It was almost exactly one year ago that I walked into a meeting during the Game Developer’s Conference and first got introduced to Jump Ship, a four-player sci-fi PvE shooter that blends mechanics from Sea of Thieves, Left 4 Dead, and FTL into something I thought was extremely special.
I recently had a chance to play the latest build with a few of the developers, and let’s just say that if any indie game can break out big in what’s already an absolutely stacked year of releases, I’d bet my money on Jump Ship.
As it heads towards an Early Access launch this Summer, it’s more polished and more fun than ever.If you aren’t familiar with Jump Ship already, it’s a non-grindy space romp for up to four players — and I specifically didn’t say multiplayer because the team at Keepsake Games told me they’re responding to feedback and building on what they hope will be a clever way for solo players to enjoy Jump Ship.
In short, if you want to treat it like a single-player game, there will be narratively constructed AI assistants to help you man the ship.
You get a taste of this in the Prologue, which serves as one part tutorial — introducing you to gameplay mechanics like shooting, flying in your space suit, manning and piloting the ship, and ship combat — and one part lore-builder.