Sea of Thieves
Rare · Simulation, Action, Adventure
Overview
Sea of Thieves is a first-person multiplayer action-adventure game in which players take on the role of pirates exploring an open world ocean. Crews of one to four players operate sloop, brigantine, or galleon ships cooperatively, completing voyages for various trading companies, hunting for treasure, battling skeleton forts, and encountering other player crews who may form alliances or attack. The game features a cosmetics-only progression system, meaning all players have equal gameplay capabilities regardless of experience level.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,998 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Players praise the same few things: sailing a ship as a crew, the water and art direction, the music and shanties, and the stories that come out of a session where a kraken, a skeleton fleet and another crew all show up at once. About a fifth of the detailed reviews (21%) tie the fun to playing with friends, and some say outright that solo play is the weaker version. Reviewers also enjoy the Tall Tales and the world events, and some say no other game lets them live the pirate fantasy this directly.
Another fifth of detailed reviews (21%) report bugs, crashes, server errors, rubber-banding or hit registration that misses. About as many (22%) talk about other crews, and they split: some call being hunted down and robbed the point of a game named Sea of Thieves, while others describe spawn camping, losing hours of loot and being stomped as new players. Reviewers also raise a repetitive quest loop with cosmetic-only rewards, cheaters, the limits of the PvP-free Safer Seas mode, Microsoft account sign-in trouble and a 130 GB-plus install.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Playing with friends is where the game shinesHigh
21% of detailed reviews connect their enjoyment to playing with friends, partners or family, and some make it the condition of their recommendation. One parent wrote: "I'm a 46 year old dad and I absolutely love playing this with my 14 year old son." For others it is a social hangout first: "We call it our favorite interactive chat room". The same reviews describe the cost of playing without a group: solo sailing means doing every job at once, open crews with strangers are hit or miss, and a lone sloop is the easiest target on the server. A few positive reviews still suggest solo play through the Tall Tales and Safer Seas.
The water, the art and the musicHigh
18% of detailed reviews praise the visuals, the ocean, the music or the atmosphere. Several reviewers single out the water: "I honestly can't think of any game that has better water physics or visuals." Players mention sunsets, storms, the stylised art, and the crew breaking into shanties mid-voyage. A minority call the art style "bland" or "cartoonish", and some note that it still demands a large install and a decent PC.
Living the pirate fantasyMedium
13% of detailed reviews describe it as the pirate game they wanted: manning the sails, reading a paper map with no minimap, digging up treasure, cooking on deck and fighting off a kraken. Some say there is nothing else like it, and some negative reviews still credit the concept and the sailing. Their complaint is that the fantasy wears thin once the same voyages repeat (see the frustrations below).
Unscripted stories and chaosMedium
11% of detailed reviews retell a session: alliances that ended in betrayal, being rescued by a stranger during a kraken fight, a stowaway with a powder keg, a crew that forgot to steer and hit a rock. These reviews are warm in tone and often treat losses as part of the fun.
Tall Tales, world events and sea monstersMedium
8% of detailed reviews mention the story content (Tall Tales, the Monkey Island and Pirates of the Caribbean tales, lore journals) and another 8% the megalodons, krakens, skeleton ships and world events. Players like that these give the sandbox some structure. Complaints here are about bugs that break long quests ("we got to the last original tall tale mission and it bugged out on us 4 times") and puzzles some call obtuse.
Friendly crews do existLow
A small group of reviewers report helpful players, alliances and new friends found in open crews or on the official Discord. One new player wrote: "I've played for 7 hours and not seen a single toxic player, great game :)". Reports of harassment, covered below, are more frequent.
Where players are split
Open-world PvP and losing your lootHigh
22% of detailed reviews talk about other crews. To some, this tension is the game: "This is a PvPvE video game, stop complaining when I kill you and steal all your stuff, that's how piracy works." Others describe being chased for an hour, spawn camped on the respawn ship, and sunk with nothing aboard. 7% of detailed reviews raise the situation of new players, which one review put bluntly: "New players: don't have any fun because they are getting constantly curb stomped". Some reviewers give practical advice instead: "if you just play it safe and don't sail straight at other people, 85% of the time they will leave you alone too." Some PvP-focused reviewers see the opposite problem, saying recent changes cater to cautious players.
