The Ship is Coming

[Zawath]

In less than two hours, The Ship (http://www.theshiponline.com/) modification for Half-Life 2 is released on Steam (http://www.steampowered.com/)

Set on a series of luxury, art deco cruise ships built by Mr X, this devilish game challenges you to kill or be killed. Once you're on board you're given the name of another passenger whom you must find and secretly murder.Watch out for security unless you want to do some time in jail, take care of yourself and keep looking over your shoulder because somewhere out there is another hunter looking for you!
So, which weapon you're going to use to kill your first target? I think I'm going to get a nice looking tennis racket and whack him with it while he is sleeping.

[Heretic Machine]

I've got it pre-ordered and pre-loaded... Just waiting for them to turn that 0 into a 1 and allow me to play -.-

Personally, I want to chop someone up with an ax.

[Grimgrock]

There a demo of this up?

[Heretic Machine]

Nope, no demo.

EDIT: Oh, and BTW, this isn't a modification for Half-life 2. It is a whole new stand-alone game based on the Steam engine, which the dev team licensed for the project.

[The Continental]

I really wanna play this, but I gotta see a demo first. Particularly at the $20 price point. Had this been $10 I'd have bought it sight unseen.

[Vega]

It's $15 if you buy it before it releases.

[The Continental]

It's $15 if you buy it before it releases.

Damn it! I'm at work at the moment and it won't let me pay for it anywhere but within Steam.

[Crittias]

Damn it! I'm at work at the moment and it won't let me pay for it anywhere but within Steam.

Same problem here.

[UnderHero5]

The game itself looks really neat and fun, but I can't bring myself to buy it.
Why? Because I know damn well that within a month there will be VERY few players online to play it with. So I'm not going to waste my 15 bucks on a potentially fun that that I'll have no oponents in.

It's happened with every third party game released on Steam so far. Red Orchestra has a total of 13 or so active servers, with literally hundreds of empty servers. Rag Doll Kung Fu has no servers usually, you're lucky to find any. I've heard the same for that sub game. Not to mention 20 dollars is a lot for what is essentially a HL1 mod ported to source. I doubt it will have a large player base to begin with.

[thecrazyd]

Fuck, I wanted the pre-order price but kept putting off buying it. Damnit.

[zrikz]

Damn.. I was planning on ordering this too but never got around to it. It looks like I could dl and install steam on the work pc, I dunno if the rest of the IT staff would be too happy about that tho.

[Grimgrock]

If you download and install it using your steam account on one machine and then go home and login to your steam account on a different machine, will it realize it needs to download the game and go do it without making you pay for it again?

[AntB]

You people need to get your priorities straight.

$20 DVD - 2 hours of enjoyment, and then rehashed enjoyment from then on in.

$15 Game - Even if it has players for a month, and then there's only a few. You still have a MONTH of potential fun, against 2 hours from a DVD.

Unless, you enjoy collecting DVDs for some twisted reason, like me.

[zrikz]

Unless, you enjoy collecting DVDs for some twisted reason, like me.
While not exactly dvd's... game cases.
I recently started this habbit about 2-3 years ago. I now have a drawer full of about 30-40ish pc games. I really want a bookshelf to set them all up for display.

[Heretic Machine]

Yay, the game has launched!

[The Continental]

If you download and install it using your steam account on one machine and then go home and login to your steam account on a different machine, will it realize it needs to download the game and go do it without making you pay for it again?

Yes, you'll be fine. Steam was designed with internet cafes in mind so any game you buy, you'll have access to on any computer which you are able to install Steam. You just have to download the actual data on each PC.

[Moatman]

I pre-purchased this over a week ago, but I guess I forgot to pre-load the files...oops. Imagine my disappointment when I went to go play and I had none installed yet...

[Undertakr]

Come on guys, it's been out for...an hour! Where's the reviews? How full are the servers? Are people actually playing or being dicks? Fill us worker-bee's in!

