Steady Your Sea Legs for This Sea of Thieves Review

In a world full of games that force us to look at sci-fi lands and desolate futures, we found some time to smell the ocean breeze and sit down for this Sea of Thieves review. Originally released in 2018 for Windows and Xbox One, Sea of Thieves was additionally released for the Xbox Series X/S in March 2024, and a PS5 release in April 2024. During its initial launch, the Sea of Thieves game received pretty decent reviews, but limited content made it slightly boring to play. The number of players had also remained too low to truly make the most of its multiplayer experience. In 2024, the series reached a pretty significant milestone, attracting over 40 million players and prompting the Sea of Thieves PS5 review.

What’s so fun about being at sea and what exactly does the game have to offer? Let’s set sail together and find the answers to some of your pressing questions about the Sea of Thieves.

Sea of Thieves Review—What is The Game About?

While it’s not as exciting as going out to sea to find the One Piece, there is still a lot to do as a pirate sailing on uncharted waters. Developed by British video game designer Rare, the Sea of Thieves game is a first-person multiplayer action-adventure game that turns you into a pirate and gives you the freedom to sail the seas in a ship of your very own, collecting treasure and fighting enemies as you travel. The game can be played solo, but it offers the most when you play in teams of up to four players. 

Our Sea of Thieves review speaks fondly of the game because of the simplicity of its design which does not get in the way of a good time. If you want to have a PvE experience, the game allows you to go on voyages, accept world quests, defeat some skeletons, and reap the rewards of the treasures you uncover and return. Yes, return. Unfortunately, you don’t just get to dig up some other pirate’s ill-begotten loot and spend it on yourself. The quests you take up to lead you to the treasure, which you must return to those who can reward you for your success.

Even as a PvE game, you can’t avoid other players entirely—you could be attacked by a stronger ship at any time. So if you’re looking for an authentic single-player experience, we’ll have to stop you right here in the Sea of Thieves review and recommend you look elsewhere.

How to Play Sea of Thieves?

When you start the game, your first step leads you to the character selection screen where you can surf through some options to find a character that suits you best. You are then ready to set off on your maiden voyage, where the lengthy tutorial takes you through the steps of all the little in-game mechanics and details essential for your survival. One thing we have to admit in this Sea of Thieves review is that the tutorial can get quite boring and it goes on for long enough that you might find yourself itching to figure things out on your own. Don’t do it though—stick with it so you get the basics right. 

Once complete, you’re ready to take off on your own. Throughout the game, you’ll have to approach any of the eight trading companies to take on quests and complete the tasks they assign you with. The game does not have any internal stats systems and level-up features, so you don’t have the option to level up your agility or power as you would in other games. 

This removes the headache of deciding where to invest your accumulated points, but it also removes any ability to become stronger than your enemies. This levels the waters for anyone who wants to play the game, ensuring everyone has the same abilities. 

What are the Ship Types In the Sea of Thieves Game?

A pirate is obviously nothing without a pirate ship. A large part of the game’s mechanics revolves around actually sailing the ship you’re renting every time you log into the game. If you play solo as a team of two, you’re allotted a small and nimble sloop that you can sail around in, but you have to scramble around considerably to keep the ship afloat and headed in the direction you need to go. You also lack any significant firepower with this one, but it does allow for a quicker escape when under siege. 

If you play as a trio, you get a Brigantine, which gives you the responsibility of an additional mast but also the strength of additional cannons. The largest ship is the Galleon, designed for four-member crews. With more masts and cannons available, this ship is a heavy hitter and is also quite a bit more fun to manage with a team.

It is possible to now buy your own ship in the Sea of Thieves game, which allows you to name and customize your own ship as you please. It costs a considerable amount of gold but there are other benefits that come with being the captain of your own ship. This includes the ability to turn loot to Sovereigns in one place for a majority of the factions, the ability to add additional trinkets, buy goods more easily from shipwrights, reach milestones, etc.

What Is the Main Goal in Sea of Thieves?

The main goal in the Sea of Thieves is to become a Pirate Legend and continue to complete missions and find treasure. You can gather gold, doubloons, and ancient coins to spend on yourself and your ship, making sure everything is in top condition before you set off on your next adventure. There is no endgame content in sight as such, but you’re free to advance through the many challenges and make a name for yourself as a true pirate of the seas. 

If you enjoy some game lore and want a fixed storyline to follow, then the Tall Tales story-driven quests provide direction that you can follow instead of just fighting other pirates willy-nilly. Completing these and optional “Commendations” can leave you with many interesting rewards and they take you beyond the repetitive combat to solve some riddles and put your brain to work.  

What Are The Combat Options in the Sea of Thieves?

If you really enjoy the PvP element of a game, then looting and fighting other ships might be the most attractive part of this Sea of Thieves PS5 review. You can use your cannons to take down other ships at sea or those anchored near shores and take everything they have, even their emissary flags. Additionally, if firing your cannons gets too boring, you can also launch yourself onto their ships and fight with them with cutlasses, pistols, blunderbusses, bombs, and other new weapons.

While we’ve turned this into a Sea of Thieves FAQ, we might as well tell you that fighting underwater is also quite an interesting game mechanic. There are a lot of combat styles you can explore, whether you prefer hand-to-hand combat or sniping enemies from far away. When you play as a team, there are a lot of interesting ways to target other pirate ships and coordinate your attack. Abandoning your ship entirely to go fight enemies on there is a risky choice as it can leave your ship vulnerable to cannons and enemies boarding in. If your lower deck takes damage, your ship might start to sink, taking all your loot down under with it.

Keeping the PvP element aside, you do also get to fight some skeleton ships and ghost ships at various points in the game, which have interesting loot that they drop into the water when you destroy them.

Are there Pets in the Game?

What’s a pirate without his trusty bird by his side? One of the more fun cosmetic upgrades you can make in the games is buying pets. No, the bird won’t perch on your shoulder and repeat everything you say, but it will accompany you on your journey on land and at sea. The reason we call them a cosmetic upgrade is that they don’t serve too much of a purpose in the game other than following you around as you journey around. When not in use, you can put them away in the Pet Chest which sounds pretty morbid. This is one of the more interesting customizations that we enjoy in this Sea of Thieves review.

If you’re not a fan of birds in general, you can choose between different dogs and monkeys and even give them some snazzy outfits to paint a more dramatic figure. 

Is Sea of Thieves a Good Single Player?

Sea of Thieves, whether on PS5 or Xbox, is designed to be a multiplayer game. It is most enjoyable when you throw in the community aspect of it and spend a few hours playing with those who love the game just as much as you do. But if you truly want a single-player experience, the Sea of Thieves can be a good single-player game as well, although it takes a little longer to master. 

There are many tutorials and guides available online on “solo slooping” the game, which makes it easy to pick up some tips and tricks to master the playstyle. You will still encounter other players on your voyage, but you can deal with them the same way you would the in-game “bad guys.” 

How Good Is the Sea of Thieves Now?

The game reaching 40 million players is not something that happened by chance—there are some really fun experiences to be had playing this one. Despite the many years that have passed since the release of the game, it still receives regular updates and has only gotten better with time. The latest season of the Sea of Thieves, season 12, was just launched on April 30th, so you do not have to worry about a lack of content. 

If this mini Sea of Thieves FAQ wasn’t enough to convince you to play it then this game format may not be your style, which is entirely alright. But if there’s any chance you’re on the hunt for a multiplayer game without an oppressing storyline, then this should be right down the gangplank for you.