Abandon Ship
Discover a huge amount of unique, story-filled islands across diverse biomes and themed areas: Fight ghost ships in the Haunted Seas. Ward off giant arachnids in the Spider Islands. Regions filled with poisonous gas, icebergs, cannibals and much more await. Engage enemy ships, fortifications and sea monsters in vicious combat, employing your best tactics to out-manoeuvre and out-gun the enemy. Weather and environmental conditions affect your battles: Tidal waves, lightning strikes, volcanic bombardments and blizzards are just some of the modifiers that impact your strategy. Abandon Ship focuses on ‘Age of Sail’ ships in a Fantasy setting, framed in an Art Style inspired by classic Naval Oil Paintings. Life in this world can be brutal. Death is permanent. But the journey doesn’t end if your vessel is destroyed. You are the Captain, and as long as the Captain is alive, there is always hope. By escaping to a Lifeboat, or even being stranded, alone in the water, there is a chance to survive and fight your way back to the top. Combat is tactical and savage. Each battle is hard-fought, always on the edge of defeat. Your only chance of overcoming the odds is to employ every advantage you can bring to bear. Dozens of diverse weapons and upgrades are available to utilise on the various ship classes you can acquire. Customise your vessels appearance by capturing enemy ships intact. Your trusty crew gain experience and traits to help provide an edge over the enemy.
Game Discussion
Steam User 12
Like if FTL had a baby with Sid Meier's Pirates with some Lovecraft sprinkled in. Lovely graphics and fun gameplay. Just try not to get attached to your crew because the difficulty in this game is brutal. They will die. I'm playing on the easiest setting and I've still lost several crew members. I first tried it on Normal and lost my ship before I even managed to finish the tutorial.
Steam User 7
A fun game, but it overstays its welcome. The first 10-14 hours were quite enjoyable. The last six or so had me wondering when the campaign would ever end.
Steam User 4
This is an amazing game with suprisingly comeplex combat and an engaging story! it can be extreemly frustrating on harder dificulties due to the limited saves.. but that's part of the fun!!
Steam User 2
In a single sentence: Good game, but too much kraken.
More in depth: I'm enjoying this game. It has a lot in common with Sunless Sea and FTL, two games I've enjoyed. but it does come off badly when compared to the former. I was disappointed by the narrative -- the lovecraftian elements (basically, domineering Cthulhu Daddy) aren't scary or unnerving. The Spider Islands are pretty much a Wish version of Saviour's Rocks, from Sunless Sea. The world and story just felt like a rather generic fantasy, without much depth.
Luckily, the gameplay is pretty fun though it does get repetitive (too much kraken). I wished I had a few more options for directing my crew, like being able to assign a crewman to repairing hull cracks, or get my medic to go around and heal everyone without having to keep pausing in order to micromanage.
I liked how each biome has different environmental hazards impacting combat.
Though ship progression is pretty linear -- the more expensive ship is just better -- there's a lot of different builds when it comes to weapons and various combinations of weapons. There's also different game modes which also require slightly different approaches. On the main campaign, it's pretty easy to gather up the cash to upgrade everything (the earlier the better, before the game turns into Non-stop Kraken: The Krakening), but the shorter combat campaigns are more of a challenge. There's an element of RNG, sometimes, which can be frustrating.
Overall, I'd recommend it if you're looking for a fun naval combat strategy game.
Steam User 6
This game was deeply cathartic for me, though not as one might expect from the gameplay. I got around to playing Abandon Ship as I was going through a similar process in spirit as the main character goes through, making it even more personal than I expected when I wishlisted it years before.
Meta themes, possible meta spoilers:
It is a story of recognizing, escaping, and overcoming a Tyrannical Father, both without and within, a very real archetype of human experience. It also hints at the Devouring Mother as sequel material.
As for the gameplay, there is some learning curve, with multiple chances given to avoid catastrophe upon failure (fleeing, lifeboats, chance-based events). But of course proper planning and preparation is a solid (but not guaranteed) defense.
If you can dial in on a routine and optimal build for the many battles ahead, especially for a longer comprehensive playthrough, then you can listen to other things outside the game while you sail the seas.
Music, podcasts, lectures, sermons, even shanties.
Steam User 0
I absolutely adore this game. One you will come back to time and time again starting new playthroughs. Well designed and ultimately customizable. Highly recommend
Steam User 0
This game has its quirks, but it has a lot of effort put into it.
My biggest gripe is probably the music. I think the sound effects used are pretty tasteful but the music doesn't do the rest of the game justice.
The bounty system can be very punishing if you get to the two skull level and you don't have enough cash on hand to pay your fine. You get caught in an endless loop of hoping to find an encounter that will lower your bounty level, while its constantly being raised by the influx of ships coming at you. Some quadrants make this easier than others depending on the number of events.
If you enjoy roguelites such as FTL, then you will probably get your money's worth out of this game. Just be prepared for some steep learning curves around some of the balancing.