[Zawath]

There are quite many servers. It's definately a fun game after you have learned the basics.

[Varsity]

Red Orchestra has a total of 13 or so active servers, with literally hundreds of empty servers.
Maybe in America. In Europe, there are always at least thirty servers - and that's with the strictest filters going. It's very busy over here.

[Heretic Machine]

Great game, but I've only been able to play with bots. There are a ton of servers out there, but they're all full, and I'm not going to sit around tapping the refresh button for five minutes.

Hopefully it'll clear up a bit later tonight so I can actually play with people. Thus far I've killed people with the hunting knife (not my prey, but my hunter!), the fire ax, the katana, and almost the machine gun. Got caught that time :p

[Zurik]

Can't wait to play this when I get off work. It looks completely different fromt the HL1 mod. Heck, half the time in the mod version you looked like the gman. I'm using the flare gun the first chance I get.

[kid cabelgo]

Great game, but I've only been able to play with bots. There are a ton of servers out there, but they're all full, and I'm not going to sit around tapping the refresh button for five minutes.

Hopefully it'll clear up a bit later tonight so I can actually play with people. Thus far I've killed people with the hunting knife (not my prey, but my hunter!), the fire ax, the katana, and almost the machine gun. Got caught that time :p

So how is the bot action with this game? Does it feel like just a training mode before you take it online, or can you get your money's worth out of it?

[51|RandoM]

Great game, but I've only been able to play with bots. There are a ton of servers out there, but they're all full, and I'm not going to sit around tapping the refresh button for five minutes.


If you set it to autoretry/autojoin you don't have to hit any buttons. I did both times I played, didn't wait more than a couple minutes either time.

That said, I'm not really liking it. I spend more time taking care of character maintenance(eating,drinking,shitting,peeing,shower ing,reading!?!, and sleeping) than I do hunting.

I did buy a pistol and headshot my victim without getting caught once, which was kind of fun.

oh, and of the two times I played, I ended up with the red connection lost message both times. doesn't ever happen with cs or dod, not sure what is going on.

[Moatman]

I had fun the one time I joined a server, even though we had 16-20 people on a map(atlanta) the dev's designated as "up to 8" I didn't find the needs a big hassle online, though I did die a few times and I guess that does reset them.

Offline gameplay is a good way to learn the ships and get used to the gameplay, but the bot ai is spotty at best. My first bot game of elimination(last man standing with hunter/quarry) just kinda got stuck because I think the quarry was hiding or something, I never could find it(and neither could the npc hunter designated to kill it...) Great way to learn the ships and find out where to get weapons, and they aren't super-stupid, just not player-level, obviously.

There is a setting for the game as to how quickly your needs drop, I'm guessing it's also a setting for creating a server. Maybe people will just end up using the lowest setting to make it a bit more streamlined, but I do find that as a great little side-quest type of thing that I didn't find too intrusive.

[Heretic Machine]

That said, I'm not really liking it. I spend more time taking care of character maintenance(eating,drinking,shitting,peeing,shower ing,reading!?!, and sleeping) than I do hunting.

That is because the server admins didn't set that option to Easy, as they should... That makes things much more managable, especially on the maps with bad bathroom/dining placement.

BTW, I used the flare gun to defend myself once... The dude got set on fire, but still managed to bludgeon me to death before falling over dead. I wish I had my revolver equiped, but I was hunting someone at the time and wanting to test the flare gun... :(

[kabutor]

Fast review, been playing two hours non-stop..

So the game is nice, you have to kill someone (it changes each 90 seconds) and not to be killed by someone, depending the weapon you use, the money you earn, there are guards, static ones that guard some areas, and better dont draw your weapon or you are fined.

when you kill your prey or the one who is looking to kill you they drop some money, put that in bank the one with more money in bank wins.

Very good protection against ppl that dont play with the rules, if you killed someone "just because" you are fined, and if you are the dead one, just respawn with your equipment (arms and clothes or any object) so you just loose a bit of time.