Safer Seas, the PvP-free modeMedium
10% of detailed reviews mention Safer Seas or private play, and they split. Some came back because of it: "Then, Safer Seas happened. Returning to the game because of it was the best decision of my year." More of them object to its limits: reduced rewards, a level cap, and factions, ships and events that stay locked. "If you choose to play a private game you get only 30% of the rewards, so you are forced to play in public lobby if you want to get gold faster". Other reviews report the reward rate has been raised since, so the figures depend on when a review was written. Critics of the mode ask for the same thing: a PvE mode with full progression.
Cosmetic-only progressionMedium
11% of detailed reviews mention cosmetics. Some like it because skill matters more than gear: "no pay to win, everything is cosmetic." Others say it makes gold feel pointless once the novelty fades, since a long, risky session ends with a new hat.
Combat feel and weapon balanceMedium
10% of detailed reviews discuss combat, with no clear consensus. Casual players call melee and gunplay clunky, with hits that do not register: "all melee attacks and blunderbuss shots feel like a complete coinflip on whether the server will actually register them or not." PvP-focused players argue about double-gunning, sword lunges and throwables, and some say nerfs have favoured newer players. Others enjoy that ship-to-ship fights mix sailing, cannons and boarding.
Price and buying on saleLow
5% of detailed reviews bring up price. Some call it worth every penny, others say to wait for a discount, and some object to paying full price for a game that also sells battle passes and store bundles: "It's crazy how they are selling this for $40 still while selling battlepasses and store bundles".
Removing quest divingLow
A small group reacts to diving being removed from voyages and events. Solo and PvE players miss it as a way to start quests quickly and avoid conflict: "bring back diving, as a player who likes to explore but isn't good PvP". At least one returning player welcomed it: "In a game about sailing, you should never be able to skip the sailing part."
What frustrates players
Bugs, crashes and server problemsHigh
21% of detailed reviews report technical problems: crashes to desktop, "beard" connection errors, ships despawning or flipping, ladders that cannot be climbed, quest items that never spawn, rubber-banding, and hit registration that misses. Several reviewers lost hours of loot when a crash or disconnect sent them back to an empty ship. A few players also report high ping on their servers. A few positive reviews call the game well optimised even on modest PCs.
A repetitive loop and long downtimeHigh
16% of detailed reviews call the game repetitive, grindy, shallow or boring after the early hours, and another 5% complain about travel time and long sessions. Reviewers describe the loop in similar terms: take a quest, sail for several minutes, ferry loot "one piece at a time because you can't carry more then that", then sail back to sell it to a specific vendor. One review put the downtime plainly: "in practice you're just scrolling on your phone while you wait for your ship to lug itself across the map." Rewards feel small for the risk: "You can spend six hours on a voyage, sink 10 ships, complete some of the most difficult and risky activities in the game, and still walk away with maybe 200k gold at best."
CheatersMedium
10% of detailed reviews mention cheaters. Reports cover teleporting players, ships hit with impossible damage, and cheaters in the Hourglass PvP mode. Some say bans do not stick: "we do that, and they come back on an alt in under 5 minutes." Some reviewers also describe anti-cheat errors kicking them from their first session.
Toxic voice chat and harassmentMedium
10% of detailed reviews describe toxicity: slurs, players telling others to kill themselves, and crewmates who sabotage their own ship. A couple of reviewers advise parents to keep kids off voice chat or turn its volume down. One long-time player wrote that "this community villainizes people who want to mind their own business and rewards the people who bully others." Some add that reporting feels pointless without video evidence.
Updates, removals and the game's directionMedium
Long-time players raise updates more often than newer ones: seasons they see as thin, time-limited events, features removed (Arena, diving, older voyages) and a store that keeps growing. "It's either more time-limited events that never go anywhere or just stuff that's cool for a week and then never touched again". Several also say the servers feel emptier than they used to. A smaller group says the developers are turning things around with bug-fix seasons and reward changes.
