Das Geisterschiff / The Ghost Ship

Das Geisterschiff / The Ghost Ship
N/A
Metacritic
81
Steam
54
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$9.99
Release date
24 November 2018
Steam reviews score
Total
81 (27 votes)

Das Geisterschiff is a cyberpunk dungeon crawler where you play as a mecha pilot working for one of the megacorps.

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Das Geisterschiff / The Ghost Ship system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: XP / 7
  • Processor: Intel Core i3 @ 2.53 GHz
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM
  • Graphics: DX9 compatible GPU w/ Shader Model 2.0 support
  • DirectX: Version 9.0c
  • Storage: 666 MB available space
  • Sound Card: DX9 Compatible

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
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Shurik
Shurik

This game is really cool, but I can't get past the 1 color palette.

It makes it really hard to navigate through the game- even if there was 1 more color to even things out, it would really make the game more playable.

I really really want to like this game

Annie T. Mood
Annie T. Mood

Deceptively short dungeon-crawling robot survival.

As a dungeon-crawler, it's extremely brutal if just because there aren't any convenient features included, and I'm not actually sure how much of the lack of convenient features is intentional.
The game lacks a proper map and automapping stuff, so you'll either have to have a really good memory or chart your own manually.
The game doesn't keep track of notes, so you'll have to write your own or, again, have a really good memory.
There's absolutely no mouse controls in this game, so everything is done on the keyboard.
Most item pick-ups aren't visible until you actually step on its tile, encouraging you to step on every safe-looking tile in the entire game if you really want things like upgrades and random lore.

The game is supposed to have a limited amount of saves, and file-loading even, but the playtime is ridiculously shorter than it seems to the point that it's kind of a wonder why saves are limited in the first place. I apparently ended up beating the game without manually saving once as soon as I understood what the game actually wanted out of me.
You're only really going through 3 - 4 dungeons, only 2 of which are actually any big while the other 2 are just the prologue of sorts and the final gimmicky one. They did at least mention its short-length in the little trailer, if just barely.

Mechas and resource-management survival aren't two genres that normally go together, but it works pretty alright here, even if it can get awkward sometimes. Like, the game wants you to go so hard on saving resources, that it's better to awkwardly circle a pillar until an enemy leaves, than to actually fight it unless you think it's the absolute best solution to the current enemy encounter. Random encounters are not too common by themselves, so weird things like that don't actually happen too often.
The game is a tile-based dungeon crawler with turn based combat, and random, wild encounters like a JRPG, so there aren't any set enemy spawns aside from very unique enemies.
All that said, it does make the little random enemy encounters pretty engaging, as just about every decision you make in a fight matters thanks to how extremely limited your ammo and health are for each dungeon.

There's also the matter of the game's overall aesthetics. It can be surprisingly immersive if you can get into looking through the eyes of an old-school style robot the entire game with red being the only real color the entire time.

It's a pretty nice, difficult, survival dungeon-crawler. Maybe get it for cheaper than the base price though, because this is way too short for its genre. There's also a demo for it.

Healthycheekums
Healthycheekums

It's a quite neat scaled-back mecha crawler. I like the tense survival aspect as well as the interesting map obstacles such as jammers (needing to locate them by their buzz). The 100 points for saving system is a misstep but I was able to complete the game fully (both endings) with about 40 points left.

Garbage Day
Garbage Day

I saw in another review this is the devs' first game. I really look forward to what they do in the future; this game goes outside the box in a great way. Think Legends of Grimrock meets Terminator 1.

Lightbane20
Lightbane20

Short version: You can die in the tutorial. Hardcore! 10/10!!!

Long version: This game is the long lost cousin of King’s Field, if it was a sci-fi title made for the Virtual Boy. As such, those looking for shiny graphics and twitchy gameplay should stay away: the game’s unique art style looks blocky (although in exchange it works with a toaster, if you can read this you can play it), it’s a turn-based dungeon-crawled that demands patience to be played.

The sound effects are okay, nothing special in my opinion, but they do their job. The music though, it’s something else: It perfectly conveys the nightmarish, claustrophobic survival horror scenario that the author wanted to convey.

Story-wise I won’t tell much to avoid spoilers: You’re the newest recruit of a corporation in a dystopic future (with all that conveys), you’re given a mook-tier mecha with limited ammo and no melee options besides ramming, then told to go out and do whatever it takes to accomplish the current mission’s objective. As such, exploration is encouraged, not only to find hidden bonuses you’ll very much need to survive, but also written notes and hints such that help you to learn more about the game world.

