Nope, but I’ve had a tickle for this kind of game lately, so I’m going to check it out. Thanks for highlighting it. I have seen it before but forgot about it entirely.
I tried playing Das Geisterschiff and had an horrible first impression, thanks to somewhat borked controls on my Mac. I didn’t figure they were borked until I tried the game on the PC.
The tutorial then was a terrible, plain first contact. Thankfully the game itself is very different.
I have played for about an hour.
It features not too long, single contained missions. You’re in some kind of deprived reality which makes it impossible to know where most things: the goal of the game is to step on every tile, it appears.
The combat is a bit tedious, but there is an interesting take about it, as the enemies are litterally spawned close to you. Early security robots were fighting to death, but in the second mission, the gangster would run away when hurt, and actually despawn — since ammo is limited and encounters don’t provide any reward, mercy is encouraged that way, which gives a strange “organic” feel to those Close Encounters in Abstract Wireframed Spaces.
I was dubious about the save system, but having died a bit, I may become quite fond of it. It prevents saving every single step, makes choosing when to save a strategic decision (the save is actually more of a freely deployed checkpoint, so you don’t want to do it in an awkard spot). I was also pleased the game replenished everything between missions, as that was quite a concern.
The soundscape is quite amazing. The two first missions took place in vastly different places, and it provided all the atmosphere I could need.
I’m enjoying it, but the game doesn’t scratch my dungeon crawler itch at all, which might be why you didn’t enjoy it, krayzkrok. It reminds me more of early 8-bits 3D adventure efforts, like Driller. The tedious interface is probably one reason, the fact you are a single protagnist and the decisions aren’t taken on the encounter fronts is probably another. I was scared I’d get lost in the environment after the horrible bland tutorial, but actually the game itself makes it quite easy to find your way around, so even mapping isn’t really a thing, at least in those early stages of the game.
I do wonder if that other game of theirs that looks a lot like this one and that you played is significantly different. From the screenshot, it looks like there is more combat options (rate of fire of the gun, stance) and I don’t know if I’m fond of that idea — it is already tedious enough without having all those extra parameters to deal with! Also it appears it takes place in a single location, while I found the change of atmosphere very refreshing in this one.
I grabbed that Bard’s Tale remake collection, that one will probably scratch the proper itch: I only ever played the 3rd game, and only at a friend’s Atari ST!