Hot off the heels of an incredibly successful closed beta, developer Rare has revealed some fresh new information about their multiplayer centric pirate adventure Sea of Thieves. We now know that there is no character creation, instead players choose from eight randomly generated character models. These eight can be generated several times until you find one that suits you. The intention behind this is to ensure the pirate aesthetic sticks to the full game, and not have ridiculous player models breaking the immersion. There won’t be a chance to alter your pirate’s appearance, so take your time and choose wisely.
Players won’t own their own ship either. Every time you start a gameplay session you’ll be presented with the choice of a one, two or four player vessel. This will be your ship for the entirety of that session. Rare explained that this is to entice players into multiplayer without them feeling like they are losing out as they’d have to choose between four ships. However players can buy cosmetic upgrades that can be applied to any ship, meaning that if you hop into a game with your mates you can customize the boat.
The story involves a mythical area of the real world. Athenas Fortune is the end goal of the story’s quest and players are aiming to become a Pirate Legend while they search for this. To become a Pirate Legend you need to reach maximum reputation status with the main three quest givers in the game, the Gold Hoarders, the Order of Souls and the Merchant Alliance. After this there will be ‘Legendary Voyages’ for the top players to partake in at the end game. This also comes with a Legendary Ship, although we don’t have a lot of details on this. Without spoiling too much Rare has said that the ship will have significance in the game and be a sign of your status.
Rare will be adding a ‘major free content update‘ in the first three months after launch. This will expand Pirate Legends but also expand the game’s wider lore and story. There will also be event quests, new items and mysterious new islands that appear and disappear throughout the game world. Rare are really focusing on making Sea of Thieves a platform worthy of your time. We also finally have some information on the rumored Kraken. It will be an extremely rare (sorry for the pun) experience. It will be a challenge to overcome, but the developer hints at some big rewards.
Finally there’s microtransactions. Quickly becoming an expectation in any online or multiplayer focused game it should come as no surprise that they are being added here. However interestingly they will not be added until the first major content update, three months after launch. They will not impact progress but instead come in the form of cosmetic items, pets being the example given, and they will be obtainable through in game play. The developer refers to Sea of Thieves as a service, and a service requires players to return. Sea of Thieves launch is just over a month away, for more news and the eventual review keep your eyes on thelootgaming.com!
