Many have dreamed of being a pirate at one point or another, envisioning themselves sailing the high seas while singing shanties and living the life of a swashbuckler. Sea of Thieves, the upcoming pirate life experience from Rare and Microsoft, looks to help such dreamers live this fantasy in digital space, but one thing it apparently won’t do is let them design their own characters.
This doesn’t mean that there’s no room for creativity, or that everyone will look the same. No, as Eurogamer has reported, Sea of Thieves‘ version of a character creator offers the player eight different, randomly generated pirates to choose from. These swashbucklers are made up of previously designed parts, which are then cobbled together to create each different avatar. Thus, there is a character creator of sorts. It’s just one that wants you to rinse and repeat until you’ve found something you identify with, as opposed to customizing every little detail yourself.
“We want people to think, this is my very own Rare-created pirate character,” Rare studio director Craig Duncan told Eurogamer.
“It will encourage players to pick a character who wouldn’t normally be a character they would create in a character creator. It’s not about just making ourselves.
“Also, I love this notion of, it gives you your own Rare character to go and play the game with.”
This (obviously) deliberate decision was made for the above reason, and to also allow the developers a chance to design gameplay mechanics that could change one’s in-game appearance. It’s also been mentioned that other customization options will be made available to make up for it, including outfits that can be purchased or earned as rewards.
Sea of Thieves will set sail on both PC and Xbox One on March 20th.