Jump Space Blends Helldivers Chaos with No Man’s Sky Travel

The co-op space mayhem I actually wanted this year

With 2025 stacked and everyone finally ticking off long-teased wishlists, Keepsake Games’ Jump Space still managed to grab me by the collar. After a Steam Next Fest demo pulled in over 530,000 players, the planet-hopping co-op shooter has launched in Early Access at a refreshingly modest $19.99. The pitch hits a sweet spot: Helldivers-style, frantic FPS missions welded to No Man’s Sky-inspired star travel where you actually pilot your ship between hotspots. Formerly dubbed “Jump Ship,” the new name fits-and the loop is dangerously moreish with friends.

Key Takeaways

• Jump Space combines on-foot, Helldivers-like chaos with true ship piloting and interstellar travel-no menu hopping between every mission.
• Solo or four-player co-op with freeform roles (no set classes) keeps missions flowing, but long-term build depth is an open question.
• $19.99 Early Access price is smart, backed by a roadmap headlined by “Atira Strikes Back” with new modes, sectors, enemies, traits, and traversal upgrades.
• Demo scale proves interest, but Early Access success hinges on mission variety, enemy diversity, and progression pacing over the next few months.

Breaking down the promise: drops, dogfights, and DIY heroics

Here’s the loop: you and up to three friends crew a ship, pick a destination, and physically fly there. You might weave through an asteroid field to shake a tail, board an enemy craft via a risky jetpack hop, or dogfight your way to a drop zone. Once boots hit dirt (or station plating), it shifts into a frantic FPS sprint-secure intel, snatch resources, survive escalating pressure, then exfil before the spacewolves close in. It’s the kind of hands-on star-hopping I wanted from other recent space RPGs, just delivered with sharper co-op focus and fewer loading-menu vibes.

The clever bit is how Jump Space refuses to silo roles. No strict classes means you can bounce from piloting to manning turrets to EVA boarding to ground gunfights on the fly. In a good squad, that freedom turns every mission into improvised action cinema. In solo, the game remains perfectly playable—arguably easier in some scenarios—but the “we barely made it” fist-pump moments really sing with a full crew.

There’s also a rewarding ship-tinkering angle: scavenged resources funnel into outfitting your craft with weapons and gadgets that open up routes and tactics. Do you kit for stealthy disengages through debris fields, or bolt on another layer of angry cannons and dare pursuers to keep up? It’s a satisfying loop, provided the resource economy stays balanced and the upgrade tree keeps evolving over time.

Early Access reality check

$19.99 (around £16.75) is a fair ask for what’s here today, especially compared to the $40-$70 crowd sitting in the same genre orbit. But Early Access always comes with fine print. The Next Fest demo proves curiosity, not retention. The big tests ahead are mission variety and enemy ecosystems—can Jump Space keep the surprises coming after your tenth, twentieth, fiftieth drop?

The classless design is a double-edged sword too. It’s great for hop-in chaos, but without meaningful traits or synergies, long-term buildcraft can feel shallow. Keepsake seems to get this, which is why the roadmap’s mention of player traits, modifiers, and melee weapons stands out. The team also needs to nail network stability. Co-op shooters live or die on smooth sync during the exact moments Jump Space leans into—close-quarters boarding, tight exfils, and hectic multi-role juggling. If desync intrudes there, the magic fizzles fast.

Performance matters as well. The pitch—a physics-y ship, EVA, and on-foot firefights—screams CPU hitch potential on modest rigs. If Keepsake can keep frame times smooth during space-to-surface transitions, it’ll earn a lot of goodwill. If not, price alone won’t save it.

Roadmap signals: “Atira Strikes Back” and what it actually means

The first big update, Atira Strikes Back, points to the right problems to solve: an endless mode for long-haul replayability, more sectors, fresh missions and story beats, additional enemy types, and a layer of player traits to deepen build identity. Toss in melee, sliding, modifiers, and hangar vendors and you’ve got the beginnings of a more expressive combat and economy sandbox.

That said, the real metric isn’t the bullet points—it’s cadence and cohesion. An endless mode without new enemy behaviors becomes a treadmill. Traits without meaningful trade-offs turn into flat stat bumps. Vendors without interesting ship parts are just menus. If Keepsake wires these features into the core loop—space skirmishes feeding into ground objectives which unlock ship upgrades that open new mission types—Jump Space could become one of those weeknight staples you default to with friends.

The studio’s statement hits the right tone for Early Access: “This marks the start of a long journey to make the best space game ever… Even if you are a casual player that will check in every now and then, rest assured that we will be right here ‘cooking’ at all times.” Ambitious, sure—but ambition is what you want in a game attempting to fuse dogfights, FPS raids, and ship stewardship into a single ride.

The gamer’s perspective: should you jump in now?

If you loved Helldivers’ frantic extractions and crave the agency of actually piloting a ship between missions, Jump Space delivers a compelling foundation at a friendly price. Solo players won’t be left out, but the magic is definitely in a dialed-in squad swapping roles mid-mission and improvising heists against the void.

If you’re allergic to Early Access growing pains, keep it wishlisted and watch the Atira update. I want to see how deep traits go, how enemy rosters expand, and whether the team can keep mission templates fresh beyond the first dozen hours. If Keepsake sticks the landing, Jump Space could become this year’s go-to “one more run” co-op timesink.

TL;DR

Jump Space is a smart $19.99 Early Access bet that mixes Helldivers-style on-foot chaos with real ship piloting and star travel. The roadmap looks promising, but staying power will depend on variety, progression depth, and smooth co-op performance over the next few updates.