Developer: Outerlight
Publisher: Steam / Valve
Genre: First Person Shooter
Released: July 12, 2006
Price: $19.99
Official Website: www.theshiponline.com


Introduction

The Sims meets Hitman: That is the impression that I got when I started playing "The Ship". The Ship, purchased through Steam, is a Half-Life 2 mod on the source engine and is based on the free Half-Life 1 mod "The Ship".

The storyline on The Ship's website (www.theshiponline.com) states: "The Ship is owned by the mysterious Mr X and as one of many "lucky" recipients of a free ticket you arrive on board The Ship to find there's a catch to your luxury cruise. You are coerced into a brutal Hunt to indulge Mr. X's fantasies, under threat of death for not only yourself, but also your family. Your only chance to save yourself and your family is to play the Hunt and win."

First Impressions

The first time I loaded up the game, I enjoyed the aesthetics that the opening screen provided me: relaxed piano music, the sound of waves lapping along the sides of the ship, seagulls off in the distance, and a bloody pen knife on a red and black background. Furthermore, the next time I started The Ship up, it presented me with another background, this time syringes filled with a green substances, with bloody needles on the end of them. This might be a personal preference, but I particularly enjoyed this aspect of the game; It really got me in the mood to go on a violent vacation cruise rampage!

Another aesthetical aspect of the game that stood out to me were the funky names that a player is given when he/she spawns, and an even funkier-looking character. Moreover, you can dress these characters up in some ridiculous outfits that are found in the bedrooms and clothing stores on The Ship. I don't know about you, but to me a hitman isn't a hitman without a stylish monocle to go with his killing attire.

Gameplay

The main objective in The Ship is to hunt the character assigned to you at the beginning of every round and eliminate them by any means necessary (meaning using anything and everything that can be considered as a weapon found on the ship); Thankfully, tracking your quarry doesn't require searching the several decks of the ship hoping to randomly find your target as their location is updated every thirty seconds on the bottom right of the HUD. However, you must tread carefully and watch your back as there is another character on the ship that has been assigned to eliminate you as well. Furthermore, you have to make sure that when you do meet up with your quarry, you have to eliminate them away from any cameras or security guards; Brandishing a weapon or killing a character in front of the camera's will get you arrested, fined, and thrown in the brig for a brief time.

Then you have your needs. The Ship (just like The Sims) features a set of 'needs' for every player that must be fulfilled, such as hunger, thirst, fatigue, etc. Neglecting these needs can result in some pretty harsh consequences, such as soiling yourself, dropping dead due to exhaustion, going insane due to lack of interaction or entertainment, or disintegrating into a pile of dust from dehydration. Additionally, fulfilling these needs can result in your demise as once you begin an action that fulfills the characters needs, it can't be stopped until it is completed. Therefore, you must decide whether satisfy your needs now (and expose yourself to your hunter, who happens to be right behind you with a katana), or wait until the round ends to use the free time before new targets are assigned. Fortunately, each character has an inventory which they can store certain items that temporarily fulfill certain needs, as well as store clothing and weapons.

The Ship also features a money system. You start out with $2500 in the bank for safekeeping and $250 in your pocket for several uses, including buying clothes, weapons, and bribing guards. When you successfully eliminate your target, you are rewarded with a certain amount of money, plus a bonus if you use certain weapons (which can be seen by pressing the 'M' key with the default settings), and any money that your victim was carrying on them, provided you pick it up before anybody else does.

The Ship takes away much of the emphasis of killing your target, and places it maintly on "The Hunt", tracking your target, and getting into position to make the kill. This creates a much more even playing field for all players, and gives the rookies a chance to compete with the veterans. However, one flaw in the de-emphasis on the mechanics of the kill is that weapons usage can sometimes be quite frustrating; You can unload an entire clip from your revolver at point blank range behind your target, then switch to your katana and take several swings at him, only to have him turn around unscathed and poke you once with his needle and kill you instantly. For veterans of more competetive games where shot registry is paramount, such as Counter-Strike or Call of Duty, incidents such as these can have you tearing your hair out.

Another flaw in The Ship's online gameplay is it's dependancy on the players obeying the rules of the game. In a game where you spend alot of time accumulating weapons and tracking a target, being killed by some 14 year old punk spraying a tommygun into anything that moves while you are on the brink of exterminating your quarry can really put a damper on your gaming experience. Unauthorized kills usually end up with extended brig sessions, players with negative scores resulting from mass murders are booted, and some servers have a ban system in place, but there is no way to permanently prevent these types of players from entering servers. Personally, there are times where these players get so bad in wrecking things for the other players, the gameplay is only bearable when you are playing alone with a bunch of bots. Thankfully, there is a mature crowd in most servers, and you can usually get a good match or two in without dealing with the more immature players.

Unfortunately, the gameplay does get repetetive after a while, and with only a few maps released with the game, The Ship can get boring quickly, resulting in a rather low replay value.