One of the first to cast off was IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey who set sail – and sunk – with a smile on his face. During his hands-on demo, he happily unleashed his inner pirate. “I began yelling things like, ‘Hard to starboard!’ because why not? Sea of Thieves may be […] the pirate game I’ve always wanted to play. Might as well fully embrace the fun I was having.”

Of course, Ryan wasn’t the only scallywag to adopt pirate talk while sloshing grog and scurrying about the ship. After the Metro UK crew found their sea legs, they zeroed in on the heart of Sea of Thieves’ co-operative play as they sailed into battle. They emerged from their first voyage refreshed, stating that “acting like a team, where the goal is something other than aiming at the flashing red bit of an enemy boss, is an excitingly unusual experience in games.”