The Captain is Dead

DISCLAIMER: I was one of the designers of the original board game upon which this is based, so I'm reviewing the implementation, not the game mechanics here. The lore, characters, and mechanics were all there in the original board game, as was the art style. But then Thunderbox had to make the art 3D, add music, sound, and voices to everything, and then of course implement all the rules in a UI as good or better than the board game to make it accessible to people. I think that Thunderbox did a wonderful job of fleshing out the world of The Captain is Dead. While it has a completely new UI compared to the board game, it still does a bang up job. And more importantly, I wasn't sure how they were going to make it fit on tiny screens as I could barely fit it on a 18x18 inch (460x460mm) game board! Thunderbox also did something else that both shocked and pleased me. They found a way to be true to the board game's mechanics, while making it look and feel like a video game rather than just a board game adaptation. So many board games turned digital are just barely digital replicas of the card board components. With all the voice acting and animation, this truly feels like something new referencing something old, rather than a rehash. Good job guys!

[h1] Gameplay Preview Video [/h1] https://youtu.be/6ecPiV7V54Y [h1] Written Review [/h1] The Captain is Dead is based off the board game of the same name. Your ship has been attacked by aliens, and everything has gone horribly wrong. Your goal is to try to juggle all of these difficulties, while at the same time repairing your jump core so you can get out of there. At the beginning of a run, you pick your 4 crew members. They all come with different helpful attributes. Every turn, you will play as one crew member until their actions points are depleted. However, before you get to play that turn, something will go horribly wrong. Every move the aliens do is telegraphed on your external scanner. This tells you what will happen next turn, including taking damage, what systems will be destroyed, etc. This allows you to move vulnerable crewmates, prepare weaponry and so on. In order to interact with anything on the ship, your crewmates require skills. These are consumable points in their inventory that are used to repair, fire torpedos, trade etc. You can grab more skill points from the computer room in your ship... provided it hasn't been hit by a missile. Some characters also come with permanent skill points that can be used to work systems. Due to that, some characters are more specialized for certain rooms, however every crewmember can do anything provided they have the right skill points and action points. And in desperate situations, you will defintely find yourself doing unconventional things. The game is really hard, but in a fun way. You can barely keep up with all the problems that happen, and its quite reminiscent of games like FTL or Darkest Dungeon. Aliens can give you anomalies, like an irrational fear that prevents crew members from doing anything while alone, or Increased gravity, which doubles your movement cost. Aliens can also destroy comm systems, so you can't trade from far away, or your external scanners, which prevents you from seeing their next actions. All of this combined creates a beautiful chaos that is very rewarding to actually manage, despite you barely hanging on by a thread. The aesthetic is obviously subjective, but I think it's really pleasant to look at. I usually don't like polygon-y looks, but the character here are very stylized and colourful, and it fits the theme. The music is awesome, and the character quips are funny (although a bit repetitive) Overall, I think it's a great game, and highly recommend it!

Tough one to review, this. I like the boardgame and I love what they've done with this to animate it and add sound effects. However the real boardgame provides a much easier tactical overview, as you can see which cards are available to draw and which characters hold which cards at a glance. With this version there is too much clicking into individual character profiles and room previews to get a feel for the approach required. Plus overlong animations and repeated audio clips (often with multiple clips being played at once over each other) makes this a chore to get through. It could have taken a leaf out of the digital adaptation of Wingspan and give the option to view/control the game purely as a boardgame layout. I also have the Tabletop Simulator official DLC for The Captain Is Dead and I'd rather play that, even if the TTS version lacks any kind of scripting or help. Plus the lack of online multiplayer options is simply bizarre. For the longest time I assumed I was missing it in a menu somewhere until I checked the store page. When there are other excellent singleplayer starship management games on PC (and several with multiplayer such as Pulsar) I fail to understand why anyone would choose to spend time with this one.

This game is so hard to navigate and full of extraneous animations when I really just want to play the board game. The UI is cluttered and not intuitive and it's hard to keep track of alerts and even what systems do what. I might as well have played with the scanners damaged the whole time because I couldn't even find where the alerts were to see what was coming next, and when alerts did come up, it just gave the name of the alert and doesn't tell you explicitly what happened. I've played the analog version before so I generally knew what was going on, but had I not, I would have been totally lost. The animations take forever, the characters pause to say annoying things, and I cannot easily find what I am looking for to keep track of the game, if I can find it at all. They spend a lot of time of a lot of bells and whistles that to NOT pay off, in my opinion.

