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

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 Iris, who acts as something of a narrator on your missions. It’s a welcome bit of structure around the solid foundation of gameplay Jump Ship brings to the table. As is the Hangar, which is the sort-of base of operations from which you can cash in your in-game currency to buy and customize your outfits, look at the greater Galaxy Map, and even engage in a bit of soccer in your downtime.

But back to that core four-player gameplay. Boy oh boy is it fun! As you embark on your mission, things naturally won’t always go according to plan. Your ship will get attacked en route to your destination, requiring one of you to pilot the ship and fire the meager pilot’s chair weapons, while another sits down at the ship’s proper weapon station to wield the 360-degree-pivoting cannon at any annoying targets. Meanwhile, the other two of you might be mag-booted to the ship’s hull outside, taking shots at passing ships. That is, until an enemy vessel damages your ship, requiring one or more of you to run inside, grab a fire extinguisher, crawl into a vent, and put out the flames. After all, you’ve gotta keep that pineapple pizza-maker in full working order!

When you do get where you’re going, all four of you disembark and make your way on foot inside the structure that houses the loot you’re after. These evil, infected robots will keep coming and they won’t play nice, so teamwork is essential at each step of the mission. Your grappling hook helps zip you around areas both on the ground and in outer space much quicker, and once you’ve got the big loot, one of you has got to get it back aboard the ship while the others protect your defenseless, arms-full self.

Both my demo last year and my latest one just the other day were short. On the one hand, it proves that Jump Ship is a blast in short bursts, and thus you don’t have to quit your job in order to keep up with it. On the other hand, though, I haven’t seen enough of the larger mission structure and the procedurally generated variety to know if it will deliver on its endlessly replayable promise. But everything I’ve seen so far absolutely screams potential hit. Jump Ship has all the right ingredients to become something special, and I can’t wait to play a lot more.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.