As for the gameplay, there’s a central hub of sorts for each mission, with multiple “dungeons” you must explore to progress. An interesting note is that every zone has their own type of enemies, most of them with unique differences regarding combat. For example: There are some enemies that will attack you on sight but retreat when they’re fatally wounded, others will move twice in an attempt to overwhelm you in melee, others will self-destruct upon receiving fatal damage, a few that will summon other enemies to deal with you instead, etc. Curiously, some of them have unique reactions whenever you use specific weaponry. What means is that the regular punk will panic and consider running away when he realizes you’re aiming at him with a bazooka, which can help you to trick him step into mines and such, but a combat droid won’t have such fear.

As expected, the levels have countless traps and hazards that range from mines, to blocked doors, force-fields, damaging tiles, jammers that mess with your stats and/or your visual field and way more. Thankfully, you’re given the option to ram/shoot doors that impede your advance, which can help you to bypass areas you weren’t meant to enter at that point, or find alternate routes. In fact, you can even use doors to your advantage, using them to force enemies to lose track of you or prepare ambushes!

Finally, I have to point out that the game is hard. Not in the sense that like the Souls games there’s artificial difficulty (such as a twitchy camera that hasn’t been fixed in decades, or bosses that spam invisible attacks). Instead, you’re given limited resources for every mission and you’re expected to survive or die trying. That includes saving, since the game uses an interesting variation of the lately over-done ironman mode: You begin the game with 100 saving points. You can save anytime, but saving and loading cost you points, so running out of them and getting a game over that kicks you back to the start of the game is quite possible if you’re careless (luckily for you, autosaves between missions are free). However, for those observant or that have experience in similar games, they’ll find the game rather easy and short-lived. After all, the average playthrough is expected to last between 4-6 hours. That being said, the developer stated that the next released patch will included bonus content such as more levels, an expanded endgame and so on.

In conclusion, the game feels like a proper old-school title, for good and bad. Those looking for a fresh experience, or that have an itch for dungeon-delving, will feel right at home.

If you’re not convinced, you can always try the free demo and see how far you can go!

Vladimir J
Vladimir J

An unusual game that transcends its narrow focus and strange visuals with a mesmerizing atmosphere and tense encounters.

Mr Hanky
Mr Hanky

I've followed this games development from its early stages and have to say that this is a brilliant debut. Das Geisterschiff is a brutal tile-based dungeon crawler with no handholding and features unique wireframe visuals, outstanding ambient sound design along with a great soundtrack.

Blacktoll
Blacktoll

This game is more of an art project then a game. Seriously, its not that good. The mechanics are thin, and navigating is tedious. I double dog dare you to find me someone with 10 hours on this game.

Kairax
Kairax

Zat's gonna be a NAH for me dawg.

Game really hard on old-school dungeon crawlers era but today is 2019 already, make it optional but where is map? Even some old-school ones had maps that auto-fill after your travels.

Also Tutorial... biggest Jebait in gaming history: at least 3 doors with same "find exit" and same layout but different closed doors... Where is guns tutorial? Item pickup tutorial? Upgrade tutorial???

Music and intro story is nice, but game by itself is kinda meh. Good luck with next thing.

Tweed
Tweed

Das Geisterschiff skips out on the usual crap you have to deal with in dungeon crawling like xp, loot, and so on so that you can focus more on pure survival as you try to finish each dungeon. All of your resources from health, ammo, and even saves are limited forcing you to plan carefully. Or in the least barge in recklessly and then replay it carefully. However, even with care sometimes you'll lose the dice roll and be forced to reload, or restart, but that's just the nature of the game.

A simplistic yet highly tactical dungeon crawler with a great aesthetic that well test your resource management skills and occasionally your patience as well. A welcome change for anyone looking for a different kind of dungeon crawler.

offal
offal

DAS GEISTERSCHIFF is an engrossing distillation of early first person games, inspired by 1987 Japanese PC game CARMINE. Killer ambiance. Tightly wound exploration and combat system load your every action with RPG-lite context.

0xBADC0FFEE
0xBADC0FFEE

Finally got a bit of time to try this one out: it's a cool dungeon crawler inspired by old japanese PC-88 games, there's a minimap but not an actual map, so remembering the shape of a sector and mentally clear out which chunk you've visited is part of the gameplay. Either that or you use a notepad to take notes and draw a map.
I've just started but I'm already into it, it's exactly what I expected it to be.
Few minor naggings: when you walk even if you keep a direction pressed there's a hitch when you transition between tiles that's kind of jarring. There's not enough feedback when you take damage, beside the DC number going down. There's an "American" (lol?) movement speed mode that's a bit faster but I would have liked even quicker rotations (and I'm european :P ).
very good game so far, but not for everyone

hardr1an
hardr1an

Neat and cool dungeon crawler mech game!

