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Midway through my first hands-on with Sea of Thieves

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Watch out for holes in your hull when you get hit!

Fighting under the moonlight is exceptionally pretty.

Sunset is rather gorgeous as well.

I began on land with my crew of five -- Rare design director Gregg Mayles told me they haven’t settled on a final max number for your group just yet -- and together we wandered down to the shore, spotting our ship docked a short distance away. We all swam and climbed aboard via a rope ladder affixed to the side of our vessel. The boat is littered with interactive elements, from three sets of sails that can all be raised, lowered, and rotated, cannons on both sides (Rare tells me that you’ll have to load cannon balls into the cannons in the final game; in this demo they had unlimited ammo), the wheel, a crow’s nest you can climb into, a plank to walk out onto, rum to idly drink or an accordion to play (pull RT for either of those), and more.I appreciated that this demo build gave no instructions: none of the controls, what to do, etc. Instead it was up to our fearsome pirate quintet to sink or swim -- literally -- based on how well we could communicate and work together. I held the X button next to the pulley wheel that raises the anchor, and I let the crew know what I was doing. Soon two others joined me to hasten the process, another player unfurled the sails, another grabbed wheel, and the fifth went to play lookout up in the crow’s nest. We were already bonding!It’s here I should stop and compliment Sea of Thieves’ visuals. While parts of them are very simple, taken as a whole they are beautiful, thanks to a bright and colorful palette, simply gorgeous water and waves, and appropriately cartoony animation. I played during the day, but I also saw a round that began under the stunning bright moonlight and ended under the orange glow of dawn’s first light. The visuals hinted at in last year’s announcement trailer seem on track to be delivered for the final product.With the anchor raised I took a bit of time to wander the ship -- through the captain’s quarters, down into the lower decks that would soon become a critical location on the vessel, up into the crow’s nest to get the long view for myself, out onto the edge of the bow for a quick Titanic-esque king-of-the-world moment, and back to the riggings to adjust our sails a bit as requested by one of my crewmates. Soon, however, we were called into action as we spotted our first foe.With my band of peg-legged brothers all doing jobs -- sadly, the only one I didn’t get to try was steering the wheel -- I took to moving from station, helping out wherever I best could. For five strangers who’d never met until our demo began, we did a remarkable job of communicating what needed to be done and staying on the same page. Whether or not that was a testament to the gameplay or just random luck of being stuck with four nice guys is difficult to say. Regardless, a subtle white line drawn in the air would give clues to the wind, allowing us to adjust our sails accordingly to change direction (pro tip: you can also drop anchor while in motion to do the pirate ship equivalent of a handbrake turn).And then the battles began. Two other ships -- each manned by their own five-player crews -- were out there, setting up a tricky game of cat-and-mouse. We slowly turned our vessel to face the first, and I jumped on a starboard cannon. I fired, and again, there are no instructions or predictive HUD arc to show you where your shot will go if you pull the trigger (as it were). Like the rest of Sea of Thieves, it’s up to you to take your speed, direction, distance, and wind into account when aiming your cannon fire at your foes. And again I loved this throw-you-in-the-deep-end mentality; I hope it remains for the final game.The difficulty in aiming -- especially while bobbing up and down in the big ocean waves -- made scoring a direct hit to your targeted ship a tangible thrill for both me and my crewmate. We cheered each other on, and the positive reinforcement was invigorating. Of course, before long we took a few shots of our own, so as the self-appointed ship jack-of-all-trades, I sprinted below decks to check for leaks. Sure enough, one of the cannon shots had struck us slightly below our ship’s water line, causing us to begin taking on water (another pro tip: aim for the water line for his exact reason). Fortunately it was only ankle-deep, so I pressed Y to take out a wooden plank, then held RT over the hole to patch it.With our band-aid in place, I scaled the mast to the now-empty crow’s nest to play lookout during the next round of battle as both ships turned for another salvo. The higher vantage point really was helpful for calling out enemy positions and, it turned out, telling teammates if their aim was true. Still smiling and having quickly warmed up to my cooperative teammates, I began yelling things like, “Hard to starboard!” because why not? Sea of Thieves may be, if it lives up to its full potential, the pirate game I’ve always wanted to play. Might as well fully embrace the fun I was having.Even being sunk couldn’t sink my spirits, however. Yes, we took too many shots to the hull, and when I tried to get below decks to plug them it was already too late. The bottom deck was completely filled with water, and a last-ditch effort to patch the holes by me and another crewmate were futile. Our ship sank and we were left there, soaked in our own defeat. But it didn’t matter because Sea of Thieves’ E3 demo slice was just plain fun.That being said, Sea of Thieves’ grin-inducing gameplay debut is merely a solid first step that establishes the idea that one of the core tenets is indeed fun. Rare’s return to big-time non-Kinect game development still has more questions to answer, however, such as: is there an economy, and if so how does it work? What’s the land-based treasure-hunting gameplay like? Is there a progression system of some sort? Can I customize my pirate and my ship? Will it be any fun by yourself? Similarly structured games like Destiny have been able to keep their player base interested for months and years, while others like The Division has struggled in that department. It remains to be seen how Sea of Thieves will fare.Still, I can’t help coming back to my primary takeaway from my first Sea of Thieves high-seas ship battle: I had a gigantic smile on my face the entire time. That’s what Rare always used to be good at, and if they can recapture that in full with Sea of Thieves, then I’ll want to round up a band of buddies, form a crew, and explore this world with them to its furthest edges on a nightly basis.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan , catch him on Podcast Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.