The Ship (Half-Life 2 mod)

[Requiem]

This just sounds so bizarre, yet interesting. Here's a snippet of what it's about on gamespot (quoted below). It's a sort of interesting take on a 'murder mystery' where another person on the ship has you picked out for 'assassination' I guess you can say, but you don't know who. You also can't just walk around with a weapon in hand, or you'll be thrown in the brig. But.. to top that off they tossed in some 'sims' elements which require you to sleep, use the bathroom, eat.. etc. So another player who's basically assigned to kill you will have that opportunity to do so. It just sounds really interesting.

Cross-genre games typically take a walk on the mild side. You usually get something to the order of role-playing-game leveling up in a real-time strategy game, real-time-strategy combat in a role-playing game, or maybe a few adventure-style puzzles in a shooter. Generally, the more a developer hypes hybrid gameplay, the more predictable the game itself is likely to be.




But that's not the case with The Ship, a Steam-distributed game for the Source engine formerly available as a free Half-Life mod. Unlike a lot of its hybrid predecessors, this multigenre multiplayer game from Outerlight really is something completely different. While the game draws on identifiable sources such as Quake, The Sims, and Clue, it mashes these elements together with a few new ideas to create an innovative experience that doesn't play like any of its inspirations. It isn't perfect, due partly to a barely there solo mode and partly to the depths to which griefers will sink, but it does prove that there is room left for original ideas in game development.

The basic idea behind The Ship is that you play out a murder mystery on a luxury liner that's decked out in the art-deco style of the 1920s. But this isn't an adventure game, despite the Agatha Christie premise. A first-person perspective and maps loaded with narrow corridors and small rooms make the game feel like a shooter, although instead of blasting everyone in sight, you're assigned to kill a specific victim on the sly for cash, and his or her current location is updated at the bottom right of the screen every 30 seconds. Instead of blasting away with shotguns and BFGs, you mainly do your dirty deeds with improvised weapons such as golf clubs, letter openers, barbecue tongs, and croquet mallets (the more clunky the weapon, the more money you get for using it in a murder). Secrecy is paramount, as you're locked in the brig for a minute or two and fined whenever you're spotted wielding a deadly weapon or offing somebody by closed-circuit cameras or guards (your visibility is indicated by an eye that turns green when in the clear and red when being watched).

Of course, you're not the only murderer on your ship. An unknown fellow passenger has also been given the job of killing you, which means that while you need to keep one eye out for your victim, you have to keep the other looking around for the stranger trying to smash your face in with a rolling pin, gut you with a knife, impale you with an umbrella, or cave your head in with a wrench. Matches are cat-and-mouse games where paranoia is paramount, since you never know which of the other players has your name on his or her hit list. You can even ramp up the goofiness by changing clothing and putting on hats and eye patches to disguise your appearance if an assailant or victim gets a good look at you.
And then there are bodily needs. Just like The Sims, The Ship requires you to sleep, grab a drink, eat a meal, converse with other people, hit the bathroom, and entertain yourself with reading or dancing. Fail to do so, and you suffer some horrible fate, such as dropping dead due to starvation, soiling yourself, going nuts because of a lack of human interaction, or turning into a pile of dust due to dehydration.

If you want to read more, here's the rest of it at gamespot:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/theship/review.html

[Stryker]

I saw this a while back... looked... interesting to say the least. Will probably just wait until Steam releases a free weekend to try it before buying it.

[a_random_hero]

Been looking at this. Looks like Hitman with multiplay. I don't have Half Life 2 though... can you still play it?

[Coloader]

Day Of Defeat Source For Life!@

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by Coloader

Day Of Defeat Source For Life!@

Was just playing that for a few hours.

[Stryker]

Try ProDoD, it's a mod for DoD:S that makes it more like the original DoD. I'll settle for DoD:S every once in a while though

[keaton20]

It's a rather fun, and skillful game.

For 20 bucks I say go for it, it has really great moments.

Like my "quarry" (the guy you hunt and try and kill) went into the sauna to get some chips that were in there, I closed the door and turned the heat up and he died I laughed for like 10 minutes.

[a_random_hero]

Originally Posted by keaton20

It's a rather fun, and skillful game.

For 20 bucks I say go for it, it has really great moments.

Like my "quarry" (the guy you hunt and try and kill) went into the sauna to get some chips that were in there, I closed the door and turned the heat up and he died I laughed for like 10 minutes.

That actually is a Hitman move, in Contracts you do that one.

very cool to see in a multiplayer game tho

nice work

[keaton20]

Was hard and only seen in once, since the saunas dont really do anything at this point like the beds and shower.

Random your on my friends list in CoH, didnt even realize you were him till you made that post was kinda cool we played the game that we totally dominated the enemy.

[a_random_hero]

Originally Posted by keaton20

Was hard and only seen in once, since the saunas dont really do anything at this point like the beds and shower.

Random your on my friends list in CoH, didnt even realize you were him till you made that post was kinda cool we played the game that we totally dominated the enemy.

I know, I was impressed with our dominance. I had alot of fun too.

If you like strategy games, me and some guys in LoS are thinking about getting a strategy clan together. If you're interested, you'd definately have a spot.