Ever happened what would happen if you mix the sims with some stealthy business and a high dose of humor? Well , the outcome is The Ship. The game is powered by VALVE's Source Engine and has cartoony graphics.
The Ship: Murder Party is a first person shooter computer game using Valve Software's Source engine developed by Outerlight. The game was released on July 11, 2006, on Steam with retail distribution in Europe and Australia in September, and April 10, 2007, for North America.[4] A playable concept for The Ship was released as a modification for the game Half-Life in 2004.
The game is set on a 1920s recreational cruise ship. Each player is assigned a quarry, and the object is to murder him or her with nobody watching, while at the same time watching out for, and defending yourself against, your own hunter.
You are basically stuck on a ship owned by a weird psychopath and he wants to play a little game with an unhappy ending for most. He demands that the Passengers kill other passengers who got assigned to them. Well , who can explain it better then the actual villian himself.
The game has a singleplayer story and also an epic multiplayer feature.
Each player is given a nickname by which they are identified. This is done to make it more difficult to tell players apart from NPCs, who have similar names and look the same as normal players. Each player is assigned a quarry, whom he or she must murder. The last known location of a player's quarry is always revealed to the player. However, the appearance of the quarry is only revealed if the player converses with the quarry.
There are several different weapons with which to eliminate one's quarry. Different amounts of money are rewarded for a kill depending on how difficult it is to use the weapon and how many times it has been used. If a player murders an NPC or anyone other than his or her quarry or hunter, a cash amount - dependent on the server settings - will be deducted from his or her bank account. Players with less than a certain figure, set by the server, in their bank account will be kicked from the cruise. Various weapons can be found scattered all around the ship, such as flare guns, fire axes, firearms, knives, swords, crowbars (which state "to be used by a free man" - an obvious reference to Half-Life's storyline), even secret traps provided just for killing your quarry, like falling lifeboats, saunas, freezers, even a deck that turns into a 60 degree angle by command, among others.
If a player is seen pulling out a weapon in front of a guard or a camera, or spotted by eyewitnesses, then they are sent to jail. There is an "eye" symbol in the player's HUD that tells them whether they are being spotted or not; if they are watched by security the eye turns red; if not, the eye is green. The meter for trespassing counts down and the player is fined when the countdown is complete (and, if they run out of money to pay the fines, go to jail). Guards can be bribed to overlook weapons.
Everyone has eight needs similar to The Sims. Such needs are eating, drinking, sleeping, socialising, maintaining proper hygiene and using the bathroom. Some of the needs would cause impairment, such as lack of sleep would cause the player to fall asleep on the spot. Other needs could become fatal, such as thirst and hunger. If the player does not fulfill these needs, he or she will die, resulting in a loss of $1000. Needs are sated by going to restaurants, taking showers, talking with other players, etc. This forces players into situations where they are vulnerable to attack, and also attempts to prevent players from camping.
Multiplayer is really fun , but beware... the game is pretty damn fastpaced and slowpaced in the same time. So it may not be someone's style. This is NOT a common FPS where you just blow someone to smithereens. Oh yeah , did I mention that there are NPC's walking around who almost look the same like you in multiplayer? (although this might not be the case in the footage provided below , but it is a standard setting which is toggled on) It's comparable to Assassins Creed multiplayer , but slow paced and actually more difficult (since you need to statisfy your needs while hunting (eating , drinking , sleeping , cleaning , going to the toilet)
The Ship is available for 5 euro's during the summer sale (and is 20 euros afterwards) :
store.steampowered.com/sub/333/
NOTE : There is a gift train going on and if you are lucky you hop unto it , this is the way how I aqquired a copy. Since there was a special event that everyone who got The Ship , got another copy to give away and that copy had another copies. actually starting an unending gift train.
