Hardspace: Shipbreaker

[h1] 7/10: A good time but not a long time [/h1] Hardspace Shipbreaker is a game about, primarily, protocols. You're introduced to new components, hazards and tasks at a relaxed pace where the game expects you to build up your own protocols once you've absorbed the information you're given. What steps can you skip when salvaging a Class II Reactor? In which order should you dismantle the Light Cargo Mackerel, or the Javelin Tanker and which parts should you prioritize or ignore depending on their salvage value? These are the questions you ask yourself and iterate upon as you progress through the hazard classes and job ranks. You're encouraged to experiment, to try and finish a salvage job faster next time or maximize your salvage value with less effort. If you mess up, even a reactor explosion will not wipe out the whole ship but only about 1/3rd of the total possible value. This tug-of-war between slow-paced methodical gameplay and frantic "speedrunning" of runs makes for a compelling gameplay loop and frequent upgrade opportunities keep things fresh for a while. Unfortunately, the game loses steam after a while. The demo charges didn't make as much of an impact in my gameplay as I expected, to the point where I actually forgot about them. Coolant Stuff and Radiation are absolutely negligible and "Ghost Ships" are barely novel enough to call themselves a gameplay twist. Towards the end, I was actively taking easier salvage jobs to farm Upgrade Tokens and Rank XP where the only real threat towards my profit margin was the backscatter of my point cutter somehow clipping a single pixel of a fuel tank, which is annoying but also only wipes out half a million dollars on average. Sigh and move on. Story is serviceable. I enjoyed the characters and their chatter (judging from other reviews I'm in the minority there), but the game doesn't take any risks with it, going for a classic futuristic space-industrial dystopia that puts you in the shoes of an indentured worker who helps kickstart the worker's uprising. The humor in the AI Control voicelines and the flavor text was a plus. The final act of the game is a non-committal mess though, where they go through the "Oh no, one of your Co-Workers just died... just kidding, they're back." Nothing bad happens in the game ever (if you look past getting "technically" enslaved and potentially dying in multiple clone bodies) and the "inspirational unionization and workers uprising" story falls flat when not only nothing is sacrificed, but everything turns around into a saccharine fairytale ending. I wish it were not so, but such efforts rarely happen without bloodshed. SFX are good and really sell the industrial scrapyard in a vacuum vibe. The music is good too, but there is no variation, which I really don't understand. Make me pay money to my employer for a radio station rental fee, so I can select different soundtracks! I had a good time with this game, albeit with some misgivings. Not sure if I would recommend it at full price, but if you can get it at a discount, grab it!