Jump Ship Preview: It's Sea of Thieves Meets Left 4 Dead, and it's Even More Polished and Fun Than Last Year

ign.com:

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.

Yes, Jump Ship now has a much-appreciated story behind its core PvE gameplay. A malicious virus has infected machines throughout the galaxy, and it’s up to you and your fellow Atirans to get to the root of it at the heart of the galaxy and stop it. You’ll run through procedurally generated chains of missions in each sector in order to get there. Some take 10 minutes, others might take an hour. You’ll know roughly what to expect going in, as each one of your branching choices on the Jump Map is color-coded to let you know how much danger you’re voluntarily wading into. But of course, the greater the danger, the greater the reward…

Aiding you is a non-infected AI you discover in the Prologue called