2 posts tagged “games”
The Ship* has had a "free week" this week, where basically you can download and play it completely free. But just for a week. Unfortunately I didn't notice until the weekend, that'll teach me not to read my feeds properly.
The Ship* is basically the ultimate murder mystery. Mr X*., a billionaire, has invited you all along on a cruise, but with one proviso...you must all kill each other. He will give you a target, your "Quary", and you must kill them without being spotted by other passengers, security cameras or guards. Simple? Well, not really. Especially as someone has also been assigned to kill you, and you have no idea who that person is. Add to that a Sims style needs system, meaning you need to regularly eat, pee, talk, shower and even dance (amongst other things) and it's a very difficult game to balance.
But that doesn't mean it's not fun. It's a very tactical game, making sure you don't get caught and thrown into prison, losing all your weapons and money you have on you, whilst also ensuring you don't end up wetting yourself or dyeing out of sheer boredom (yes, it does happen).
The game is not only fun, but also quite funny at times. The whole ship appears to be stuck in some form of time warp, everyone wearing old fashioned clothing*, whilst the ship having security cameras (albeit 19th century one's). You can change outfits, mixing and matching flatcaps with monocles, or dresses with eye patches. The shops on-board the ship are all parodies of famous brands, such as "Victorian Secrets"*. Even some of the weapons have humorous overtones, such as beating someone to death with a mannequin's arm*.
I know it's a bit late (sorry), but I advice you all to go get it and try it out, or even just buy it (It will certainly be on my Christmas List). Here are some tips and tricks I've picked up:
- Learn the map. Not only the obvious stuff such as the food, the toilets and the beds, but also the restocking weapon sources. Things such as axes and pool cues have either a large, or unlimited stock. Especially important to learn is where the nearest restockable source is to the jail,which will give you the best chance of quickly getting a weapon after all yours have been confiscated.
- Use the Right-Click context menu on as many large objects as you can. Some things like vending machines are hidden doors to treasure troves.
- Talking to players decreases you're need to socialise quicker than talking to barmen etc.
- If you do get imprisoned, use your time wisely. You can't do much else but pee, drink, read and sleep, so you might was well.
- Use the time between rounds (where no-one is killing anyone) to meet your needs. Don't get distracted by fulfilling needs while hunting people unless the needs are in the yellow; you can deal with them afterwards.
- If you get money from picking up others wallets, bank it as soon as you can. If you get arrested or killed whilst it's still in your pocket you will lose it. You only ever really need to carry between $50 and $100.
- If you end up running out of money and have to get some from the bank, you're not killing enough people. Either that or you haven't realised you can pick up the dead people's wallets.
- The levels can get pretty crowded at times, so if someone is in your way right click as you look at them and select Push.
I am working on a modification for Half-Life 2 which is probably more similar to UT2004 and Q3 in terms of pace and gameplay. As part of this, I have been hunting myspace [myspace.com] for suitable artists to do the background music.
Though all this fruitless searching (I still can't find the right genre to describe what I need) I was reminded of possibly my favourite album, the American McGee's Alice soundtrack.
Composed by Chris Vrenna (his Tweaker [tweaker.net] stuff is also worth a look) it is a fantastically dark chamber music soundtrack that incorperates the use of broken toys woven into the melody to generate an eery victorian drama in itself.
It works extremely well as the background music for the game, which is one of my favourite games to play (despite the fustrating combat system, which only becomes a problem about half way through). It really adds to the Victorian mental institution feel to create an emersive, scary yet fun game.
But it also works very well as a soundtrack in it's own right. In a similar vein to Justin Lassen [empireofmodernthought.com] and The Longest Journey soundtrack it, as previously mentioned, fits into the dark chamber music genre and is great for listening to on the bus to drown out other people and sink into your own thoughts. The album is also littered with humerous samples from the game.
It is well worth a listen, and even buying. I absolutely adore it, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a bit of introspection.
