it? Jumped up and down? Somehow managed to raise the anchor then ran around, back onto the island then back to boat and jumped around some more then when you found out you could lower your sails you went ape sh*t for what? Didn’t figure it out earlier? I’m struggling as to why a single player boat that has 3 different button prompts (which are all X) on deck had you flummoxed.

After playing the Alpha they literally described play testing it and seeing how the average person could figure out how a boat works so kept the UI off the screen. Just one last thing, when you found out you could angle the sails into the wind did you not feel a sense of achievement that you yourself were sailing or were you in a blind rage?

No, it's not hand holding. It's the modern equivalent of an instruction manual that games no longer come with. A game explaining how its basics work is not remotely 'hand holding'.
The only reason I was able to do most of that in the end was because I had to quit the game, look up online how to do it and then go back to the game in order to do it. I shouldn't have to do that.
I didn't say I wanted huge giant icons on everything, but a tooltip popping up the first time you set foot on your boat would be nice, maybe a list of previous tooltips available in your menu incase you miss or forget anything. That's not hand holding.

You had to look up you had to raise the anchor?

Fairy nuff man.

Look hopefully you’ll climb aboard a grcade galleon and I’ll give ya a wee guided tour (honestly) it’s a bigger boat with more stuff to do. No hard feelings just came easy to me is all.

Mate of mine who couldn’t stand the Beta was hooked tonight on it, I’ve no idea why, it just clicked he said. Very strange. Honestly I hope we get more for a grcade crew or 2. If we synchronise logging in we could get 2 crews into the same server.

Focusing on the anchor is missing the point. The game doesn't tell you how to do anything beyond "Press RB to open up one of your inventories" (without telling you that you actually have another inventory on LB) and "Press RT to take a look at this paper and LT to look at the other side" and then gives you an objective to talk to a merchant and get a voyage. That's it. That is literally all the instruction the game gives you on how to play it.
No instructions on how combat works, on what you need to do to actually commence a voyage once you have it, no warning when you select the option to quit that any unsold treasure on your ship will be lost forever. I just don't think being dumped into a world and being left to completely fumble around is good design. If some people want that then fair enough, but the game should have some tooltips that you can turn off in the menu so that everyone gets a fair chance without needing to invest an hour or two outside of the game reading websites or watching youtube videos just to learn how to play the game they've just dropped £50 on.

Y’see I love being dumped into a world and working things out, it barely has on screen clutter for a reason.

Hope they fix this soon, I need to get to pirate legend status!

Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild did it right with the "Standard" and "Pro" UI modes.