Sea Of Thieves PS5 review – authorised PlayStation piracy-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

Sea Of Thieves – now on PlayStation (Microsoft Corporation)

One of the most popular Xbox exclusives of the last two generations comes to PS5 but how much has it changed in the last six years?

Despite how often they’ve talked about it, it’s still entirely unclear what Microsoft’s policy towards multiformat games really is. That’s true in terms of both its traditional internal studios and those from Bethesda, and while the initial intention was to keep all Bethesda games as Xbox exclusives, alongside key franchises such as Halo and Forza, it seems very likely that Microsoft will change their mind at some point in the near future.

That is purely speculation though and all we know for sure is that the games Pentiment, Grounded, Hi-Fi Rush, and Sea Of Thieves are now available on PlayStation 5 (and the first two on Switch, with rumours of Hi-Fi Rush on its way). Sea Of Thieves is the most well-known of the quartet and at one point was the most pre-ordered game on PlayStation 5.

At time of writing it’s the 33rd most played game on the PlayStation Network but, really, the most significant milestone for Microsoft’s cross-platform plans is when it ended up with more games in the PlayStation Store top 20 than Sony – thanks to the fact that all Activision Blizzard games are remaining multiformat. Will that influence what Microsoft does with Bethesda and their legacy franchises? It’s still unclear. Which means all that can be done for now, is to try to determine whether any of the four games are worth all the fuss they’ve created.

They may be lower profile games but the Multiformat Four are amongst the best first party Xbox games of the modern era. Pentiment is an excellent narrative role-player, Hi-Fi Rush is a fun rhythm action game, and Grounded is an imaginative live service title. We haven’t played Grounded since it started in early access in 2020 but we have been playing Sea Of Thieves on and off since it launched way back in 2018.

We only play it briefly, now and then, but it’s a good game for socialising with friends and we wanted to see the recent Monkey Island content. And now we can do so on the PlayStation 5 as well.

The premise of Sea Of Thieves is not a complicated one and that is one of its core appeals. You play as a customisable pirate of your own choosing and… that’s pretty much it in terms of structure, or at least that was the case when the game originally launched.

Sea Of Thieves is now much better at teaching you its systems and pointing you in the right direction, but it still wants you to just get aboard your ship and go out exploring, looking for treasure and other players to attack or co-operate with – rather than worrying about some complicated end goal.

Controlling a ship is an enjoyably tactile experience, and significantly different depending on whether you’re playing on your own, with one other person, or as a team of four. There’re sails to be trimmed, anchors to be raised, and wheels to be turned, as well as lookout posts and cannons to man. Coordination is vital in order to not end up gouging a hole in your ship just by leaving the harbour, at which point you have to start bailing the water out with buckets and fixing the hull with timber.

The most enjoyable sessions usually involve no cooperation at all, as everyone blames each other for ‘not doing it properly’, which is very much part of the fun. Especially once you realise you have a pitcher of grog that you can quickly get yourself drunk with and start swaying about, puking on everyone.

The problem with the game at launch was two-fold: a lack of content and direction, and awful melee combat. The first issue has been conclusively solved, with this PlayStation 5 release benefiting from six years of additional content, which not only provides more to do but is considerably more involved and interesting.

Story campaigns for Pirates Of The Caribbean and Monkey Island are the obvious highlights but there’s plenty of other good stuff involving supernatural enemies and hidden booty. Although, strangely, while it is easier to get your bearings now, the game is still less than helpful in suggesting where you should go and what you should do outside the hand-holding first tutorial. Even the hub island is frustratingly difficult to navigate.

The game still wants you to just sail off and find your own entertainment, but it can all be a bit bewildering for new players. That’s especially true given the seemingly never-ending series of logins and account registrations you have to go through to even start the game. Having to link your Microsoft account to your PlayStation Network account might be a milestone moment for the games industry, but it’s also a huge pain in the arse.

That aside, the big problem for us is the combat, which is purposefully dire. Firing ship cannons is okay, but there’s a distinct lack of feedback that makes aiming, and working out whether you’ve hit anything, more difficult than it should be. Shop combat is still fun because controlling your ship and co-ordinating with your crew is the core of the game, but the action itself is a literal wet squib.

Sea Of Thieves – upgrading your boat is purely a cosmetic business (Microsoft Corporation)

It’s practically Call Of Duty compared to the melee combat though, which is so woolly and flat it feels like some sort of broken tech demo. As you wave your sword about impotently, or point your gun, it doesn’t seem like anything is making a connection and none of it is in the least bit fun. The ship combat remains fun because you have to work with your friends to get anywhere, but that’s much less true of fighting on foot.

It’s been like this since the start and developer Rare has made it clear it’s purposeful, so we guess they see it as a way to level the playing the field for everyone. That’s particularly evident in the fact there’s no levelling up to be done, beyond improving your relationship with the three trading factions, with new guns and ship items being purely cosmetic. Melee combat takes up a big chunk of gameplay time though, so it’s a shame there’s no way to make it more exciting than it is.

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On a technical level the game works perfectly, with cross-play between Xbox and PC users and surprisingly good graphics, despite the fact this was originally an Xbox One game. That’s helped by the cartoonish (but occasionally rather ugly) art style and the excellent water effects.

Sea Of Thieves is one of the least hardcore games around and that is its primary appeal. We hate the melee combat and yet we still enjoy hanging out and socialising in the game, with its emphasis on not cooperating making it almost irrelevant whether you succeed or not. That’s perfect for a game that, literally, wants everyone to play and enjoy it. It’s also a hell of a lot better than Skull And Bones.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £39.99
Publisher: Microsoft Corporation
Developer: Third Kind Games (original by Rare)
Release Date: 30th April 2024
Age Rating: 12

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