Ahoy there landlubbers, Captain Jimbo here to tell you a tale of the worst pirate ever to sail the Sea Of Thieves aboard his cursed ship, the HMS Mirrargh.
Sea Of Thieves is a swashbuckling, massively multiplayer online game by Rare studios.
After creating a character and customising your look, you are asked whether you want to sail a large galleon or a smaller - more agile - Sloop.
With your vessel selected, you can then choose if you want to be part of a crew of other human players or if you want to go it alone.
I’ll be honest with you, if you have a scurvy crew you will certainly get more enjoyment out of the game rather than on your own. While human players can be awful, the game is considerably harder without a crew to help you.
For example, once one of my crew mates crashed the ship which caused it to fill with water and then they put me in the flooding brig to drown.
However, I’d also been on well-coordinated ships with everyone filling a station and working together to fend off enemies and bring back the that all important booty.
Sea Of Thieves uses the uses the Unreal Engine and has a cartoony, stylised aesthetic reminiscent of Team Fortress 2 and World of Warcraft. While I wasn’t initially keen, its charm grew on me like a barnacle encrusted barge.
Once you're out on the open seas, the lighting effects and water looks really breathtaking and add to the sense of freedom and adventure.
The game has three different factions, the Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, and Merchant Alliance. Completing quests gets you more gold to buy equipment and more advanced adventures.
However, this is the main short coming of the game.
The gold you gain through quests or pillage can only really be spent on cosmetic items and none of it really adds anything or force you to change your play style.
Setting sail actually involves setting the sails and at the length and angle to catch the wind. Canons must be loaded and aimed at enemies, and even the anchor must be dropped to stop the ship.
As annoying as these quirks sound, its actually quite fun and an experienced crew working together can have you shipshape in no time. It can also be the difference between life or death during battle. There is a massive open world with treasures to find and ships to loot submerged in the deep.
Most quests involve going to an island fort, fighting waves of skeletons and a boss, to then bring treasures back to one of the outposts while fighting other human players trying to plunder your booty.
You also have to remember to collect supplies like food, cannonballs and wood, which can become a bit of a grind but being in combat without enough supplies is a nightmare.
Ship to ship battles are exciting and involve you and your crew really pulling together, not only to bombard the enemy with canon fire but to out manoeuvre and board the enemy ship - not to mention creative uses of gunpowder barrels to blow the enemy to smithereens.
It feels great when you take out another ship or defend your plunder and its very frustrating when yours is taken from you.
I always found that after wiping out another crew they seem to spawn somewhere close and I would have to deal with them several more times, all the while running out of supplies like cannon balls repairing my ship while they would be healed and supplies replenished.
The game supports cross platform play, so Xbox players can team up with their PC playing mates for exploration and adventure.
The game is really tough to play alone and you will often get picked off by the fully crewed ships which made me wonder why there isn’t the option to play on single player only servers.
Meanwhile on the larger galleon ships if your not piloting the ship or in combat there’s not a lot to do other than get drunk and play the accordion!
Once you have completed a few quests and fought off some other players you've pretty much seen it all.
The lack of character progression and loot can make the experience feel hollow and repetitive. Ship v ship battles are tense and engaging but with enemies re-spawning so quickly and so close combat can become tiring and irritating.
That said it's an enjoyable game with friends but don’t expect any real depth to these murky waters.
Sea of Thieves released on March 20 and is available on the Microsoft store for Windows 10 PCs and for download on Xbox One.
PC - £49.99
XBox One - £44.99
