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 16
Abandon Ship is a difficult mixture of a pirate/sailing game, a Lovecraftian story, and FTL.
You play as a ship in a world infested with a Lovecraftian cult and the associated monsters. Gameplay consists of manning a ship and surviving through battles with other ships or monsters, and sailing from port to port for exploration or quests.
The world is made up out of multiple smaller maps, connected with gates. On these maps there are multiple random (and some story-scripted) encounters, which consist of random events, simple decisions such as give food to a stowaway (or not), or full on ship to ship battles.
Often, you have to clear a number of these random events before the gates on the current map unlock, allowing you to proceed.
Battles are the core gameplay feature. The ship has multiple stations such as the helm, cannons, and mortars, and you have to assign crew members to each one you want to be active. You are limited by the number of max crew, and crewmen can die or get injured during combat or events, which means you will have to juggle positions during the fight. Fortunately, it is pausable. Enemy shots can also cause hull breaches or fire, which has to be taken care of. And on top of that, some maps have features like lightning storms or massive waves, which cause further danger during combat.
Ports are literally the safe havens. Here, you can repair and upgrade the ship, and revive wounded crew, or get new one. Most story missions also take place in ports.
The story serves well to keep you going from port to port and does a good job of explaining how to play, but the game remains difficult. Each encounter is a real challenge.
Steam User 17
FTL meets sunless sea? YES
On concept alone, 12/10, more ideas like this should be made into games.
Gameplay is mostly tight with some occasional jank and an item-limited save to revert if you get in an autosave deathloop
Writing is good, but the writing-focused game genre has set a high bar and I found myself wanting a few times
Early game is probably the best experience I had playing a game, barely surviving to the next port trying to fill out crew and upgrades in a desperate struggle to evade the Cult. Honeymoon ends after first boss fight, which is... pretty good. The first time. There is only one boss. You will be fighting it a lot of times. The fight never changes.
Endgame is probably the weakest, lack of variety and progress cap sets in reminding me the importance of FTL's timer. You end up with nothing more to buy and much lower stakes.
Maps are good. Area theming is good. Art design is good.
If I could give notes on a sequel it would be more complexity in endgame combat and at least one useful all-purpose maneuver. I know I'm comparing to FTL wherein the pilot's only job is to stand there so the ship keeps moving, but this game has a maneuver bar that fills up and I wish I had some active defense/offense "leadership" or piloting abilities to make that bar matter to me.
Anyway I'mma go replay on super duper hard mode now bc I'm still obsessed
Steam User 7
Enjoyable narrative, especially if you like Lovecraftian storytelling. Combat was fun but got a bit repetitive. Glad I played it, doesn't have high replay value for me.
Steam User 6
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
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 1
6/14/2025: I have to say this one is not really what I thought it was after playing games like Atlas or Black Desert Online. But it is still a really good game. It lacks some of the finesse that games like Skull and Bones or Ghost Ship has as far as the graphics. But its more like a strategy game then what I thought it was, mind you I only started the basic story, which is interesting. This game will not be for everyone, but its still a really fun game. Cheerio swashbucklers, and see you on the high seas!
Steam User 4
A solid game with enjoyable combat, though it can feel a bit clunky at times. Managing boarding and focusing attacks can be tricky due to overlapping units, often requiring pauses to issue commands. If you liked FTL’s combat, you'll probably enjoy this—it's a longer campaign rather than a roguelite, with saves and the risk of total failure. Worth checking out!