The Captain is Dead is the digital version of the board game of the same name. In this game, your ship is being attacked by aliens, and you have to defend it and fix the various systems long enough to repair the jump core and get away. You control a crew of up to seven characters, each with a different abilities. To fix your engine, you have to gather enough engineering skill points to repair the jump core, while dealing with the other disasters that will distract you along the way. While there are some aspects of the game that come down to chance, careful planning can help you deal with many of the disasters that pop up. I've found the game to be challenging, but usually fun rather than frustrating. It has been a lot of fun playing around with different strategies to figure out what works. While it is definitely annoying when an unlucky set of alerts comes up, or when you can't draw the skills you need when you need them, I usually felt like my lost games had just as much to do with my poor planning as with luck just not being on my side. The game has a lot of replayabilty. The alerts in each stage have a random order, so while you know that specific alerts can only show up in specific stages, when they actually show up in each game is random. The difficulty is adjustable, so you can change which alert stages are present and how many repairs you need to fix the jump core. You can also play with different crew combinations to change up your strategy. If you like achievement hunting, trying to get the different achievements can add variety to your games as well. I've never played the physical version of the board game. Going into this totally new, it took me a while to get the hang of how everything was supposed to work. There is a tutorial that introduces you to the basic mechanics of the game, but learning how all of the different parts of the game work definitely took a lot of learning by doing. I like the music and the art style of the game. The screen is very busy, and having all the different sounds on is a little overwhelming at first, but once I got used to what was going on, I enjoyed how it all came together as an experience. As a sci-fi fan, I loved all the references (mostly Star Trek, although I spotted a few others as well). Overall, The Captain is Dead can be pretty difficult, but once you get the hang of it, it's a fun challenge. I've enjoyed learning which strategies work the best and playing around with different crew combinations to win on higher difficulties. If you like science fiction and board games, I recommend it. 10/10

More fun with friends. Use the Remote Play Together option to share your screen, and use a voice chat to plan strategies. From my experience, sharing mouse control doesn't work so well, so I recommend 1 person handling all the clicking after deciding on a strategy as a team. The crew you pick matters, so pick wisely for your play style. This game is very satisfying to win - combining the crew's strengths to survive each alert and live long enough to repair the warp drive. Each game is quick, 20-40 mins. Great to play when you don't have a lot of time.

This is one of my favorite board games!!! Unfortunately, the computer version is only single-player. While that doesn't mean the game isn't fun, my recommendation is to go buy the tabletop board game and play with your friends!

A popular physical board game, Captain is Dead reached newer heights by finding popularity also in digital media via Tabletop Simulator. When the powers at be decided that selling for a DLC cost on Tabletop Sim was not enough, they entered in the stages of making this standalone to sell for $19.99. In the process of doing so, they pulled being able to buy the DLC on Tabletop Sim to ensure sales would only be directed to this new project. All of this would be fine, except... This is NOT a finished product that IS selling for finished product price. How hard is it to port already accessible, usable assets into their solo project? If you ask Thunderbox Entertainment, apparently quite difficult. Even after a recent update of v1.1 many of the characters that players would use are MISSING from this. User Interface still suffers and one would find it easier to play this using the physical media or on Tabletop Sim. Many things are confusing even to a veteran player of the beloved board game simply because of design choice. All of this could perhaps be excused if they were upfront and maybe slapped on an Early Access tag, for as abused as that is anyway. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Other board games exist as standalones. Captain is Dead as a board game is a completed title. The missing characters are not there because they need to think of new ideas, they already are known! So why does this game exist? Why make a standalone if it does not excel over its counterparts? Money, folks. This shameful cash grab has its own page and pulled DLC from others because it thinks you are a fool. Don't be a fool like me. Will it shine one day? It might, but for now it is a con. Edit update 09/25/2021: Five characters are [u]STILL[/u] missing from play. How can progress on adding these be so slow?

