How the Sea of Thieves Anniversary Update puts new wind in the game's sails

[Windows Central]

We went hands-on with Sea of Thieves Anniversary Update and got a glimpse of the game's raw untapped potential.
Sea of Thieves has proven to be polarizing.
Critics and fans alike were divided when the game launched last year. Sea of Thieves has little structured narrative, save for that you make yourself. There's no vertical power progression grind to keep users hooked, with rewards focusing entirely on cosmetics. Sea of Thieves is a sandbox game with a flat progression system, where players are encouraged to make their own fun, interacting with others and using the game's array of wacky pirate tools. As such, it struggled to appeal to vast swaths of gamers who had hoped for a more structured title.
Most of Sea of Thieves' biggest critics agreed on one thing, however, and that is the game's potential. Here's how Rare's upcoming content drop, dubbed the "Anniversary Update," might be the one that helps convert bystanders into active players
We went hands-on with the first mission in Rare's "Tall Tales" feature, which is the studio's ambitious attempt to bring cinematic story experiences into Sea of Thieves' multiplayer world.

Full story from the WindowsCentral blog...