2018 was quite the year for Sea of Thieves. Rare's online multiplayer pirate adventure game has had its ups and downs, not unlike the ebb and flow of the sea. But it's undeniable that Rare's dedication to post-launch support has improved the game dramatically. Sea of Thieves today is a stronger game than it was at launch, with Rare ever focused on the Sea of Thieves of tomorrow. That trend will continue in 2019, with Rare now expanding its plans to introduce further story and lore to the game.

In an interview posted on New Year's Eve, Sea of Thieves executive producer Joe Neate expounded on Rare's plans to introduce more story and lore into Sea of Thieves. The game up to this point has offered a rather limited story, offering plenty of environmental and atmospheric storytelling but only experimenting with more direct approaches. Rare acknowledges that this is an area Sea of Thieves could do better in, that this is an area fans crave:

"... for some people that want guided goals, they want lore, they want story, we know that we're underserving players, but we've proven that we can do it and that it works in the shared world with campaigns we've done around the Hungering Deep or Cursed Sails where you put lore, put story in."

Both the Hungering Deep and Cursed Sails events were designed around players interacting with NPCs and objects hidden from island to island. Each told a short and meaningful story, leading to a conflict and ultimately introducing new permanent gameplay to the world.

sea of thieves mermaid statue

Rare plans to dramatically expand on storytelling in 2019 with the implementation of an entirely new quest system designed around story and lore:

"... we've had a team working on basically a new and improved quest system around story and lore in this shared world for quite a while now actually, and it was originally planned to be our fourth update, but we actually moved it back to next year because we wanted to add and grow."

Up until now, the story introduced in Sea of Thieves has all been directly tied to new gameplay. Hungering Deep introduced Megalodons, Cursed Sails introduced Skeleton Ships and Cursed Cannonballs, and even the Sunken Curse Bilge Rat Adventure helped further the story of the mysterious merpeople in Sea of Thieves. An in-game quest system that focuses on story could mark a dramatic change in the core game experience.

2019 is already lining up to be a year of radical change for Sea of Thieves, which is saying something considering the significant amount of content added in 2018. Between the Arena competitive mode, this new questing system, and more nameless major updates planned, it may be time to resubscribe to Game Pass next year.

Sea of Thieves is available now on Xbox One and PC.

Source: Game Reactor