Ship of Mist Review

When I sit down to review a title, I do my best to stay optimistic and bring forward some positives, especially if I’m looking at anything indie. The videogame sphere can be pretty cut-throat, so any indie game making it out of that mire deserves a bit of leeway in the case of some minor bugs or weirdnesses. It is with this preamble that I must say, the recent survival horror title, Ship of Mist, is a bit of a mess.

But, before we get into the nitty-gritty, what is the game all about? Set in a future world with advanced AI, Ruoshui, our protagonist, is an… agent or thief of some description. A voice in her ear (assumedly a partner or AI of some sort) tells her they shall soon be rich after they pull off this one job. As one may expect from this classic setup, things do not quite go as planned. Infiltrating an advanced office complex, Ruoshui goes through a few puzzles and obtains the coveted Dream Converter (or Dream Jar?), only for things to go awry.

Ah yes, my favourite place to sit.

Now, reading the former, you may think that it sounds competent enough with some interesting ideas, right? Well, the thing is, this is all I’ve managed to piece together from the little the game itself offers and the associated Steam page. In reality, we basically hop into the game, find a gun and are suddenly surrounded by enemies to shoot. I’m not kidding, the enemies spawn in between frames, which can be a bit jarring (possible pun intended).

The gameplay itself is very simple: you have a gun, a Resident Evil 4-style briefcase inventory system, and delicious cheese that will heal you from any ouchies you may obtain during your mission. As you defeat enemies, they drop resources for you to use to keep you going and there’s even a crafting system of sorts, though it is used exactly once. Played from the first-person perspective, you’ll have to use the environment to your advantage when fighting the oogie boogies of the future, as they can quickly eat through your meagre health reserves.

Some of the textures are... rough

Speaking of enemies, their design is… varied. Running the gamut between horrific humanoid creatures with dreadful maws to big spiders and honest-to-Goldblum velociraptors, you never quite know what to expect. Regardless of the foe, however, their AI can be a bit… well, stupid. They may suddenly meander off after chasing you for a while, only to decide this isn’t fun and completely disappear. They may also take exactly one bullet to take down or twenty without much rhyme or reason to what changed, making combat mostly a slog.

The music and sound design are equally rough, as the voice acting itself can vary wildly in quality. The main leads are understandable but have a pretty heavy accent that can make it a bit difficult for some. The lines themselves are also a bit at odds with the world and its events, with Ruoshui spouting off one-liners after discovering one horror after another. The sound design is also all over the place, with the gun sounding weirdly muffled and enemies repeating the same drones… I swear I heard the Duolingo “correct” jingle at least a few times too. I’m not even touching the licensed music that possibly isn't being used legally.

Ship of Mist feels like it is very much unfinished. Mechanics are introduced and forgotten, there are guns and swords to loot everywhere, but you never need anything beyond your starting weapon, and quite a few of the interactable items in the game were missing translations. If this was a school project made with limited time and offered for free, I think I’d be more charmed than anything, as the core concept is fun and the gameplay itself is not bad, per se. However, as it is an official release and being sold for real money, I cannot bring myself to recommend it in any way.

Big safe or tiny elevator?

With about an hour or two of content, misleading marketing, and a general feel of being unfinished, Ship of Mist just wasn’t much to look at. The final nail in the coffin, however? I was not even able to save my game, meaning I had to take it from the top every time I died. Every. Time. Maybe give this one a miss.