Sea of Thieves

You’ve heard it a million times before, but it bears repeating: Sea of Thieves has the best water of any game ever.As someone who really appreciates water technology in games, this is the single most important point about Sea of Thieves. There is more to it than just that, though. Sea of Thieves is bliss. Its art style is incredibly vibrant and cartoonish, which flies in the face of countless other pirate games these days that aim for a somewhat dour realism. It is also a game best played with friends, who can accompany you as you sail and help you maintain and operate your ship, doing things like loading up cannonballs, stocking up on food, and repairing cracks in the hull that threaten to capsize your crew.

Sea of Thieves is one of the games that puts the most emphasis on the “open-world” aspect, given that it doesn’t really feature anything resembling a traditional campaign or storyline outside of entirely optional DLCs that crossover with Pirates of the Caribbean and the Monkey Island games. Instead, over the years, Rare has simply built on the world, adding new locales, threats, reputations for varying factions and pirate crews, and more in order to deepen the allure of the virtual pirate life. As far as games-as-services go, it is one of the most approachable; most of its battle pass rewards were actually on the free track as of the last time I played and it has even added modes that strip PvP from the experience, in case you just want to merrily sail with your friends and animal companions. Sea of Thieves is on Game Pass, but you can also own the base game for just $20 right now, and for that price, this pirate fantasy is worth it.