‘The Ship’ Review

Disclaimer: This review was originally written for my first website, Mod HQ, and posted on 12 Jul 2006. The images have since been lost, but the text remains in its original form.

Basic Premise
There’s not much of a story to “The Ship”. The mysterious Mr X has built a series of beautiful big ships and all the passengers received a free ticket to a luxury cruise aboard one of them. Upon boarding they discover that they are to take part in Mr X’s twisted idea of a game as their life and the lives of their families are at risk. Their only chance for safety is to win.

As the official website explains, this devilish game Mr X wants you to play challenges you to kill or be killed. Once you’re on board you’re given the name of another passenger whom you must find and secretly murder. Every passenger is at the same time the hunter and the prey and the way to victory is to outsmart both your victim and your assassin (though the rules may vary a little depending on the game mode).

A Look in the Engine Room
The graphics of “The Ship” are actually very nice. While the screenshots may seem simplistic, every room is modeled nicely with attention to detail and many different objects. Each of the six available ships is huge and has a style of its own, with a large variety of completely different looking areas to visit (more on these later as I get to explain the Needs system).

The characters aren’t on exactly the same high standard but they look good and have a nice cartoony style. The animations are exaggerated and often funny enough, but overall there’s nothing impressive about them. The variety does stand out, since every player looks different thanks to all the clothes and accessories you can use to disguise yourself with.

Most of the existing NPCs simply stand around and are used in the Needs system (again, more about that later) by chatting to you, selling you various items, or letting you withdraw cash to buy those with. The few that walk around have pretty bad AI, but thankfully there aren’t many of them and they aren’t involved in a large part of the gameplay.

Since I talked about the AI, I’ll mention that “The Ship” features an arcade mode which is basically a single player mode with bots. The inclusion is in my opinion wasted, as this is a multi player title and the surprisingly dumb bots really don’t make for a good player replacement. If you do not intend to play online, then “The Ship” has absolutely nothing to offer.

As far as the sound is concerned, you will probably not notice anything special about it. You won’t be annoyed by the presence or lack of any particular sound (perhaps with the exception of the low quality voice overs, though they aren’t too frequent) so I suppose that means things sound as they should, for the most part.

The overall performance of the game seemed to be on par with the rest Source powered titles which, to me atleast, was quite surprising given the size of the various maps. Loading times didn’t seem too long either, which is always a good thing.

Taking the Helm
The controls can take some getting used to but you don’t really do a lot of different actions, so you will soon have the hang of it.

A drag and drop system is used to let you move items from other containers and into your inventory, or place them in the equipment slots. You can also use them on the spot by placing them in the slot with the hand icon. Weapons can be selected with the number keys as usual.

Other than that, you can walk around, sprint, crouch (I don’t think that’s actually useful for anything other than very situational hiding or taking cover), and click to do various activities like chat to NPCs, take a shower, use the toilet or pick up the items you find. You can also right click on these to get a list of all the possible actions. The game can be a bit glitchy at times, mostly if you can’t find a server with a low ping, but in general it works rather well.

Of course you can also use the weapons you find. The majority are melee weapons and most of them handle like the “Half-Life 2″ crowbar, though with varying damage and speed ratings. The few firearms work as you would expect them to. The game certainly doesn’t rely on the combat experience, so don’t expect anything impressive about that aspect.

Let the Hunt Begin
Your first task will be to find a weapon. It will usually be a melee object like a hammer, crowbar, kitchen knife or axe. There’s also the odd revolver or other firearm to find if you are lucky. All of the weapons can be thrown at your target with the alternate fire function, while a variety of lethal traps, available for you to activate at the right time, complete the package. Death by lifeboat is my personal favorite!

After finding a weapon you like and knowing only the potential victim’s name, you will have to approach and examine all the passengers until you find the right one. The victim’s last known location will show up on your HUD (which only shows the information you need at any time) every so often, so that you can more or less know where to look. Once you manage to find him (or her), his appearance will also be shown at the bottom right of the screen, so that you can easily spot him in the crowd while you stalk him throughout the ship. At least until the next time he hides and changes outfit.

With another hunter on your tail, you will have to do that yourself quite often to make sure he doesn’t know exactly who you are. If you manage to find out who your hunter is (perhaps by a failed attempt to assassinate you or by seeing him pop up wherever you go) you can also attempt to kill him before he kills you, giving you some worry free time until he respawns and gets equipped enough to go after you again.

The ships themselves are huge and you will notice that in many areas there are security cameras or guards. When moving through these you will have to conceal any weapons you carry or you will be immediately arrested and put in jail for a certain amount of time (usually measured in seconds, the average time being 30 or so of those).

Only Human
On top of that, since the characters are not only hunters and victims, but also normal people, you will have to take care of the basic human needs for them. You will at times need to have a snack or drink, use the toilet, wash up, entertain yourself, socialize, and even sleep if you get exhausted. All the needs are interconnected as in real life except in fast forward. If you do not cater to them, some, like using the toilet, may have unpleasant consequences (if you have an “accident” your washing needs go sky-high and flies appear around you!) while others, like eating and drinking, can be fatal.

The above system is integral to the experience and means that every player will not only be seeking a victim and trying to avoid a hunter, but also moving through restaurants, bars, stores, game rooms, cabins and all sorts of areas in an attempt to keep their characters satisfied and healthy. The game uses this to really good effect, making the ships appear as living mini cities when a certain amount of players are in. Of course, the best time to kill someone is when they are trying to do just that, as they will often have to move in unsafe areas and do activities that leave them completely vulnerable for a small amount of time.

Just make sure that it’s your actual target. If it isn’t, you will end up losing points and even dying for nothing as once you attack someone they can retaliate and kill you without a consequence if you give them the chance. You also have to be careful and make sure that you have the advantage before attempting a hit. As I mentioned earlier, a smart “victim” may turn the tables and lead you in an unsafe area in order to kill you before you realize it’s a well planned trap.

Conclusion
I’ll end this now as I’m not writing a guide. That’s pretty much all the game is about. With the less than $20 price tag, I don’t think anyone expected the next “F.E.A.R.” or “Crysis” as this is the kind of pricing budget titles get.

The difference is that budget titles are usually made by established companies that actually intend to make a low quality game in order to sell it cheap. “The Ship” does not fall in that category as it is made by independent developers who drive ideas forward much more than most of the industry’s behemoths want to even try. The execution may lack in a few places because of their limited resources, but if you want to try something new and different it is worth that money. Who knows, you may actually get hooked while at the same time you support this kind of effort and hard work.

Some may argue that “The Ship” shouldn’t be sold because the quality does not surpass the quality of modifications that have been released for free in the past. Still, as a game it offers an experience that you can’t find anywhere else and if you want to enjoy that you simply have to purchase it. There are no perfect games out there after all.

In Short
Pros: A unique new experience, simple enough for everyone to play, with a budget price that is easily affordable. The ships look very nice and visual variety exists in everything within the game.

Cons: Character graphics aren’t the greatest, while the game can be a little glitchy. The weapons handling is simplistic and the gameplay may not appeal to everyone or for long periods of time.