Agent Cooper
Agent Cooper

Laser-focused, ultra-minimalistic dungeon crawler. Think id's mid-to-late 00s mobile RPGs (Orcs & Elves, Doom RPG, Wolfenstein RPG) their slim frame further stripped down of tissue so that the mere bone of combat, resource management and exploration remains. There are no crutches here, nothing placed at one's disposal is superfluous or optional - one really must master what mechanics there are. Tutorial mustn't be skipped.
The presentation is just as spartan yet equally put to just the desired use, minimal wireframe visuals supported by excellent soundtrack conveying this desolate, claustrophobic feeling.
The game is, perhaps, on the short side by its genre's standards. I'd argue that the length is just right given the game's self-imposed limitations, just the lenght it can support without sliding into repetition.

Pirren [THC]
Pirren [THC]

Great post-apocalyptic atmosphere, old-style plasma graphics + interesting story and challenging gameplay.

boho
boho

The soundtrack is good. The game, unfortunately, isn't.

See those cool spartan wireframe graphics? That ethos extends to all aspects of the game's design, even to things it really shouldn't extend to, like basic interface and combat feedback.

First, set your mouse aside, you won't be needing it. This is keyboard-only. I decided to write it off as "immersion or something" and sort of went with it.

Second, by god, everything is so *slow.* Turning is slow. Moving is slow. Scanning objects (inspecting) is slow. Which, hey, that must be immersion, since you're in a stories-tall mech, right? Well, no. You're in a "mecha," which I guess is closer to a powered exoskeleton, unless we're supposed to believe humans are busy skittering around like ants building house-sized landmines for you to step on. In other words, you're person-sized. Taller, I guess (?) stronger, and encased in armor, but person-sized. Which, to me, begs even more questions:

- If I'm person-sized, why am I so slow? An unarmored person could run around me in circles and I'd never be able to catch them.
- If I'm person-sized, why's there this weird infrared wireframe display thing? It made sense to me when I imagined a stories-tall war machine that's essentially a block of steel, but if i'm just some dude, some eye slits and a flashlight would do fine, thanks.
- Why is there absolutely no feedback whatsoever that I'm taking damage? If I'm person-sized, there should be the sound of bullets ringing off the armor, the concussive effect of the impact not being fully absorbed, maybe my I-guess-it's-infrared display kicking static or flickering. Something beyond a sound effect of gun shots and a number in the corner going down.
- What's the processor on this thing, a Pentium 2? It. Takes. So. Long. To. Scan. Anything. Is it rocking, like, 64mb of RAM? Because the thing can't even chart a map.

At some point it hit me. These "aesthetic" or "immersive" choices aren't intentional. They're just lazy. Why figure out mouse control? Screw that, it'll just be keyboard-only. Graphics? I'm no good at those, how about we make it look like a Virtual Boy? Combat feedback? The sound effect is enough. Automap? Would take too long to figure out, scrap it.

Ultimately the game's presentation feels like it never made it beyond the prototype phase. Instead they claimed it as intentional for immersion and style and pushed it out the door.

This isn't to discourage the use of a style like this. It's quite cool, really. But since that kind of minimalism *increases* the immersion, the lazy little things like no combat feedback or auto map or consistent sense of scale *really* stand out in a *really* bad way.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Great retro wireframe dungeon crawler. Really nails the feeling of tension from having to manage extremely limited HP and ammo, vs. spending them to obtain very needed upgrades.

TheGrand547
TheGrand547

NOTE: I am not very good at this game currently so I didn't anywhere near finish it, however I still want to throw a recommendation at it

This is a dungeon crawler with punishing combat that borders on, and might even wholly leap into, survival horror. You have very limited ammunition and even more limited health, with the only method of recovery coming from rare workbenches that consume raw materials. The dungeons are complex and sprawling but are laid out in sensible arrangements for their contexts.

While the first thing that stands out about the game is definitely the visual style, the part of the presentation that is truly sublime is the music. I don't know how I would describe it but it is so captivating while perfectly setting the tone for the post-apocalyptic settings you will be delving into. Most of the time soundtracks just wash through me but it's been on my mind consistently from the first time I tried it early last year.

Oh yeah you are in a cool mecha as well, which is always bonus points

Preliminary rating of a 4/5

Dr_W0rm
Dr_W0rm

I died six times in the tutorial

edit: Make that seven times

drpg dude
drpg dude

Fun dungeon crawler, but bring some graph paper because it gets challenging to memorize after a bit.

Ironicus
Ironicus

No automap in a game that relies so heavily on large labyrinths of identical tunnels is inexcusable.