Is Sea of Thieves a Pirates Life Good?

    This is one of the most revolutionary updates to Sea of Thieves. It is something that fans of the franchise have been begging for, for many years. Finally it came out from left field during the 2021 E3 showcase. It was revealed that Disney and Rare have formed an amazing partnership and worked together to bring fans of both IP's a legendary 5 part series where players can dive into the famous Pirates of the Caribbean themed tall tales. Tall Tales if you are not aware, are Sea of Thieves campaign mode. However they have done it quite well, as the story missions take place in the Sea of Thieves open world, leaving you vaunreble to other players. However in this article we will be covering the quality of a Pirates Life and we will give our verdict on whether or not Rare has lived up to expectations. 

    Sea of Thieves a Pirate's life is a five part series. Each part comes in the form of a tall tale with its own chapters. Each tale will take you at least one hour and possibly more. Meaning for your first run through the tall tales, if you do them quickly will in total take you about 7-8 hours. We suggest doing one a day in order to fully appreciate the content. But in terms of quantity, the team at Rare have definitely delivered. It is a very lengthy adventure that will surly quench your need for Pirates of the Caribbean content    

    However just because there is a large amount of quantity does not mean that it matches in quality. The first tall tale lacks in quality. It is very dull, although it is truly a magical experience, the visuals are amazing and there are new environments and locations to explore it lacks in stuff to do, there are no new enemies except for a small on rail encounter at the very end. There is a couple puzzles that are slightly amusing but there is not much to do other than some parkour, If we are being honest it delivers in the visuals but in terms of enjoyment and riveting content it fails to deliver. Although fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean series will enjoy the surplus of references to the ride of which the movies earned their inspiration. 

    The second tall tale which is the second part of five in the update, also fails to deliver. Although it is a great concept, it build on the lore the game has been developing for years and also allows you to explore one of the most famous ships in the film series, it has many flaws. For one, the developers had promised that the locations in the update would be instanced, this means that other crews on the seas would not be able to interfere with your bidding. however this was a lie. In the second tall tale you are vulnerable to other crews. This is a horrible inclusion and it truly breaks the immersion and magic that the tall tales attempt to bring. Also another failure of the tall tales is the state that they were delivered in. The second tall tale was a glitchy disaster, although at the time of writing a patch is being delivered to aid in these glitches. But when I completed the tall tales they were nearly unplayable which greatly ruins the magic that these stories were supposed to bring. The production value is there but so are the glitches. 

    However the third tall tale is where things get a bit better. The third tall tales introduces a new enemy type, and is a love letter to the film franchise. It is very cinematic and a very large improvement from the first two tall tales. Although it is not as action packed as I would have hoped it is a fun ride to experience. Also similar to the first tall tale this one is also instanced. Which means that other players can not interfere with your experience. This truly improves the experience as you become much more immersed. Which was not the case for the second tall tale. 

    The fourth tall tale is probably the best one in the series as you get to explore an amazing location. My favorite part of the fourth tall tale has got to be the characters that we see. You get to see familiar faces from both the sea of thieves and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. It is also probably the most fun tall tale in the series as it gives you stuff to do other than puzzles which seem to make up the majority of the other stories. There are also cool new mechanics introduced into the game such as a piano/organ which also has an appearance from the movies. There is also a cool fight scene at the end of the tale which has Jack Sparrow help out your crew and he also has a very cool enterence into the scene and he stays true to his characters as well as his witty one liners.   

    The fifth tall tale matches the content of the fourth one and brings an epic conclusion to the series. It is action packed, it has surprising reveals, it features characters from both series and have cool references to the films as well as previous tall tales and stories. It also has some touching moments that build depth to the characters. It is definitely the most entertaining tall tale due to the sheer chaos and interactive nature of the entry. It also closes the story very well and slightly teases a continuation to the story. Which I find very intriguing and exciting. the developers mentioned in previous podcasts that although the first two updates of the 2021 year will be lacking in content however the size of the last two updates will defiently make up for it. And they delivered on those promises with the first update of the second half of 2021 however the developers said BOTH updates on the second half of 2021 will be amazing. So because the developers are teasing a sequel and a big second update in 2021 I am cautiously optimistic. 

    In conclusion if we compare this update to other updates in Sea of Thieves it is revolutionary. If we take a objective look at the content without playing the game and having a bias from previous updates, it is decent, nothing amazing. It's potential was wild, the amount of directions it couldve gone in were endless. The production value was amazing however its story telling and execution is poor and lacking. The story line is difficult to follow and very choppy. It could have been done so much better. But for Sea of Thieves their updates in general are lacking. The content they add does not change the gameplay loop. This update is no different. Although it is amazing to put yourself in the shoes of Jack Sparrow for a few hours, once you are done it is the same grind that you have always known in Sea of Theives

The Verdict

    As a final verdict, the new Pirates Life update is decent. That is what we are going with. It is not good in terms of being game changing, as mentioned earlier the content is worth a few hours of your time and does not do much else in terms of changing the game. But it earns the decent ranking because of the production value of the content that was added. Although the first three chapters are lacking, and is more of a glorified cinematic, the last two chapters are riveting and truly entertaining. Also the cosmetics in the game is truly where the content lacks. There is so much potential in terms of cosmetics. And I would imagine that the licensing fees for such a large franchise such as Pirates of the Caribbean would be immensely costly, yet the only cosmetic items we got was a Jack Sparrow outfit and a poorly made Black Pearl set, which of itself is not the best looking ship in the franchise, they had so much potential, they could have gone with the flying dutchmen. In conclusion the update is decent yet lacks in many areas. 

For questions about crossplay in sea of thieves click here: https://thewitlessgamer.blogspot.com/2021/06/is-sea-of-thieves-cross-platform.html