Recent reviews by templar1138

I got this game as a gift from my dad after I let him know it was on sale after the implementation of Safer Seas. The gameplay is great fun because - unlike most pirate-themed games - you play as someone on a ship, not the ship itself. And Safer Seas has been a fun opportunity for me to play a game with my dad.

However, I'm giving this game a negative review for one simple reason: Rare. It took over five years for them to implement Safer Seas despite demand for some kind of PvE mode. In the Steam forums and elsewhere, their mods have lashed out at people who criticize the game or request expansion of Safer Seas to be much less punitive towards people who don't enjoy PvP. And now they've delivered an ultimatum in the Steam discussions threatening to shut them down altogether because they think their mods are the ones being abused.

The game itself is fun - at least in Safer Seas - so I recommend buying it when it's heavily on sale. Let Rare know how much money they're missing out on.

Rare, you are terrible at Public Relations, and you will suffer for it. I will continue to play and enjoy what's available in Safer Seas, and I will never spend a real-world dollar on any of the micro-transactions in the Emporium as long as you continue to lash out against criticism and suggestions. And unlike you, I will gladly accept comments and criticism of this review - constructive or otherwise.

EDIT: That ultimatum thread I mentioned has been deleted, and Rare has pinned two posts advising people to go to other forums to give feedback, saying that the devs "rarely" view the ones on Steam. Apparently they didn't know how to counter the overwhelming outcry against their ultimatum - including a couple posts that pointed out Steam's own best practice guidelines (which pointedly discourage their habit of arguing with players and locking threads). So not only does Rare suck at Public Relations, but they are also cowards. Wonderful.

EDIT 2: Rare has taken to deleting threads from the Steam discussions without warning and without announcement. In fact, I was just banned for posting threads in which I ENDEAVORED to not mention them specifically and didn't use any language that violates Steam community rules or guidelines. So I take back what I said: Do not buy this game. Do not encourage others to buy it. And if you already have it, NEVER spend any money in the Emporium.

EDIT 3: For some reason, I am no longer able to post comments on this review (and Steam support's initial response has not been helpful). So apparently, being banned from a game's community means I'm not able to comment on my own review. But since I'm still receiving comments, the review is clearly still visible. A and because I'm still able to edit this review, I'm going to respond to comments here for the time being.

COMMENTS:
christian3476 "skill issue" - That's as asinine as saying a teetotaler's refusal to take part in a drinking contest is a liver issue.

ETHAN! "complains about pvp in a PIRATE game called sea of thieves. wild." - Where in the review did I complain about PvP? And as for the implication that PvP is intrinsic to pirate-themed games, consider the following games that all came out before Sea of Thieves:
-Sid Meier's Pirates!
-Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
-Risen 2
-The Monkey Island series.

BALENCIAGA "High seas aren't even that dangerous lol, you can spend days soloing without seeing another player sometimes." - Cool, but moot. I don't enjoy massive multiplayer, and any encounter with someone I don't know is one too many - especially if they're as toxic as the players of this game tend to be.

ChukyUniqul "I will never understand this mentality of 'oh, I wanna like this game but it's not for me therefore it's the game's fault'. It's like complaining that someone's hot but has an ass personality, except their personality isn't even that bad they just don't ♥♥♥♥ with what you ♥♥♥♥ with." - I don't understand that mentality either. Good thing it's not my mentality. To expand on your simile, it's more like I want to go out with someone, but their parents are the worst kind of bigots and always have their bigot friends over, so the only way I can communicate with the one I'm attracted to without having to be around the bigots is over the phone.

"Mate, the game's not for you. You have a right to counter-recommend to other pve-focused players but you're being whingy when you're tryina make it out like rare somehow owes you to make it into the game you like. It's pure, bratty, entitlement. I really wanna like Hunt, but it's too high a skill and knowledge floor for me+the pvp focus is too great so I explained in my brief and negative review why, without making crytek look like they're somehow failing at their job." - Way to miss the point. I'm not saying Rare 'owes' me anything, only that they are shooting themselves in the foot by alienating and even punishing a HUGE potential revenue source by not making some fairly simple changes to gameplay options - especially given that they've ALREADY ADDED SAFER SEAS. Opportunity cost, look it up.

"Lastly, if you have all those pve-focused pirate games why not go play those and leave the blend of pvp and pve that this one has to the people who actually like it?" - Way to miss the forest for the trees. I listed those pirate games to point out that pirate-themed games are not inherently about PvP. Sea of Thieves has VERY different gameplay mechanics than most other pirate games and has a lot of appeal to it outside of its player base and developer mentality.

I bought this game back when it was in Early Access - when it was basically pitched as a morbid zen garden and was just as much. Then I got a few real jobs that involved cleaning, so I didn't feel like doing more of that in my downtime. After the sour taste of those jobs had faded from my mouth, I came back to find that this game had become MUCH more complicated than originally advertised. Paperwork, gardening, and who knows what else. And apparently RuneStorm thinks it's a good idea to not add a tutorial to a complicated game with hidden mechanics for each level.

So yeah, I'm salty as all the ♥♥♥♥♥, and RuneStorm won't get any more money from me.

No mouse support. What idiot decided THAT was a good idea?

What street corner did they pull their voice act-... voice tal-... voice *providers* off of?!

Don't buy this. If you're looking for a wonderful yet silly RPG, go get Fable TLC.

This is what Fable TLC has that Fable Anniversary doesn't.
1. A cartoony appearance aesthetic that aged well and doesn't look ugly or creepy.
2. An intuitive menu system.
3. An extensive key-mapping system that includes the whole keyboard and any extra buttons your mouse may have.

Given that, other than those three points, there are no differences between the two, I will repeat: Don't buy this. Buy or dig up Fable TLC.