Abandon Ship, a Roguelike Game Set In The Age of Sail, Out Now Via Early Access

Fireblade Software’s Abandon Ship is available now via Steam Early Access.

Abandon Ship — a strategy game within an Age of Sailing, wax painting, inspired setting — has captivated us since it first started drawing mentions back in late 2016. The title, follows a single, player-controlled, sea Captain as they scuttle from ship-to-ship and crew-to-crew trying to fight back against an imposing, Lovecraftian thread.

It’s not only the intriguing setting though. The structure of the game is (by the developer’s own statement) structured like FTL; with each progressively more dangerous area gated off behind a series of events. Abandon Ship, however, has players control the vessel’s journey directly and also has them — as previously stated — able to escape their sinking or shattered vessel to fight another day.

It’s not just in the interesting, close-up, ship vs enemy scenes where vessels can take damage, there’re environmental hazards like deadly tides and volcanic island chains. These hazards do actually carry over into combat; so if you’re caught up in a battle while in the shadow of an erupting volcano, then you’ll not just be on the receiving end of cannon-fire, but also burning volcanic rock.

Battle promises to be tough, with your hard earned and trained crew-members able to be swept overboard, Haliphron (fish-people), pirate crews and cultists able to invade your ship, and deadly sea beasts (Kraken!) added into the mix.

The team at Fireblade Software are expecting Abandon Ship to be in Early Access for between 9-12 months, plans include adding seasonal events, missions which have later connotations, additional content which will double the main campaign length, as well as much more.

We’re currently working on an in-depth review of the Early Access build, which we should have up early next week. Until then you can find out more about the game on the developer’s website, or on the game’s Steam page.