Abandon Ship gave its first ever public demonstration at the PC Gamer Weekender 2017, and has spent the last several months teasing its horrid sea monsters, brutal weather system, and picture frame map structure among other things. Developer Fireblade had originally planned to ship (pun intended) at some point this year, however has now delayed the seafaring strategy game into next year.
"I’ve decided to delay the Early Access release of Abandon Ship into 'early 2018'," Fireblade's Gary Burchell tells us via email. "While it was a tough decision because we’re in a really good place, I’ve spent most of my career working for publishers who only cared about hitting dates, and the whole point of me going indie was that I can focus purely on game quality—so ultimately this 'feels' right."
Fireblade hasn't decided on a concrete launch date as yet, however has released the following dev-led let's play which showcases Abandon Ship's systems and combat better than anything we've seen to this point.
Running at just over 30 mins, here's that:
Combat there looks suitably frantic, as crew members scramble around the deck, firing off cannons and barely surviving. Ringing bells sound when boats are taking on too much water, galvanising this sense of urgency—and should you somehow miss that, the fast-firing cannon balls blasting gaping holes in your vessel will drive that home. One minor detail I love about the above is the canvas effect used to identify as yet unexplored areas of the game's world map.
Again, Abandon Ship is due at some point in "early 2018." Check out our previous coverage over here.