The Ship

[Jason]

Anyone played this? I've never played it with a group of people I know before, but I'm pretty sure it'd be a whole load of fun. I've been waiting for what feels like forever for this to come down in price, but it's not quite happened.

The premise is that you all control 'characters' on a ship - before the round starts, you're all assigned a character at random. At the start of a round, you're given the name and identity of another character, who you have to kill before the timer expires. The catch lies in the fact that you're also the target of someone else. You're allowed to defend yourself against your would-be murderer and obviously kill your target, but if you kill someone you're not supposed to, there are heavy penalties.
Throw in security guards and jailtime if you get caught wielding weapons in front of them, and the result is a really quirky and fun game that leads to equal parts hilarious and tense action.

Anyone own/played this?

[Landy]

Think i tried it over a free steam weekend back in 04, but wasn't overly impressed. Guess if you play with people you know it's alright. However, the price seems a bit stiff for such an old game.

[Konrad]

I've wanted this since I could remember, but never bought it partly due to the price, and partly because the game has supposedly been dead for a while. Perhaps if I had a group of people to play with I'd do, but at this point there is little reason to buy from my understanding.

[Jason]

Yeah, I'd definitely get it if the price was a little more reasonable. I believe there's a rumour still doing the rounds that they're working on a sequel. I might well get in touch with the developers and ask them if they're still working on it. Can't hurt to ask.

[Konrad]

I'd be all over a sequel if they release it. I missed this thing the first time around and I don't plan to let that happen again. I sure as hell am not paying $20 for a dead multiplayer game though.

[Jason]

I've emailed Outerlight Studios and asked them whether they'd be able to confirm that The Ship 2 is indeed still in existence. Apparently back in November 2008 several members of the team were known to have been seen playing a game called "Hollywood Murder Party" on Steam. Unfortunately, since then nothing has been heard.

Here's hoping they're still going.

[Jason]

Potentially sad news on this one - both Outerlight Studios' and The Ship's official websites are now down. With several rumours around that they may have gone out of business (or worse, teamed up with Ubisoft), this is bad news for both the original and any potential sequels.

A little digging reveals that a while ago the devs were spotted on Steam playing something called "Bloody Good Time", and a quick google reveals this (http://bloody-good-time.uk.ubi.com/comingsoon.php). Is all hope lost? Perhaps not.