Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me, but after a few days playing Sea of Thieves I realised the sailing the open seas isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Sea of Thieves is a brand new pirate themed, open world game from Rare, exclusive to Xbox. I got my first look last month during the closed beta; while I enjoyed it, I wanted more from the game. The full version was released on March 20th and unfortunately I didn't get the added content I was looking for.

The idea of the game is pretty simple; you get a crew together, sail around the world, complete missions and fight other crews. While the beta version only had gold hunting missions available, the full version has added trading missions and quests to kill the undead. The problem with these tasks is they all feel rather repetitive. You sail from an outpost to an island, complete your task then return to the outpost. The world of the game looks incredible but after a couple of hours it starts to get old. I was hoping the islands and outposts might have been given additional features, but aside from the addition of animals, there is little to do when away from your ship.

I got frustrated by the inability to save my progress mid-mission. On one occasion, I had gathered the treasure chest then had to step away from the console for a few moments. When I returned, I had been logged out of the server and I had to start the mission all over again. You also have to trade the chests in at an outpost to receive the gold from the mission, being careful not to capsize or get attacked on the way. It's possible to sink several hours of time into this game without getting any reward for your time. Progress is only recorded by successfully completing missions, increasing your reputation and accumulating gold.

While this game has a single player option, it is meant to be played in multiplayer mode. With the scope of the missions limited, it's all about getting some friends together and having fun at sea. While that style of play may work for some, it's where the game loses me. My time for games is limited, so when I get a chance to play, I want to be able to sit down for an hour or two, then hit save and walk away. If you have time to invest, and a group of friends who own the game, you will get way more out of Sea of Thieves than I did.

The game has had over a million users since its launch on Tuesday; it will be interesting to see how many stick around long term.