The Captain is Dead
Based on the frantic and fun board game, The Captain is Dead puts you in charge of crew members on a besieged starship. You must co-ordinate the crew to repair critical systems and fend off hostile aliens, or you will share the captain’s fate. From the Chief Engineer, Weapons Officer, and visiting Admiral, all the way down to the Ensign and the ship’s Janitor, you must combine your unique talents to avoid utter annihilation in the cold depths of space!
Step into the Captain’s chair and command the crew! Each team member has a very particular set of skills that you’ll need to leverage to the full if you want to survive, including…
- Admiral – A master of plans and evasion.
- Cyborg – Immune to the mysterious forces of deep space.
- Crewman – Gets killed very easily… good thing there is an infinite supply!
- Counselor – Can manipulate skills for the best chance of success.
- Ensign – A fast learner, and even faster runner.
- Chief Engineer – Can fix the ship real quick.
- Soldier – An expert in kicking alien ass.
- Teleporter Chief – Beam stuff like a boss.
- Tactical Officer – Keeps the shields up, and the crew ready.
- Hologram – lasers pass right through him… just don’t let the computers go down!
- Scholar – always has some space wisdom to dispense to the crew.
…with more on the way!
Defend the ship against an unknown alien nemesis that will do everything they can to blast you to atoms! Fortunately you have state-of-the-art systems to help you out…
- Bridge – Scan for threats, repair shields and communicate with your crew.
- War Room – The Captain planned ahead, and left emergency dossiers to help you out.
- Armory – Destroy alien ships with torpedoes, and activate auto-turrets to repel boarders.
- CPU Core – Power-up your crew with skills.
- Cargo Hold – Bust open the cargo pods to grab lasers, scanners, and other helpful gear.
- Infirmary – He’s dead, Jim! Oh wait… no… it’s just a flesh wound. That can be fixed here.
- Science Lab – Upgrade the ship, and research spooky, sub-space anomalies.
- Engineering – Fix the Jump Core to get the heck outta there!
If you can stay cool, repel the aliens, protect the crew, and keep the systems operational long enough to repair the Jump Core, then you can activate the engines and escape to Hyperspace!
Or is it Warp Speed? I can never remember…
Game Discussion
Steam User 10
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
Steam User 0
Really enjoy the Captain is Dead. Played it during the pandemic and it helped me stay sane.
Steam User 2
An extremely good adaptation of the board game. Fun to play.
If only it was multiplayer.
I hope one day for the game expansions for the board game to be made. I'd certainly buy them.
Steam User 0
Excellent game!
Steam User 1
A personal favorite ❤️
Steam User 1
Fun playing co-op.