You wake in a tavern, replenish your ship's supplies, food, wood, cannon balls and customize it's cosmetics.
You talk with an NPC who gives you a quest. You receive a map of an island with red crosses on it.
You go to your ship and search for that island on the world map. You find it, and figure out which way to sail.
You unfurl your sails and turn the helm towards the destination.
A few minutes pass. While you're in the middle of the ocean, trying to navigate around a storm, the water suddenly turns black. Combat music kicks in, as a pair of tentacles emerge from the depths.
A wild Kraken appears, and it thinks that your ship is tasty.
You grab a handful of cannonballs from storage and man the cannons.
With a few well placed shots and a couple shredded tentacles, the Kraken leaves you alone.
You repair the damage to your ship, and jump in the water to pick up the Kraken's meat.
Looking at the map, a short detour towards a trading post is possible.
You place the meat on a skillet to cook, while you turn your ship towards the merchants.
After selling the Kraken meat, you set sail towards your quest.
The rest of the voyage is uneventful, and you reach the island and drop the anchor.
With map in one hand and a shovel in another, you set foot on the tropical island before you.
With no minimap, you need to read the map and orient yourself based on landmarks you see.
Eventually you find one of the places where the treasure should be.
Enthusiastically, you swing your shovel in to the sand and hit wood!
You've found a wooden chest, that is one of the treasures on the island.
However, you also found a pack of animated skeletons who would rather you not take the treasure.
You draw your sword and fight the bones.
You notice a lone skeleton carry a big red barrel of gunpowder toward you. Without skipping a beat, you run a few paces away and draw your pistol.
With a single shot, you hit the barrel which promptly explodes, obliterating the nearby skeletons.
One of which drops a piece of parchment.
On the parchment there is a quest...
Sea of Thieves is a well polished multiplayer-only title about adventure. There's plenty of stuff to do, and the game always finds more activities to offer you.
The only downside is that it requires a crew to be viable in PVP (which can't be turned off), and to be effective the crew needs to communicate well. It can be hard to find such crew, so it's best played with friends you know in advance.
