Sea of Thieves continues to bake in the proverbial development oven, and as the process remain ongoing, developer Rare remains ever transparent in how the game is coming along. Today a new Sea of Thieves video was posted to the game's official YouTube account showing off a behind-the-scenes look at how the team is going about developing the game's sword combat.
Suffice it to say; it's not the sexiest look that Sea of Thieves has ever had, but it's a more realistic look at how games come together that generally isn't shown to the public. Like everything else in Sea of Thieves, elegant simplicity is the focus of the game's sword combat. Players have a basic horizontal sword swing as the standard attack, which can be combo'd up for a three swing attack. The combo will only start and continue if the player lands their attack, and doing so will result in the next swing unleashing at a faster pace. Players can also charge up a Stab attack for added damage, but this leaves an opening for an enemy to attack back.
Of course, it wouldn't be much of a sword fight if you couldn't block, so Sea of Thieves does have a basic system for blocking incoming attacks as well. Rare is also working on a Heavy Attack, which, if not blocked, will send the player flying, and given all of the different locations and situations that combat can take place in (pretty much anywhere), there will be plenty of opportunity for emergent gameplay. For example, if you're trying to fend off an invading pirate crew and get hit by a heavy attack, you can be knocked off your ship and into the water.
Sea of Thieves does not currently have a release date but is supposed to be releasing sometime this year for Xbox One and PC.
Source: [Sea of Thieves YouTube]
