GamesCom in Cologne, Germany played host to some cool new previews for a smorgasbord of upcoming games. Among those games was Rare’s Sea of Thieves, the open-sea, MMO seafaring title for the Xbox One and PC.

YouTube outlet Outside Xbox managed to capture 12 minutes of gameplay featuring some wave-riding actino from a medium sized ship. You can check it out below.

One of the things they tried hammering home was that you need to have multiple players helping to man the ship, such as someone to work the sails, someone to navigate at the front of the ship and someone to navigate at the stern. It reminds me a lot of Allods Online, which also required multiple crew members to navigate, fly and repair the astral ships.

In the case of Sea of Thieves, the game offers customization for both players and the ships. You can alter the figurehead, upgrade your cannons, improve the hull and other sailing upgrades to modify the maneuverability of the ship.

In the build featured in the video above, there were no melee or player-character projectiles available. However, it was possible to battle other players using the ship cannons. They also mention that in one of the later builds they have plans on implementing ghost pirates along with a waiting room for players who die. It sounds like the purgatory feature in Allods Online.

The combat looks decent enough, and if you take enough damage your ship will begin to flood. You’ll need to head down below deck and begin to patch up any holes to prevent the whole boat from sinking.

Most of the cool stuff still seems conceptual at this point, but there’s a lot of potential for the game if it all comes together right proper.

Amid some of the tomfoolery that takes place in the video above, there are some neat little mechanics, like playing instruments with friends and having it all sync up. In the video “Ride of the Valkyries” was the song of choice.

Sea of Thieves is due for release on Xbox One and Windows 10 next year. I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high because this reminds me of the kind of game that may end up getting gutted or canned before release, just like Fable Legends.