Redemption narratives are a rare but interesting phenomenon in the video game industry. Sometimes a new game isn't everything fans hoped it would be, but a company manages to salvage the game and make it live up to expectations after all. Sometimes redemption efforts go fantastically, like they have with No Man's Sky, and sometimes they fall apart, like they have with Anthem. It's always hard to say what a game's future will look like when it has a rocky start. One game that's landed on the positive side of things is Sea of Thieves. Rare's 2018 action-adventure pirate title has come a long way since it first came out.
It's hard to deny that Sea of Thieves had a bit of a complicated release. Although some fans fell in love with it, other players said there just wasn't enough to keep them playing. However, Rare is dedicated to making the game as successful as possible. Sea of Thieves has received all kinds of expansions and updates over the last few years, and it's a totally different game from its release. There's probably a fair few people out there who tried Sea of Thieves and decided it wasn't for them, but those players should consider booting the game up again. It's changed so much that they might come to love the game after all.
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Sea of Thieves' reception wasn't all negative when it first came out. It got a lot of praise for things like its ship combat and sailing, which featured standout sail management mechanics. From the very beginning, sea combat was one of the most gripping parts of the game. The biggest thing standing in Sea of Thieves' way when the game first came out was a lack of content. Many players felt that there wasn't enough to do after the first few hours besides sail around the ocean completing fetch quests and looking to get in maritime battles with other players.
The game has changed completely since then, though. Rare has said before that it wants to keep supporting Sea of Thieves for a great many years, and so far, it's been true to its word. Rare has added AI ships for players to fight, a campaign to play through, sea monsters to battle, new quest types, and so much more. It may have shifted to a battle pass model after two years of traditional updates, but Rare is still releasing events and new content on the regular. Sea of Thieves has covered its biggest flaw with more than enough additional content, meaning there's plenty for returning players to sink their teeth into while relearning the game.
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It should also be noted that Sea of Thieves' community is still expanding, and rapidly at that. Sea of Thieves has many millions of active players three years after its initial release. If players decide to get back into the game now, they don't need to worry about a lack of other fans to encounter and play with. There's more ways to engage with the community, too. Sea of Thieves has an Arena mode that can bring players together outside of the usual open-world gameplay.
Even though the game has been out since 2018, it's in no way too late to join the Sea of Thieves community, whether for a first time or a second. Rare has made it so that there's always reasons to come back to the game on the regular, and it doesn't seem like that pattern is going to stop anytime soon. Sea of Thieves is a success story not unlike No Man's Sky. The game may not have impressed fans immediately, but thanks to the determination of developers, it's gotten back on its feet. If players felt disappointed about their investment in Sea of Thieves at first, they may find now that it was worth their money after all.
Sea of Thieves is available now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.