[b]the captain is dead[/b] is another board game adaptation from the developers of the excellent [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/1397470]tsuro: the game of the path[/url]. this time we're in space, aliens are attacking, the ship is falling apart, see title, cue pandemonium. it took a year after release, but now there are [b]18 playable characters[/b] in the game with different abilities. I'd say instructions are available in-game, but clicking the button just lazily opens a pdf for the actual board game in your browser. at least there's a [b]tutorial, very much worth checking out[/b] even if you know the score, it's pretty funny. then there's [b]classic, quick and deadly scenarios[/b] mixing up alerts (random events). normal has an equal amount of each, quick gets rid of the middle tier and deadly has fewer of the easier ones. [b]7 further difficulty levels[/b] range from coward to insane, they can be applied to any of the 3 scenarios to set a survival chance between 2:1 and 5,000,000:1. [b]select up to 7 characters and try to make the best out of a horrible situation[/b], whether it's with other people (multiplayer is supported via steam's remote play) or all by your loneseome. can only have one crew member from each rank and the ship has a bunch of systems to deal with, because of course murphy is also on board, at least in spirit, so [b]whatever can go wrong will go wrong[/b]. the ultimate goal is to charge the jump core, but [b]if more than 12 aliens board the ship or the shields are gone, you're dead[/b]. aliens don't move or attack but are still a nuisance, as you can't do much while they're in the room. each character has a few action points and a couple of skills that are always active, rank determines movement order, capacity is inventory size. it holds single-use skills and tools that can be used twice, both are transferrable through the comm system if it's still functional (items only if the teleporter is also online). basic actions like moving (also with the teleporter if possible), punching an alien or trading items can be done without skills or systems, but you can't do much while injured or if there's an anomaly, have to heal or research first, respectively. when the current character runs out of points or things to do, the turn (here: phase) ends and makes way for more alerts, anomalies and aliens. won't go through the whole thing in too much detail, the creators already wrote a manual and besides the tutorial there's a [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2609693121]guide[/url] with some useful info, plus tooltips in the game. the point is, you have to utilize whatever resources and skills you have to minimize further catastrophies and maximize your chance of winning. it's a [b]completely turn-based game, but overriding an alert has a timer, gotta click within 5 seconds or so[/b]. controls are basic mouse stuff, but [b]I didn't like having to hold the mouse button to inspect systems[/b]. mouse wheel zooms in/out (wasd pans the camera), but it doesn't count either as hold-to-inspect, nor clicking to enter a room and interact with things there. inspection should be click, then another (or right click) to get back to the overview, or at least offer a toggle for it. another ui issue is [b]the exit room button is in the same place as the end turn button and an accidental extra click can lead to even more trouble than usual[/b], as there's no end turn confirmation. again, it'd be great if right click zoomed out. clicking the special ability button should close that window, not re-open it, and [b]the game over screen should be clickable to make everything appear immediately[/b], instead of waiting while the game slowly adds up points and determines your style. graphics are really colorful and nice, [b]excellent music, cheesy writing and voiceovers[/b], not much to complain about in the presentation department. nothing against jon st. john (duke nukem, rochard, etc.), but it would've been great to hear neil flynn from [i]scrubs[/i] as the janitor instead, and jon could've played another guy. [b]settings are plentiful, cover everything and are available while playing.[/b] resolution options, windowed mode, very separate volume settings (the ship's computer, the crew, the ui, sound effects and music), toggles for subtitles and speech bubbles, various animations and visual effects, some languages, plus in-game representation of achievements but not high scores, that just brings up the steam overlay. [b]progress is saved if you quit mid-game and there's even undo[/b], but it would be great if animations were skippable if they're turned on, along with ones that aren't affected by those settings (healing, for instance). an off button for full-screen announcements of who's next to move would also be handy. [b]basically, give me a setting for a non-cinematic version that plays faster without all the fluff.[/b] I'm really bad at this and honestly [b]found it more frustrating than fun sometimes[/b] because you can't do anything if there's anything going on and something is [i]always[/i] going on, and while you're dealing with it, another something will kick in. I managed to win on the lowest difficulty after a few tries, so you'll get the hang of some of it eventually, especially if rng is on your side (it never is). [b]it's a pretty good game with plenty of variety and replayability[/b], done well, save for some ui/control issues, but [b]the same thing on mobile is $10, which makes $20 for the pc version too much[/b]. might be a good idea to wait for a sale.

Fantastic. I'd never played the physical board game, but this was so much fun I went out and bought a copy. Sure, I'm not a fan of the art style, and the fires on the ship are maybe a bit confusing - since they are purely aesthetic and don't actually indicate problems, yet when you see fire you tend to assume there are problems. But these are minor points. In The Captain is Dead, you play an intrepid crew of as many as 6 struggling to fend off ever-encroaching oblivion as your spaceship disintegrates around you. After each crew member takes their turn, another disaster strikes. Maybe the ship's teleporter overloads, maybe an alien spacecraft attacks, or maybe a hostile raiding party beams in. If your shields go below 0%, you're dead. If 13 invaders beam onto the ship, you're dead. And if you spend so many resources avoiding those things that you can't fix your ship's jump core in time ... guess what, you're dead. You have to plan ahead ... but not in-depth super detailed type of planning, because that type of plan isn't likely to make it intact through 3 character's turns. In this game, you build your characters towards efficiency: stacking repair tools and engineering skills on the Chief Engineer, research tokens on the Emergency Everything-Except-Medical Hologram, and tactical skills on the Soldier ... in hopes that when their turns come up you'll actually be able to let them do what they're good at, and not having the ship's Counselor frantically fixing the shields, since they're down to 20% and your sensors show an attack inbound that will do 30% damage. If you try to force the "optimal" route, you'll find yourself able to do nothing at all - taking your entire turn to walk across the ship, because you decided to try to wait for the research character's turn to fix the weird gravity disruption; or you'll run down the ammo for your torpedoes trying to hold the aliens off long enough for the tactical officer to do something about the shields. Balance between planning and emergency triage is key. Sometimes you just have to accept the internal sensors are going to explode - sure you *could* stop it, but then you won't have command tokens available to forestall the next alien raid on Engineering. And because you didn't stop that, not only can't you fix the teleporter, but the chief engineer has to waste precious time going to the infirmary because she got shot in the raid. And now you've got aliens in Engineering that someone has to clean out! The atmosphere is amusing too. While it's obvious Star Trek is the inspiration for most of the stuff, there's several Red Dwarf references, some oblique callouts to Firefly, and the Scholar character might as well be renamed to Kreia. The crew's special abilities are pretty flavorful ... like the red-uniformed Crewman who's special skill is dying. It's a pity there's no multiplayer, but it's a blast single player too. The difficulty is configurable, but even the lowest settings are going to pose challenges for new players. But it wouldn't be as much fun if it were easy now, would it?