The Ship: Remasted is a remastered version of the 2006 title, The Ship: Murder Party, developed by the Blazing Griffin studio. And, contrary to what you might think, I wasn't mistaken in the name of the game: the developers wanted to make a pun!
The Ship takes me aboard a 20s ship, invited by a mysterious Mister X to a murderous game: each player is assigned a target that he must reach before being himself shot by the other players . To do this, a wide range of weapons and traps are available to be more effective! The game released for early access on Steam at the end of February and currently offers three game modes: LAN (16 player or bots), local (4 player) and arcade (single player vs. bots). Unfortunately, having no friends who owned the game when I wanted to test this game, I was satisfied with the arcade mode.
At launch, I have the choice of being a passenger or being a hunter. At any time I can change this status from the Esc menu. Preferring to hunt than to be hunted, I opt without hesitation for the Hunter mode and launch myself into the passageways to the sound of the piano. The goal is therefore simple on paper: find my target. But it promises to be much more difficult in the game because I have nothing other than a name (which therefore enlightens me on the sex of my target) and its location displayed at the top right of my screen.
Our dear Virginia is therefore at the security office, on the D bridge. On the bridges side, it is rather simple, the A bridge is the upper bridge, the D the lower bridge and there are stairs that allow you to go through from one to the other. On the other hand, on the side of the parts, it gets worse because there is a priori no map and the ship is really big! Four boats are currently offered on early access, eleven are scheduled for launch!
My sense of direction is still as doubtful as ever, I wander around the ship, while my target is just wandering around. So when I laboriously managed to finally find the place where it was, it has of course been in a completely different place since!
And we must hurry, no time to yawn crows watching the sun reflect on the waves. The rounds only last a few minutes and you have to find your target before the end to hope to get the bonus. In order not to waste time unnecessarily, it is advisable not to walk with a big ax in the middle of the passageways: it seems that the carrying of lethal weapons is not allowed!
Ignoring this fact at first, I found myself without warning stuck in a dismal prison having to stupidly wait for the end of my sentence while my target inevitably took the opportunity to go to a place I knew for once! No need to tell you that by the time I got out, she had set off again in uncharted waters.
For safety's sake, I will now be content with grandmother's cane instead of the fireman's ax!
Sometimes there are good surprises, and you stumble upon your target a bit by chance. There, we must hope to have thought of looking for and then equipping a weapon, while avoiding annoying witnesses so as not to go back through the prison box.
As you can see below, The Ship: Remasted offers a rudimentary but effective inventory system, the same interface is used to display the contents of a world container (cabinet, chest ...) that I am searching. In addition to the weapons, I can choose to change my outfit! It makes perfect sense if you are chased away in order to escape the stalking for a few more seconds!
Because it is not because I am a hunter that I cannot be a prey!
While entertaining solo, the game quickly becomes boring chasing targets. I really regret not having had any friends so that I could test it in a group. In this mode, the game of cat and mouse between passengers and hunters must take on its full extent for a game devilishly more dynamic and fun. And even more in LAN! The Ship is undoubtedly a game to consider to liven up your evenings between players, perhaps before organizing a Murder Party at home?
The game is available in particular on Steam, at a price perhaps a little high even if the owners of the original game will receive a 25% discount at launch.
