I cruised by way of dozens of fights earlier than catastrophe struck. A scuffle with a cultist noticed my ship scuttled, due to me forgetting to man the water pumps. A silly oversight, however I’d a minimum of had the foresight to purchase a lifeboat, which saved me and my crew from a fast and merciful dying. The days dragged in that tiny boat, as we drifted in diminishing hope of rescue. We sang songs. We rowed. We swapped tales, after which blows.
Eventually, the others tried to eat me. I leapt overboard, and located myself adrift once more – this time alone. It took a number of extra days for some sailors to seek out me, on the cusp of hunger. I’d survived, however with such a setback that I felt compelled to load a save.
It says quite a bit that by far probably the most fascinating factor that occurred to me in Abandon Ship nonetheless had such a limp conclusion. Longform FTL with pirates, alas, isn’t practically nearly as good because it sounds.
It’s a stable premise, largely squandered. The fundamental marketing campaign begins with you on the run from a cult, after the looks of the kraken you’ve been worshipping for many of your life provides you second ideas about your membership. You sail round a number of distinct areas (foggy, stormy, poison gassey, and many others), making easy selections that often lead to you broadsiding somebody. Combat’s actual time, however pausable, and entails commanding your crew to man cannons, put out fires, and usually be sure that your ship is the one with much less holes in it. Once you’ve
encountered sufficient encounters, a gate to the following space opens, and also you do it another time. And once more. And once more.
It’s not so dangerous at first. When you set out, contemporary wind in your sails and cultists at your heels, the seas appear filled with promise. The occasions aren’t arresting, however they work. You would possibly select to strategy a lifeboat, solely to have your crew’s morale dashed on the sight of emaciated corpses. You would possibly select to save lots of a city from cultist ships, accepting gratitude and presents from the citizenry. But with a number of exceptions, that’s about as fascinating as these occasions get. I needed to speak to these folks and, I dunno, possibly enslave them? Or have considered one of my crew members get snarled in a love affair with the mayor’s daughter? Or one thing!
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than it felt like I’d seen most permutations of most occasions, ripping by way of the phantasm of their significance like a chain-shot by way of a sail. FTL has the same drawback, in equity, the place optimum selections emerge by way of repetition and you start seeing by way of tales to the prices and advantages beneath them. The important distinction is that in FTL these penalties nonetheless really feel significant. Losing a crew member in FTL is a intestine punch. Losing crew in Abandon Ship doesn’t actually occur, as a result of they get injured as a substitute – and even in a model of the game the place they did die, I’d in all probability simply shrug my shoulders and recruit one other from the closest tavern.
The fight’s additionally too mild, a minimum of on regular problem. I quickly found out a profitable technique, progressively tweaking it over 9 hours moderately than feeling pressured to improvise. In practically each struggle, I fired each my cannons at one enemy gun placement, then tossed an acidic mortar shell on the different. The gunner would again off, and by the point the acid cleared, my fundamental weapons would have reloaded and I’d be capable of disable that cannon too. I acquired by way of many fights with out taking a single shot, making use of the identical technique to each ship I got here throughout. Later I acquired berserk darts and a sniper rifle, and took to choosing off crew one after the other from afar moderately than wrapping up fights with a ramming and a boarding.
I by no means felt imperilled, aside from that point my entire sink sank – and that was as a result of I’d spent the previous 5 hours not needing to even preserve an eye fixed out for my ship being flooded. When it did occur, it might have been tantrum-inducing, as a result of the one place Abandon Ship abandons its mild strategy is in its withholding of saves. Bizarrely, it’s essential fish out single cases of the power to save lots of from occasions on the map marked with diving bells. On that entrance I used to be monumentally unfortunate, getting my crew injured 5 occasions moderately than profitable the cube roll that may earn me a reprieve. I occurred to make use of the only save I discovered simply earlier than my sinking, and my being knocked right into a worse place than I used to be in at first of the marketing campaign. If I hadn’t saved there, I’d have in all probability known as it quits.
I nonetheless stopped properly earlier than the tip of the marketing campaign. It’s break up into a minimum of two phases, and within the first you’ve acquired to take care of the kraken. You sail between islands determining easy methods to kill it, however in the event you loiter in an space for too lengthy it (or an enormous scary cultist ship) catches up with you and wishes fleeing from. Once you’ve croaked the kraken, although, that system vanishes and you’ll sail round at leisure, dismantling the cult by sprucing off three units of 5 repetitive occasions. At this level, the shortage of that early-game risk, all the time pushing you ahead, is keenly felt. I accomplished a few these quest steps, however by that time I’d already purchased the most effective boat and each improve I might ever need. I’d purchased and climbed the most important crow’s nest, and there was nothing new in sight.
If Abandon Ship was each meaner and better-paced, I’d be tempted to name it an excellent game moderately than an OK one. Despite their benefits largely being pointless, I did really feel a delicate pull in direction of shopping for upgrades and greater ships. For a number of hours, I didn’t even significantly thoughts wading by way of fights on auto-pilot – it felt satisfying to have solved a puzzle. But that description captures the fight’s limitations. I’m now craving the nuances of FTL, the place you twiddle with vitality ranges, extra assorted gear and the distinctive traits of various species. I’ve performed that game for 100 hours and nonetheless get stumped.
Abandon Ship can’t escape FTL’s shadow. It’s too much like keep away from being judged based mostly on the excessive bar its spacefaring cousin set, nevertheless it falls far too wanting that bar for me to love it. Turns out these water pumps aren’t price manning in any case.
