Reviewed: January 17, 2007
Reviewed by: Jason Porter
Publisher
Merscom
Developer
Outerlight
Released: March 30, 2007
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen
8
6
5
7
7.5
System Requirements
Recommended System
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Mr. X, a mysterious figure, holds the lives of your family, and the families of seven other passengers on board a cruise ship, in his hands. You can let them die, and eventually be killed yourself, or you can choose to take Mr. X's offer: engage in a bloody battle between the other chosen passengers. If you win, you'll get a lot of money. If you lose... well, you were going to die anyway, weren't you?
This rather base and utterly contrived preamble is the backstory to The Ship, a new multiplayer PC game from developers Outerlight, available for download via Valve's Steam gaming network. The Ship, as some of you may have already gathered, is a game that has absolutely nothing to do with any meaningful storyline of any sort. No, it's all about the gameplay, and it has undertaken a valiant effort to add a new twist or two to an old genre.
The Ship is a first-person, primarily multiplayer deathmatch game with an odd twist - instead of fragging as many people as possible, capturing the flag, or engaging in any of the usual battle-themed activities that usually fill out games of the genre, you play a regular (albeit fairly well-off) Joe engaged in a hunt against other passengers onboard a ship while avoiding the prying eyes of security guards and trying to figure out what method of dispatching your enemies will earn you the most scratch. Mr. X, you see, prefers that a variety of unlikely weaponry be utilized in the hunt, and will pay handsomely for feats of murderous innovation such as using a lifeboat or an umbrella to dispatch the victim.
So far so good, but this isn't exactly the most original gameplay mechanic out there, even if it is less common than some. The Ship's solution is to incorporate a Sims-like system for taking care of your avatar's basic needs during the hunt - sleeping, eating, peeing, social interaction and so forth. Aside from the fact that it prevents players from taking up extremely defensive positions for very long (you're forced to visit various onboard shops and facilities to assuage your wants and needs), this also allows for some morbidly funny deaths, as players may look up from scarfing down a candy bar only to see a mild-looking gentleman with wire-rim glasses bearing down upon them with a makeshift club.
As clever as this idea sounds, I found that my character's need meters filled far too quickly for my tastes. At times it was all I could do to keep up with his mad frenzy of eating, talking, peeing and sleeping, running from room to room trying to make sure that his bladder didn't explode and that he didn't collapse from exhaustion. Although I like that the system forces players to keep moving and trying to find safe spots to obey their mortal coils, the pace should have been slowed slightly.
Aside from that major frustration, there aren't any big problems with The Ship. The single-player mode is barely there, and serves as more of a sandbox/self-tutorial area wherein the player can become acquainted with the vast, complex ship layouts, the control scheme (standard WASD but you never know) and the various ways of offing the next target.
That part about offing the target is further complicated, in single and multiplayer modes, by the presence of onboard security in certain parts of the ships. Whether or not security can see you is indicated by an eye icon that shows green for clear and red for being watched. If you're seen with a weapon in your hot little hands by security, you'll be confined for a short amount of time before you can return to play. (Luckily, a click of the center scroll wheel hides your equipped weapon in an instant.) If they see you kill someone else, you can be heavily fined (money is collected in the game and used to purchase some items) as well as incarcerated for a longer period of time. A valid kamikaze strategy online is to run into the sight of security before you die to get some small revenge on the player who killed you.
Speaking of which, the online play is much more robust and fast-paced than the dull, impaired-AI practice runs of the single player mode. Online is what The Ship is really all about, and it shows. It's effortless to link up and join a game, and connection problems were nonexistent during my playtest. Sessions onboard the 1920s-themed ships are frenetic, frustrating and fun. In Hunt mode, by far the most entertaining of the available modes of play, each player is given a "quarry" - a specific target he or she is to kill. Nobody knows who is hunting them in battle, only the name of their own mark.
