Hardspace: Shipbreaker

Played: Version 1.3.0.330144 (7 months old - latest version at the time of writing) PC used: R5 5600x / RTX 3060 (12gb) / Win 10 Pro 10.0.19045 I've put 50h (reached lvl22 into the career, TLDR I really enjoyed the teardown gameplay when it plays fair BUT there are a few issues that really put me off at times (see below for details). Story is decent and finding logs in ships was neat, but no skip button for long cutscenes can make it a bore. No crashes and it was easy to run at max settings with my specs. Time trial for tearing down ships was fun, No achievements unless you enable "Data Collection". I just WISH there was more to do/unlock past lvl 20. Bigger ships with more systems to tear down like weapons or oxygen systems or waste systems, AI mechanical creatures that attack you, suit customization and paint customization, all of that would have been really nice to see in the last third of the career to keep it fresh. 8/10 The main objective is to cut/move parts from ships and put them into sorting zones to earn money. Easy enough however theres times where you lose money for no reason when you shouldn't have. I cut a long metal rod at the tip, I cut a thin piece out in the open and it cuts something behind it which sometimes is explosive, I lose money. Theres also smaller parts that are sometimes for one zone or another, but they look the same so you have to meticulously check each beam to make sure its meant for the refinery (or not) or you lose money. All these issues especially the cutter issues made it pretty unfair at times and you lose quite a bit of money. My other complaint is the achievements, not sure if its the same on steam but on here you wont get achievements unless you turn on the "Data Collection" setting in game.. huh?! I dont recall it ever saying what it tracks, not even in the settings so I disabled it, it is needed to collect leaderboard times which I understand, but I want to confirm the data thats being taken before accepting.

-1 for insta-death bugs (esp annoying in no-revival mode). -1 for being an unfinished game. Given the last patch was released in Nov 2022 and it's Apr 2025, I think it's safe to say "don't expect it to get better". Why I say it's unfinished? - There are 4 tool slots in the UI, but 3 are used. - There are 10 hazard levels in the UI, but 9 is the max. - There are 4 hazard type icons in the UI, but 3 are used. - There is pratically no more progression after Lv 20 (out of 30 total), and you end up with lots of "research points" to spend on nothing. Unskippable scenes/dialogs are annoying too. There seems to be no real consequences for being in debt. I mean, you get hit by a large debt at the start, but it's virtually impossible to blow up that debt further, and in the game's setting I don't think there is "performance review" if you deliberately "not perform at your job". I mean, setting up the player to work as a slave in a big corp renders a quite dark tone, plus the heavy debt thing...but then the game is relaxing, and there is practically no way to really screw up unless you play no-revival, which I do not recommend because of some bugs. The contradiction feels a bit jarring for me as it breaks the immersion somewhat. The game gets a bit repetitive, although I'm not too bothered myself.

Fun physics based game with solid mechanics. Yes, there's a "grind" but not really. Dismantiling a ship with the entry level tools is just as fun as in the end game once you've unlocked everything. It's not a game you ever really "finish". It's a simulator. Then the story kicks in. You can't skip through any of it and have no input in it. The quiet junkyard salvage simulator in space gets interupted by shallow one-dimensional characters fighting over unionizing and working conditions. Current socio-political commentary is now baked into what should be a relaxing physics based space game. Annoying move by the developers in what is otherwise a novel and fun game.

The setting and gameplay loop: magnificent. Chef's kiss. Steady learning curve and decent room for flexibility and creativity in how you approach teardowns. If it were just this, it'd be 4-5 stars and an easy recommendation. But then we get to the story. Have you ever seen a Neil Breen movie? It's honestly like that, only without the comically surreal bad acting and shoestring production values that are the critical ingredients in making it whatsoever tolerable. The story is a Neil Breen movie that is somehow presented in utmost sincerity, thrust at you insistently, forcibly between every strictly-timed work shift of gameplay. It would have been tolerable as background radio chatter DURING the gameplay loop, of which there is also a fair amount, but the game feels the need to pull you aside and chide you for excruciatingly long stretches for wanting to actually bloody play it. There is no skip, no fast-forward, no option to play without this travesty of a 'story' unless you abandon the career mode entirely and just play in the sandbox, which doesn't quite hold the same appeal. I've never seen such an otherwise enjoyable game brought so low by the addition of such an ill-conceived and executed framework that never needed to be tacked onto it in the first place.

This is fundamentally a game about two different things. The first is the actual gameplay loop. You have a laser cutter as well as a grapple that projects a little blue beam to grab stuff and move it. Stuff goes in one of three holes, and 95% of the game is cutting for a little while and then putting everything in the correct hole. The challenge is cutting and yanking without squishing, blowing apart, boiling, irradiating, or flash-freezing yourself and your prizes. It's easy to put down and pick up again and there's the right amount of diversity in ship types that you don't get bored but also don't forget how to work each one. This is also a game about capitalism, worker exploitation, and labor unions. There is a story, and during gameplay you will be treated to radio messages between your four colleagues (the foreman, two veteran cutters, and another novice), all of whom are honest and compassionate, and the overbearing manager. The climax of the game is, essentially, you going on strike and winning a variety of your rights back- in particular, an escape from several lifetimes of debt slavery. Worth a play, even at full price, but especially on sale.