TOG - The Older Gamers

eesx · 6th August 2006, 03:03 PM

"Thirty bucks American, eh...I think I can stretch that. Hey Sancho, can I borrow your credit card...?"

And thats how it began. But lets start at the beginning.

The Ship is kind of a cross between Hitman, Thief, The Sims and Murder on the Orient Express. Now, of course, I'll try to explain what I mean.

Very simply, The Ship is a one-on-one stalking game, played on the Half-Life 2:Source engine and available now on Steam for $20 USD. Far removed from click-and-spin based FPS shooters, The Ship manages to design a system where 'quaking' and 'camping' just don't work, and the name of the game is to be subtle, careful and efficiently violent; and also to watch your back at the same time.

The basic idea is you have a target; another passenger (usually a human player as well, on on-line games) whom you have to find, identify, then lure/follow/stalk/predict them until you have a chance to strike in a spot with no witnesses, a'la Hitman series, but with human players instead of AI! But how, you ask, is this possible?

The game provides. Remember that Sims reference I made? Well, in this game, you arent just an unstoppable killing machine awaiting your chance to strike. You 'need'. Need what? Exactly.

The 'Needs' in this game range from eating, drinking and sleeping to the need for social contact, entertainment, and even 'bio breaks'. Needs interact with each other (i.e., satisfying your hunger/thirst creates the need to go to the bathroom) and are also not to be ignored; Failing to go to the bathroom results in ... embarrassment, and ignoring your hunger or thirst can be potentially fatal.

Why do I want to play a game where I have to eat, sleep, drink and crap? Because it is those needs that shape the activities of targets, and create the need to move through and around the ship, rather than sitting in your cabin for hours on end, waiting for your killer to walk in the door.

The game also facilitates stalking by giving updates on player/target positions every so often; so every few minutes you will be notified of your quarry's last known location...but your hunter will also be given yours!

So, we covered the Hitman and Sims influences.

The Thief reference relates to the game's 'witness' system. Obviously, a game where you could walk around carrying a murder weapon would pretty much eliminate doubts as to your intentions. So the game makes you conceal weapons in your ample inventory (which stores costumes, weapons, and other oddments) to escape detection. But detection by who?

The game has built-in security cameras, security staff, guards and witnesses stationed around the ship in strategic areas. Committing any kind of crime (carrying a weapon openly, drawing your weapon, or attacking another passenger - even if they deserve it) while under surveillance will earn you a trip to the brig, and a fine. Of course, there are large areas, cabins, hallways and decks that are free of meddling bystanders, allowing you to close, draw and strike without leaving a trace (or getting busted!)

Now, fans of the Thief series will remember the 'light crystal' - a coloured indicator that showed you just how hidden you were. The Ship has a red-light green-light system - if the indicator is red, you are under surveillance...so dont do it! A green light means noone is watching, and you are free to attack with impunity.

Should you get spotted, the jail sentences are in seconds, and effectively remove you from gameplay for a length of time (never over about 40s) depending on your crime. There is a short sentencing screen that lists your offences, time to be served and fines, so you can learn to minimise your losses when compromised. Being caught red-handed with an inventory full of weapons is a great way to get fined for all you've earnt!

Earnings? Money? Oh yes - you get bounties for eliminating your target, and for deducing/taking out your own stalker. Money allows you to visit cafes, boutiques and bars on the ship to buy items (food, drink, clothing) for various purposes. Most games have a time limit (30 mins) and a cash victory limit (First to earn $25,000) with everyone starting around $2500.
The game also randomizes a table of weapons, and awards extra money for kills with those weapons - i.e. top weapon on the table is the Khukri, with a bonus of $7500 - find the Khukri, kill your quarry with it, and watch the money roll in!

So - you stalk like a Hitman, you eat/sleep/crap like a Sim, you have a Thief-like indicator for your 'visibilty' to witnesses...what was that last reference? Oh yeah, Murder on the Orient Express.

Aside from the fact that the Orient Express is a TRAIN (and you all thought I was going to conveniently skip that point) and this game is set exclusively on ships, the style influences seem similar; 1920's/30's styles of decor and dress prevail (unfortunately, the developers left in an ATM machine for cash deposits in each level, but that is about the worst style offence) pretty much throughout. The changeable costumes are the most faithful to the style - some seem straight out of The House of Eliott, or..er...some other 1920's-30's period piece that you had to sit through at some point in your life.

Player models are cariacatured; exaggerated heads make for easier facial recognition, and the dedication to style over realism makes for a refreshing change - the attention to detail has gone into the gameplay and style, rather than bumpmapping all the serrations on your bayonet.

Players also take on a character name, rather than having their name/clan tag floating above their heads, so you wont see
" Zn1p0r-D34th-L()R|) " coming at you along the poop-deck (snicker) - you will see Lady Esther Barrington, or Reginald Porterhouse, or something similar, determined by the game. Lame gamer names (like TOG | Eesx) are reserved for the end-of-round scoreboard.

Speaking of our 14 year old friend " Zn1p0r-D34th-L()R|) " - he probably wont bother paying for a game that has no headshots, camping or sniping...and if he starts talking trash, you know he is standing still somewhere with his back exposed. He also cant run around the ship lickety-split (there is a run function, but you get tired quickly...must be all that caviar) and he also doesnt get a 'starting weapon'. There are probably a few angles for griefing and being a general lamer, but unless they are willing to play within the general rules, they will spend the majority of their time in jail, with no money, and at the bottom of the scoreboard. I cant really imagine a kiddie bothering with the 'Needs' portion of the game; it is simply too much hassle to maintain your needs if all you want to do is run around racking up frags. (And hey, we all like to play that kind of game sometime...but this ain't it)

So...to sum up - a moderately-paced first-person strategic game, set in the pre-commercial-flight era with an earnest attempt to break away from the norm of FPS stalk/shooters. Average 'good' session time probably an hour or so.
(Sancho and myself played an 'Arcade' style map (players and bots) for about 2 hours, and by the end we had fully explored one map and had a ball - we agreed that the extra hour was probably due to its 'newness' - the game seems to suit shorter, regular sessions of thought and craftiness.)

In all, given that I've been wanting some kind of 'multiplayer Thief or Hitman' for years, I give it around 8/10 - there are some minor bugs (the game was released not long ago for download, so there are bound to be a few) but otherwise the gameplay 'works' well. Gamers not so intent on replicating Hitman or Thief might lower that to a 6 or 7 - its quite a simple game once you have the concepts, and knowledge of maps will become more crucial as the player base gets more experienced. New players will probably spend more time learning where the toilets on the ship are than where their quarry is, but once you get over that bump in the learning curve, its relatively straightforward from there. The complexity of combat is minimal, (its the stalking itself that is very tactical) so players expecting 'too much' - like multiple, varying weapon strike animations, rag dolls, gore or realism - from this game may be disappointed.

There were only two Aussie servers for The Ship that I could see last night, but one is a Gamearena hosted server, and with the game still in early release, I would expect numbers to grow (hopefully) over the next few months. The server numbers were around 2-7 people during prime time, which given the style of game is pretty optimal. Some larger maps cater for up to 16 players, but the servers are currently running the smaller maps that cater for up to 8 human players.

Any more questions? Normally when I write a lil' review like this I tend not to check it for ages, so PM me (or reply here, THEN PM me so I actually know to respond :P ) and I can try to get you an answer!

Cheers,

Eesx

PS - http://www.theshiponline.com

(skulking around in DOD:Source, CS:Source, The Ship, Earth Special Forces and Natural Selection for all you fellow Steam-users)