One of Microsoft’s most highly anticipated exclusives, Sea of Thieves, has been delayed until early 2018 according to Xbox’s E3 press conference.

Before that, though, the Sea of Thieves E3 gameplay trailer played to show off some of the features of the game and what players should expect. As seen in the trailer, up to four people can be on one crew at a time. The audience sees the crew on their ship working when they discover treasure located at a shipwreck site. The players go underwater to inspect the giant sinking ship when they encounter sharks. The one shark that approaches the player whose in first person perspective avoids him, then the audience sees one of the crew mates get nearly bit by another shark. The player grabs the treasure and manages to swim back to the ship without being bit, while the rest of the crew also make their way back. The last crew mate is nearly bitten by a shark, but manages to get on the ship’s ladder before the shark can hurt them.

In the next scene, the crew begins exploring an island. In the distance, the audience can see that the crew’s ship is being attacked by another pirate ship. The player also encounters the skeletons of raiders who were also seeking the treasure, which come to life and begin attacking the player and their crew mate. One of the weapons seen in this trailer is your typical pirate pistol, that shoots one bullet per round. To heal, players will have the option to eat food, in this case, the player eats a banana. From the ship, a crew mate is launched onto the island while one stays back and waits in case of an emergency.

The crew enters a cave, following the riddle that was given to the player at the beginning of the game. In the cave, the player has the ability to use a lamp to search around the dark cave. The wall of the caves show a drawing of a kraken-type beast bringing down another ship. While exploring the cave, the player finds an area of the cave that can be activated through the use of their lamp. This unlocks more of the riddle, which instructs the crew to go 11 steps northwest. Players will also have access to a compass to show them which direction they need to go in to find the treasure.

The player and crew manage to find and dig up the treasure, but on their way back through the cave more skeleton raiders come to life to slow them down. The player, who is holding the treasure, manages to escape the cliff and jump off into a waterfall. More raiders appear in front of the player, but the crew mate handling the ship fires a cannon at them, defeating them. A wave of raiders continues to appear, so the player and crew decide to swim to the ship instead of taking time to defeat them all.

As the crew is sailing back to safety during a storm, another ship attacks, showing the intensity of each stage of gameplay and knowing that you are never completely safe. The player then tries to jump of their ship to the enemy’s ship to try to stop them, and unfortunately cannot jump that far and lands in the water. “Become a pirate of legends,” the narrator says, “just, try not to be this one.” The player then gets attacked by a shark as the scene cuts out.

Sea of Thieves is a multiplayer pirate exploration game where the players will be able to create their own unique story. It is developed by Rare and published by Microsoft. It was originally announced at E3 2015 and had a release date for sometime in 2017, but it has been pushed back.

As stated before, Sea of Thieves will be released in early 2018 on Xbox One and Windows 10.

Featured image via Flickr/BagoGames.