There’s never been a better time to set sail in Sea of Thieves

After Cranium and Bones didn’t scratch my pirate itch, I lately returned to an outdated, acquainted pal. Sea of Thieves is crusing into a brand new 12 months, with a brand new slate of content material deliberate. Uncommon has experimented with methods to replace and improve the pirate sandbox recreation since its launch in 2018. The sport has additionally left the Microsoft ecosystem and will probably be obtainable to PlayStation gamers in April — which, in fact, means there are a variety of new pirates on the excessive seas for the primary time. That’s why now is likely to be the most effective time to get into Sea of Thieves, even in case you’ve by no means performed it earlier than.

During the last 5 years, Uncommon has dabbled with numerous sorts of updates, together with narrative content material, time-limited campaigns, and Fortnite-like crossovers with different pirate franchises, like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Curse of Monkey Island. However over 2024, after lowering the barrier to entry for brand new gamers, Uncommon desires to concentrate on emergent and natural encounters.

Picture: Uncommon/Xbox Recreation Studios

“There are lots of people on the market that, I believe, are intrigued by Sea of Thieves,” says Mike Chapman, inventive director on Sea of Thieves, in a name to gamerjive. “They hear the tales of the gameplay from that shared world and distinctive occurrences, however the one factor holding them again is that they don’t have a crew to sail with.”

“The extra gamers you’ve acquired from totally different locations, the extra number of tales and encounters you’re going to have,” says Joe Neate, government producer on Sea of Thieves, provides.

Increasing the attain of the sport is an efficient treatment for the brand new participant drawback — and the current addition of the Safer Seas mode signifies that the cruel studying curve is sanded down. It removes the specter of different pirates, permitting somebody to select up the ins and outs of the sport with out being barraged by a sudden hail of cannonballs.

There’s a fragile balancing act between making Sea of Thieves solely protected in order that gamers can benefit from the narrative content material added to the sport, whereas additionally retaining the DayZ-like feeling of seeing one other participant and never realizing whether or not they’re pal or foe. Safer Seas is a superb choice for brand new gamers or mother and father with youngsters who don’t need to take care of the danger of random strangers, and Uncommon intends to increase on that avenue of play.

“One of many issues we’re doing main as much as the PlayStation 5 launch is bringing in one thing known as Solo Seas,” says Neate. Solo Seas is at present slated to launch on March 14. “It’s nonetheless on-line since you’re connecting to servers, however you don’t want a multiplayer subscription to expertise that. It’s one other avenue to expertise the sport, doubtlessly fall in love with it, after which graduate to Safer Seas or the shared world.”

Picture: Uncommon/Xbox Recreation Studios

Whereas Safer and Solo Seas provide interesting choices for conflict-averse gamers, Uncommon says nearly all of playtime continues to be being spent within the shared world. Over 2024, it intends to provide gamers extra instruments to work together with one another and the world. Many on-line video games concentrate on increasing the sport world, introducing new areas and territories to discover. For instance, Uncommon added the Satan’s Roar, a lethal stretch of sea noticed with energetic volcanoes, in 2018. However in any other case, the crew has been dedicated to overhauling the core map slowly. Outposts have fallen and been rebuilt, new risks have emerged beneath the seas, and the world is considerably extra dense with tales, targets, and encounters.

Uncommon has additionally modified the sport’s pacing, which used to require just a few hours of dedication for a very satisfying expertise. I bear in mind working round outposts and gathering up provides, loading them on the ship, after which setting out for 4 to 6 hours with friends. There was a variety of crusing between targets, managing the ship’s stock, and scheduling treasure drops at outposts. Whereas it was positively enjoyable, it additionally required cautious scheduling and sufficient stamina to sit down and stare at a display that lengthy.

Picture: Uncommon/Xbox Recreation Studios

Now, voyage time has been considerably lower down, going from round 45 minutes to 10 minutes. “Individuals can come into Sea of Thieves, perceive extra about what they should do to progress, but in addition meaningfully really feel like they’ve completed one thing inside 10 minutes,” says Chapman. “I imply, emergent occurrences may come their manner, and so they may select to choose into that, however the truth that you’re not considering of Sea of Thieves as this multi-hour play expertise each time you play actually opens up the sport to new gamers in a manner we haven’t with our earlier updates.”

After I first began Sea of Thieves, I jumped proper onto my ship, sailed to Snake Island, and died to snakes. Now, a brand new participant will get some extra tutorials to guide them by the primary few hours. It’s a giant change, and one which makes the sport more easy to advocate to buddies to allow them to encounter the bizarre and wild sandbox encounters that I am keen on.

“This 12 months is all about paying again to that sandbox,” says Neate. “I’d name it a traditional Sea of Thieves 12 months by way of new instruments for those who work together with all of the totally different motivations and play kinds. One of many phrases we’ve been utilizing rather a lot is ‘mischief.’” Neate teased an upcoming merchandise known as the Horn of Truthful Winds. What it truly does is a thriller, however since winds are so vital to chasing — or escaping — from one other ship, it looks like it’ll be excellent for enabling hijinx. Uncommon’s fixed refining and reiterations of its core content material are a giant a part of why I maintain returning to the sport, and I’m excited to see how the seas change over 2024.