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!

Very satisfying to play. Wish the story line wasn't quite so wordy, and it's getting a little _too_ accurate to real life, but the game is still an absolutely worthwhile investment of time and money!

Perfect game. Fell into the furnace after hitting myself with a computer terminal. 10/10.

amazing game very addcitve

Space cowboys

I enjoyed this game a lot. I bought it when it first came out, drifted away from it for a while, and recently returned to find that the devs have polished it into something I can easily recommend. I found it relaxing in a very satisfying way. As I improved my salvaging craft, I naturally developed an internal priority checklist: what needs to be extracted first, what can wait, and how to safely reach each milestone without making a costly mistake. Achievement-wise, it’s very straightforward. None of them felt boring, tedious, or overly grindy. If anything, I think the devs could have added a few more challenging or time-consuming achievements, such as completing the career without dying using the built-in No Revive mode, or fully acquiring every tool upgrade. Overall, it’s a polished, satisfying, and surprisingly relaxing experience that I’m glad I came back to. Achievements achieved at time of review: 27/27

Ship goes boom, me flies into big unknown

This is a wonderful plug in and relax to. The controls are very intuitive and straightforward so you can just enjoy your time. There's enough nuance to keep you interested and the variables create a lot of interesting challenges to keep you going.

Ships go boom.

This game is just consistently fun. The physics are on point and the 15 minute "shift" means I can play for a little while or a long session. I'd love it if there was story add ons but I'll take what I have and appreciate it for what it is, simply a fun game to play.