I started playing an online game called The Ship a few weeks ago, because the premise sounded a little like Odd Man In to me. It’s a 3D first person shooter that uses the Halflife 2 engine.
The basic idea is this: You’re stuck on a cruise ship and forced to play a game of hunt and kill for the enjoyment of a maniacal mastermind. You’re assigned an identity in the game and each round you get a quarry (ie target). You have a limited number of time to hunt down this quarry and kill them using a weapon found on the ship like a shaving razor, a fire axe, or the flare gun found on the pool deck. You must also avoid the player who is hunting you!
Another twist is that you can’t just kill your quarry as soon as you see them. You have to do it discretely, so no killing in front of a guard or a security camera. Otherwise, you’ll be arrested and locked up.
So you ask, “What’s to stop me from just hanging out by the security guard the whole time?” The game includes a number of needs that have to be fulfilled like eating, drinking, entertainment, showering, pooping, peeing, etc. You also have to sleep, in which your screen goes black for about 15 seconds leaving you completely vulnerable.
If all that isn’t brilliant enough, there are items found around the ship that can help satisfy your needs. Books are lying around all over the place for entertainment, energy drinks are available for the tired, and using deodorant can delay the need for that shower. My jaw dropped when I first discovered you can find and use a colostomy bag and a catheter to keep you from having to actually go into the restroom alone. Sometimes you even find these items in the trash!
Comments
7 responses to “The Ship”
That looks really cool. Do you have to pay a monthly subscription or anything to play online?
One time $20 fee on Steam. You don’t need a copy of Half Life 2, either.
http://www.steampowered.com
The only thing you do need is a fairly decent PC. My machine has a 2.4Ghz P4, Geforce 4Ti, and 768MB of RAM and it runs fine.
Minimum:
1.8 GHz
512 MB RAM
DirectX 8 capable Graphics Card, 1024 x 768
Recommended:
2.8 GHz
DirectX 9 capable Graphics Card, 1024 x 768
1024 MB RAM
I’ve been playing this for about a week. I’m obsessed with it.
It really tweaks me when people go on a killing spree. To win, you really have to be cunning.
You have to ID your prey by looking at everyone you come across. You have to be near enough and look directly at them to get their name. If someone sees you looking at them too closely, they usually find out you are their hunter.
The prey can kill their hunter in self defense, but only in private.
There’s so much to this game, I could keep on typing. Soon, players will be able to be security guards and staff and whatnot. You can also just be a passenger on the ship and enjoy yourself, kind of like Sims. If a passenger sees an act of violence, you can get arrested also!
Man. Good post Ben.
Thanks. It’s really frustrating when you play with people who are good. I got killed drinking a soda the other day.
Okay I really want to get this game. All the people in my dorm freshmen year played Assassin where we had to kill our target by hitting them with socks and the safe areas were bedrooms and classrooms. But this is even better because it’s in the 1920s! I feel like I’ll play too much if I get it though and never do my school work.
If your experience is anything like, it will crash every 15-20 minutes, forcing you to take a break.
It’s 1920’s style, but they still have security cameras. hah.
I’d forget to go to work. 🙂