The Ship is best described as
Clue, only instead of trying to discover that it was Colonel Mustard with the candlestick in the kitchen, you are Colonel Mustard. The resulting game is innovative and unique - at least online. The only downside is a lackluster solo play mode and the same group of ass-clowns that seem to always find their way into every online game.
Your goal in The Ship is to play through your own personal murder mystery on a 1920's cruise ship. The game is played from a first-person perspective and features maps that are just as long and winding as any FPS map. However, your goal here isn't to go around and shoot people; instead you are assigned a specific target who you must track down and kill with whatever weapons you can find. These include knives, golf clubs and really anything you can get your hands on. Some weapons are common, while others are harder to find. The rarer the weapon you use, the more money you earn for the kill. Adding another twist to the whole affair is that all murders must be carried out in secret. If you are detected with a weapon or in the act of murder, you will find yourself in the ship's brig.
Some of the areas in the ship are off-limits. Pulling a weapon out in these areas is grounds for immediate arrest, so you have to be really careful when stalking your target. You can also disguise your character to try and throw off potential killers.
Of the five play modes offered in The Ship, only about half are really worth playing. The best of these are Hunt and Elimination, which both follow the above formula. Of the two, Elimination is the more tense of the two since you don't respawn after death, unlike Hunt, where your goal is to amass as much money as you can in a set time limit. The other available modes are Deathmatch and Duel, both of which defeat the purpose behind in the game. Single-player is a total wash due to enemy A.I. that is easy to fool. About the only real use for single-player is to learn the maps.
