Go Ape Ship!
Sound Games
Go Ape Ship! is a frantic co-op multiplayer game for one to eight players. Work with your crew of daring Astrochimps to master an expanding collection of tasks, respond to emergencies, unlock new rooms and upgrades for your spaceship, and safely reach the stars. And definitely DON’T vent your friends into the dark and lonely void of outer space… unless they deserve it!
Go Ape Ship is the new frantic party co-op multiplayer where everyone needs to work together to complete tasks, respond to emergencies and survive. It feels very similar to Among Us, with its spaceship setting, tasks, and chaos, but there is no evil imposter – maybe a fun future update? But lacking an imposter doesn’t make Go Ape Ship a simple game. Its also worth noting that Go Ape Ship is a pay once and play later format… allowing you to buy a play across PC, MAC and mobile. Something that the gaming industry should have as standard to be honest and its an amazing cause.
Firstly, we need to address how the game is listed on Steam and why its received a Most Negative review score. It’s free to download and certain things are free like the Moon Voyage and the cockpit are free to play and explore with friends; everything else is locked behind a one-time purchase. The developers have stated that they wanted to include a free trial or demo, so players could install the game and test it out before buying it but instead of having 2 store fronts “Go Ape Ship!” and “Go Ape Ship! Demo” like typical games its all under 1 Steam store listing, which can be confusing and I think this is because of the Pay Once Play Everywhere model. So it is worth noting that this is absolutely not a free game, despite how its listed on Steam. Many of the negative reviews on Steam are protesting the ‘bait and switch’ because this is not a free game and does require a purchase, leading to the current “overwhelming negative” rating. It’s unfortunate because the game itself is incredibly fun, the Pay Once Play Everywhere is a concept a lot of gamers could get behind and the free demo level is overall the weakest.
Now onto the review – you and your friends are members of a crew, travelling the stars aboard a spaceship with 8 different rooms to upgrade. There are 6 different destinations across the solar system, with further ones requiring more tasks and an increasing number of space emergencies. Go Ape Ship is focused entirely on the spaceship; all levels take place on the ship, and there are no levels outside. The free-to-play level, Moon Voyage, is the easiest level in the game and doesn’t take very long to complete. Each level has different tasks in the form of different minigames, which need to be completed to finish the level. There are over 40 different mini-game tasks to complete, which keep the spaceship functional and moving towards the goal while also keeping fellow crewmates healthy. Different emergencies will appear at different times, which need to be solved to prevent total mission failure.
Pros
Co-operative 1-8 players
Pay once and play across platforms
Great minigame variety
Good replay value
Nice progression loop
Cons
Confusing monetization model
Minor bugs
Mail Sound Games directly for a refund
I want Monster Monkey mode 😉
The 6 different destination missions range in difficulty and are all replayable. Each mission takes the ship a little further into the solar system and varies in difficulty. There’s also an endless mode to take the ship across the entire solar system and beyond.
Working co-operatively is key to survival in Go Ape Ship. Players need to help each other with minigames and revive any downed teammates; however, the reflex hammer can be used to knock out other crewmates even when it’s not medically necessary. There are a lot of opportunities for causing trouble and being a nuisance to friends by knowing them out or throwing them out the space vent and waving as they float away into space. It’s all good, silly fun, but everyone still needs to fulfil their duties or risk space emergencies like fires, hull breaches and space viruses.
Completing missions will unlock research points based on your performance, and these can be used to unlock additional rooms for the spaceship. Each room has unique mini games to complete, and every room can be furnished with helpful upgrades that should make the more difficult levels easier.
Personally I loved this party game and the fact you can cross play on mobile to PC with the same cost is awesome. Personally I’d love an Among Us style mode with an evil monkey monster working against the rest of the crew. I feel like this would bring Go Ape Ship! to the next level but for now, it’s a co-op-driven game where players must work together. This is a task/minigame focused game; the wide variation of things to do means that this game doesn’t feel repetitive. Each mission feels different to the last, so it has great replay value, especially for groups of friends. For our score chart I’d love to mark this at 5/5 but personally I’d love to see a monster monkey mode and regarding their monetization model I still feel that its over complicated having the demo and game under 1 Steam store listing but once you see past that its a great game to play with friends and even random lobbies!
Overall Rating