Each 15-20 secs you get the exact location of your target, so you have to kkep moving, but you have some necesities, use the toilet, eat shower.. sleep, sims.style..

The game is slow paced, its not quake 3 speed, but its not rainbow six also.

Its very original, hope to see more items added to the game in a future, for me its totally worthy 15$ :)

[Lizard Dude]

"This is a very odd experience," I thought to myself while silently shuffling around a crowd of 6 or 7 other unspeaking passengers in a chaotic dance of identification, all set to record-quality '20s music.

The game's pretty cool, but the type I'd much rather play with friends than strangers. Luckily, I have at least 3 who bought it.

I disagree that the Needs difficulty should be set to Easy. On Easy you never need to take care of much if you get killed at an average rate. And this game is not cool if it's all non-stop killing. The upkeep should be a large factor, slowing down the rounds. It feels much better at the slower pace.

[Balth Maligne]

OK, so I'm at work NOW... but last night, I was on The Ship!

And man am I happy about it.

I purchased it on a lark after seeing this thread and remembering how I was intrigued with the original HL1 mod. This game, while not without flaws, is STELLAR as far as inginuity and game execution go. I'm still thinking about the innocent looking twenty-something in the blue dress that stared at me blankly as I walked down the hallway, and 5 seconds later was behind me with a straight-razor.

Everything is designed wonderfully. The AI "Passengers", who look just like players, might seems extraneous at first. You don't need to kill them, they don't kill you, and any dunce can figure out a real player from bots walking idily about right? Sure, if the "Hunter" sucks. You run around and people and they'll pick you out as a threat right away and mosey on over to the nearest "safe haven", bars or the like with lots of security and witnesses. But if you just stroll on by like an unnasuming AI passenger, well, they'll be none the wiser when your behind them with a shovel in the bathroom will they?

The Needs make for some awesome Assassination Scenarios, and give you something to go rush about and take care of while waiting for the next "round" to start. The "big money kills" chart makes it so just using the "best" weapon, or the first one you find, is not always the best idea.

Namely, the game rocks. You want the "Thinking man's FPS"? Here it is baby.

[Ravenlock]

OK, so I'm at work NOW... but last night, I was on The Ship!

And man am I happy about it.

I purchased it on a lark after seeing this thread and remembering how I was intrigued with the original HL1 mod. This game, while not without flaws, is STELLAR as far as inginuity and game execution go. I'm still thinking about the innocent looking twenty-something in the blue dress that stared at me blankly as I walked down the hallway, and 5 seconds later was behind me with a straight-razor.

Everything is designed wonderfully. The AI "Passengers", who look just like players, might seems extraneous at first. You don't need to kill them, they don't kill you, and any dunce can figure out a real player from bots walking idily about right? Sure, if the "Hunter" sucks. You run around and people and they'll pick you out as a threat right away and mosey on over to the nearest "safe haven", bars or the like with lots of security and witnesses. But if you just stroll on by like an unnasuming AI passenger, well, they'll be none the wiser when your behind them with a shovel in the bathroom will they?

The Needs make for some awesome Assassination Scenarios, and give you something to go rush about and take care of while waiting for the next "round" to start. The "big money kills" chart makes it so just using the "best" weapon, or the first one you find, is not always the best idea.

Namely, the game rocks. You want the "Thinking man's FPS"? Here it is baby.Good Lord, that's a compelling review.

I really can't afford to pick up another game right now, even at $20, but you've really made me want to. Well done.

I hope when I get around to buying it there are still some people to play against.

[Lizard Dude]

If worst comes to worse, we could always set a time/server for EvAv people to play. Also, since this is being released in stores in September, that should reinvigorate the player base.

[Undertakr]

I'll be buying it once it hits stores. I'm one of those freaks that never bought HL2.

[Lizard Dude]

In case you didn't know, you don't need HL2 at all, even for the version available now. You only need Steam (free) to download it.