Microtransactions and the Pirate EmporiumMedium
8% of detailed reviews mention microtransactions, the Emporium, battle passes or ancient coins. They object to premium cosmetics and pets, ancient coins being hard to earn, and events built on fear of missing out. One put it as "now Its just a COSMETICS CASH COW".
Learning the game and the first hourMedium
6% of detailed reviews complain about the tutorial, menus, the character creator or a lack of explanation. People report a mandatory maiden voyage before joining friends ("1 star for making me do the maiden voyage again"), confusing menus, and a character creator where "You pick from 8 randomly generated creatures". People with under two hours played raise these points far more often than the rest.
Microsoft account sign-in and crossplayMedium
5% of detailed reviews describe account trouble: failed sign-ins, Xbox licence errors, Steam and Xbox friends unable to join each other, and lost or hacked accounts that support could not recover. "I couldn't even get it to log into my Microsoft account and thus didn't even get to play it." People with under two hours played raise it much more often: 23% of their detailed reviews do.
Losing progress when you step awayLow
A small group objects to the session structure: no pause, an inactivity kick, and loot that vanishes when you log off. "Not being pausable even in a solo, private game is one thing, booting you out due to inactivity after 10 minutes, making you lose your inventory on and off the ship is another."
Bans and supportLow
4% of detailed reviews report bans they say were wrong (including for PvP that the game allows) or support that refused to look further. Some of them still praise the gameplay itself.
Install sizeLow
3% of detailed reviews complain about the install, quoted at 125 to 150 GB: "I won't be downloading a cartoonish live service game above 100GB size on disk in this economy!" A few positive reviews mention a promised size reduction as good news.
3. The player conversation
Many one-line reviews are cheers ("peak with friends", "yarr"), while the detailed write-ups, where people explain their vote, are where the complaints sit. A recurring kind of detailed review comes from someone who loves the game, has put in a lot of time, and is frustrated with how it has been run. Some frame it as a love-hate relationship, and some reviewers who vote no still call it their favourite game.
People who quit within a couple of hours mostly write about getting in: Microsoft sign-in failures, licence errors, the forced tutorial, crashes on launch, or being sunk during their first voyage. Mid-range players talk about friends, the fun of the world, other crews and the grind. Players with hundreds or thousands of hours raise cheaters, weapon balance, removed features, Safer Seas rewards and the update schedule more often than newer players do, and they are the ones arguing with each other about whether PvP is being favoured or punished.
From mid-December 2025 onward, the weekly positive share sat between about 70% and 87% in nearly every week. Reviews that mention diving's removal brought that change into the conversation, with solo players against it and some sailing purists for it. Some older reviews in the slice carry update notes added later. Those edits go both ways, a few reporting fixes, but more of the ones read describe a cooling relationship with the game.
4. What the developers could do
- Fix stability and server bugs first. Crashes, connection errors, ship despawns and missed hit registration appear in a fifth of detailed reviews and reviewers describe them costing hours of loot and whole Tall Tale runs.
- Make cheater bans stick. 10% of detailed reviews mention cheaters, and some reviewers say banned cheaters come back on new accounts.
- Give Safer Seas full progression. PvE players ask for a mode with full rewards, levels, ships and events.
- Protect new and lone crews in High Seas. Spawn camping, attacks on ships with no loot and stomped new players make up much of the PvP criticism, and a few reviewers point out that random attacks carry no penalty.
- Act on voice chat harassment. 10% of detailed reviews report slurs and abuse, and players say reports go nowhere without video.
- Smooth the Microsoft account and crossplay path. Sign-in failures, licence errors and Steam and Xbox friends who cannot join each other stop some buyers from playing at all.
- Cut downtime in the loop. Carrying loot one piece at a time, multiple vendors per haul, no pause and loot lost on logout are named as the parts that make sessions feel like chores.
- Shrink the install. A 125 to 150 GB download is named as a reason not to install or to uninstall, and reviewers who mention the planned reduction welcome it.
