Genre: Stealth-Action
Publisher: Valve/Steam
Developer: Outerlight
Release Date: July 11, 2006

Anyone who has recently played Counter-Strike or Day of Defeat has undoubtedly become aware of a new multiplayer game called The Ship powered by Valve's esteemed Source engine. This isn't because of any similarities in the games beyond their shared graphics engine, but because of the prominent placement of a large The Ship poster on the splash screen that until recently greeted all players upon logging in to Steam.

Thanks to the instant-gratification game-distribution model Steam offers, you've probably at least entertained the idea of buying this game. Should you? That depends on what kind of gamer you are. If your interests are confined to fast-paced, twitchy shooters, then you should steer clear. If, on the other hand, you enjoy unique, slower games that reward the clever and the patient, then you will find an excellent value here with a lot to enjoy.

The Ship is like nothing you have played before. You play in first-person perspective, but unlike most other first-person games, the object is not to kill everything in sight. Rather, you are given the name of another player onboard, who becomes your sole quarry. (If you kill anyone else, you are penalized with an appropriate fine). At the same time, your name is given to someone else, who becomes your hunter. While there are various game modes, the general object of the game is to hunt down and kill your quarry without being detected by security cameras, guards, or other witnesses, and without getting killed by your hunter.

It's not as easy as it sounds. First of all, security is everywhere. An icon on your HUD alerts you to whether and by whom your actions are being witnessed. Many rooms feature a rotating security camera, which, when temporarily not focused on you, can cause your HUD to mislead you into believing you're not being witnessed. If you rely solely on your HUD rather than a careful inspection of your surroundings, you're likely to find yourself thrown in prison on more than one occasion.

Second, if you're playing on a server filled with real people (as opposed to bots, which are particularly terrible in this game and no fun to play with), keep in mind that the other players, many of whom are just as smart as you, are cognizant of the fact that you may be hunting them, and will be looking over their shoulders to make sure they're not being followed. If you are spotted, your quarry can kill you in self-defense, or can camp in front of a security guard, making it difficult for you to eliminate them without being seen. The game allows you to bribe the security guard to look the other way while you commit a murder in his presence, but this rarely works in practice, because your quarry will usually run away when he sees you chatting with the guard.

Third, you are only given the name and last-known location of your quarry (updated every 30 seconds), not a face. To match the name to a face, you need to talk to the passengers. The idea is that by talking to a passenger, they will introduce themselves to you, so from that point on, you will be able to match their names with their faces. The execution of this idea could have been carried out better. What happens is that you are forced to spend the first several minutes of the game running up to people and clicking on them. Even after you have clicked on your quarry and thereby learned his or her appearance, you can be fooled later when that person puts on a hat or a new outfit.

The best thing going for this game is that it's unique. Regardless of your preferred game genre, The Ship is in a category of its own and will provide a welcome respite from the occasional monotony of your usual game. The game is quiet, and the pace is slow. You can actually relax, breathe normally, and enjoy sips of your favorite beverage while playing this title, something you can't often do with more intense offerings.

It can, however, become boring. Most notably, there is virtually no sound in this game. For the most part, all you hear are crackly 1920s-era songs playing on radios scattered about the ship. At first, the music is charming and adds to the immersion of being on a luxury ocean liner during that time period. (Of course, any such sense of immersion is quickly shattered upon reading the inevitable leetspeak and modern-day epithets in the chat window). Soon afterwards, the music becomes repetitive and annoying.

What the game lacks in sound editing, it more than makes up for in quirky humor. The cartoonish graphics, while sparse, are amusing. Posters in the Sick Bay will help you answer the question, "Are you worried you might be dead?" ("Check for breathing" is one of the offered suggestions.) Getting thrown in the brig for brandishing a deadly weapon will hurt your score, but you will at least get a chuckle out of your court appearance before the mumbling, geriatric judge.

The most fun comes from the unusual ways in which you will murder your quarry. In this game, no one hands you a crowbar. You have to find your own instrument of death by searching various boxes, drawers, suitcases, etc., that you will find as you explore the ship. Virtually anything can be used as a weapon; tennis rackets, mannequin arms, letter openers, and syringes filled with poison are among the items you can use to accomplish your dark purposes.

You can also get creative and drop a lifeboat or a chandelier upon your unsuspecting victim, or shove them into a sauna, lock the door, and turn up the heat to unbearable levels. Yes, this is a twisted game for the sick of mind. Ain't it great?

How do you surprise your quarry when they know someone is out to get them and constantly looking over his or her shoulder? This is where the Sims-esqe "needs" system comes into play. Just like in real life, each player has certain human needs that must be fulfilled: eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, reading, socializing, and so on. Each need has a separate monitor that will warn you as the need becomes more urgent. Ignoring your needs can bring deadly consequences, like turning to dust if you haven't stopped for a drink. As you tend to a need, you are immobile and helpless for the duration of your activity.

You know you're in for a treat when you observe your quarry initiate an activity related to need fulfillment. If your quarry doesn't see you watching him and takes a seat in a nice restaurant, for example, you are free (for a brief period) to bludgeon him with your 3-wood as he sits helplessly sipping his wine. Just be careful your hunter isn't standing behind you as you bend over to pick up your deceased quarry's wallet.

In the two most popular game modes, the winner is either the last one standing or the one with the most amount of money at the end. You are paid money for each successful murder, in an amount dependent upon the weapon you used. A "money for kills" table tells you which weapons pay the most for that round.

The Ship may have particular appeal to older players because it rewards the patient and careful rather than those with superior twitch aiming skills. Deadly but brazen killers who dispatch their quarry with remarkable efficiency but who inadvertently get caught on camera a couple of times, or who kill an innocent bystander or two in the process, will suffer on the scoreboard. This is because the financial penalty for getting caught and going to prison is severe. One trip to jail during a round often means you have lost the game. I once won a game five seconds after joining a server. Why? Because everyone else had broken at least one rule and had been penalized. The $2,500 I received at the start of the game was enough to win.

Like most games downloaded from Steam, The Ship does not come with a user manual. While experienced gamers will have little trouble learning the gameplay from gaming sites and trial and error, I would have liked to have seen a brief tutorial level or other introduction to the game. The game contains neither. [Ed.: Valve released a tutorial yesterday.]

Without question, The Ship is an excellent value in its price category. At about $20, it costs the same as casual games like Big Kahuna Reef and Bejeweled. What this title needs, however, is a larger community. My server browser typically picks up only a handful of servers at any given time, none of them full. However, if you find a game and are careful to avoid getting caught, you will likely enjoy many priceless moments like setting your quarry on fire by shooting him with a flare gun, only to watch yourself get pushed overboard by your hunter seconds later.

Score: 7.8/10