Killing your quarry will net you a large amount of cash, which you need to reach a pre-set goal before the time is up. Killed players respawn endlessly until the round is over, acquiring a random new quarry each time. In a humorous twist, if you see someone coming after you brandishing a pool cue and manage to escape, you may be able to drastically change your appearance by equipping clothing acquired onboard ship, and try to sneak away in disguise. Griefers and berserkers, though they do exist, are kept to a pleasant minimum by a system that fines players heavily for each PK they make outside of their intended quarry, and auto-boots any player with a negative balance.
The other really fun mode is Elimination mode, where patience is key and need meters are your worst enemies. In Elimination mode, the last person standing wins. Naturally, staying in one place for too long will only get you killed, but it's almost too easy to hang around a bathroom and wait for players to heed the call of nature.
The balance is delicate, and the stress level is high, especially when less than half of the players are left. When it comes down to you versus one other player, the play is similar to another mode, Duel, but the stakes feel much higher than in that mode, which is more or less the standard "grab a good weapon and head in for the showdown" duel game seen in most FPS games, save for being careful to avoid security. The last mode, Deathmatch, is pretty much what it sounds like and doesn't really seem to fit the rest of the game. It was most likely added as an appeasement to traditionalists who didn't know what they were getting into.
There isn't a whole lot to say about the graphics of The Ship. The big strengths the game has graphically are its stylish setting and caricaturesque characters. The various cruisers and luxury liners that comprise the game maps for The Ship's tense, loony showdowns are lavishly appointed in art deco-inspired set pieces and lighting.
For an online action game, the rooms are fairly detailed, and some of the details are fun in and of themselves, like the radios (see SOUND). Although you'll occasionally find a katana just lying out on the deck, most of the weapons in The Ship are integrated seamlessly into your surroundings as well - things like pool cues and knitting needles. Unfortunately, the period lighting may go a little too far, as lots of the inside areas feel gloomy and are difficult to see in clearly. That might fit the theme for a game like Quake 3, but here it just feels annoying.
The player characters are likewise decked out in period 1920s and 1930s attire, but they look much less realistic, instead having cartoony, exaggerated features and simple, low polygon models. They don't look bad, though, and their relatively simple frames make it easy for the program to let players change their appearances on the fly without loading times.
Aside from the large array of morbid parody songs constantly playing on the radios scattered across each ship, there isn't a whole lot of sound in this game. There is some ambient noise at times, but not always. It is unfortunate that players do not make any noise when moving, and that weapons often do not make any sound when striking their targets. While the songs are funny (they sound like period ragtime and standards, but invariably have murderous lyrics), there isn't enough other sound in The Ship to give it much of a score in this department.
Do you like online gaming? The kind where you load into a map and try to emerge victorious and covered in the blood of your enemies? Then you'll probably enjoy The Ship. It's a new trick for the rapidly aging dog that is the first-person action genre. It's got hygiene micromanagement that at least keeps players moving constantly, a good sense of humor and some clever, fresh multiplayer gameplay to enjoy.
If, on the other hand, you aren't a frag freak, you may not see what the fuss about this game is. Just the same, you might find that you enjoy it more than you'd think. Just watch out for griefers. At the low price of $19.95, I'd say this is a worthwhile purchase for most gamers during this slow gaming season, even if the only fun to be had is in the online mode.
Although my personal favorite type of online game is the type with flight masters and profession trainers, I have to admit I've had a good time with The Ship. It's fairly bare bones, but I don't mind that too much when it's obvious that the gameplay was foremost in the minds of the game's developers. Given a choice between playing chess on a sheet of paper with cardboard pieces and playing a poorly balanced mock-up of chess with a backstory and pretty artwork, I'll take the regular old paper chess, thanks.
Making a game that is fun to play is what should come first, and The Ship is a game that takes that to heart and doesn't get too ambitious with it. At its current price, it's a good value, and for FPS veterans, it's an entertaining breather from the trigger-happy twitch-fests that dominate the genre. The Ship is worth your time, so what are you waiting for? Grab a boarding pass and get going.