Kind of an interesting case study in how games can very clearly and irrefutably be 'about something' while also fucking up the thesis so badly as to seem self-condemnatory.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a pro-union story that comes across as a propaganda piece meant to make unions look terrible, in much the same ways Starship Troopers is to fascism but accidentally as opposed to deliberately.
Shipbreaker begins on that precarious 'okay' platform that so many games end on and sadly doesn't get better. You, a faceless cog in a machine who follows orders, sign a contract with an inhumane megacorp that gives them the right to kill you and clone you indefinitely. You're then shunted into a gameplay loop which bottoms out at fine and doesn't really get better.
You play a game of Operation on some abandoned ships, ranging from simply dismantling it as one would dismantle a twink to carefully pruning out hazards so that you don't immediately die when you splitsaw is 1% off the mark and hits a ship-wide fuel line. It's... alright I guess. It never really goes anywhere interesting once you get the core upgrades and it unfortunately straddles the miniscule line between "indepth" and "braindead" that makes it fairly forgettable.
Unlike similar games it does tack on new challenges, but at their core they're just rehashes of things you've seen before: Something you need to exercise caution towards when removing from its location, something that you shouldn't touch with the saw or it'll explode, something
But I'm not here to talk about gameplay, I'm here to talk about writing, and Shipbreaker has a lot of issues.
Shipbreaker's stance towards manual labourers is strange and not because it's bad or unrealistic, but because it's one of the rare positive takes on them in the medium. Manual labourers are, speaking from experience, a proud and sardonic bunch who are fully aware that they're doing dangerous and [LITERALLY] back-breaking labour but also view it as a craft that they have become proficient in.
Shipbreaker agrees with this assessment, being one of the first games to acknowledge that people who do dangerous manual labour might genuinely love what they do and see it as a point of pride. There’s no irony or humour to it, it just is.
The problems stem from how this interacts with Shipbreaker's stance on unions, which is a messy and incoherent jumble of garbage written by what I can only assume is someone who's mostly worked office jobs and knows instinctively that unions are good but hasn’t bothered to understand WHY.
For starters, Shipbreaker's setting is every single stereotype about bad cyberpunk/sci-fi settings thrown into one. It throws the word 'overpopulation' around a lot which is a pretty bad indicator of the writer's politics. A company named LYNX helps people get off shithole-Earth but ropes them into ludicrous contracts that saddle someone with obscene debt and also kill them, because the contract includes a line about consenting to DNA harvesting for cloning purposes.
It's very hamfisted, and the rare moments the parody lands at all are the ones where they just pull something from the headlines, like CEOs getting off scot-free no matter what.
LYNX are absurdly evil, irrevocably evil, an entire capitalistic meat grinder unto themselves.
And your allies, the union, are okay with them.
Shipbreaker is a grand example of what ‘bad writing’ actually is, because in the writer’s negligence the game comes off as being both anti-union and pro-capitalist meatgrinder. I don’t think the writer intended this, it’s the only read I can take away from the game.
LYNX, to repeat myself, are super evil. Amazon’s real life evil multiplied exponentially forever and ever.
The in-game union don’t have any real issues with it. The union and its members know full well that the suffering they endure is deeply systemic, so fundamental to the machine that the entire thing is entirely unfixable. It views human lives as resources to the extent where they just kill new staff and clone them endlessly, claiming them as property
Shipbreaker’s story unfortunately betrays its characters, and they’re only really concerned with how it affects them. The climax of the story is less about the gang being upset about the world they live in and more about how annoyed they are at their middle management. They go on strike once and it works… kind of? Overtime is ended, middle management is gutted, the corporation nukes slavery clauses/statements from the contracts and…
Okay, the cloning thing is something I really need to focus on, because it explains a lot of what I dislike about this game.
This game opens with you signing the LYNX contract and immediately dying, with your clone being thrown out into space to start working. The end of the game has the Space UN intervene in the situation to outlaw cloning. Why wouldn’t they? It’s deeply immoral and exploitative tech that’s worse than the Artificial Intelligence technology the setting has already banned - tech which is (I assume, I may be giving the writer too much credit) deliberately used to highlight how awful cloning is. It’s a no brainer that it’d get nuked, right?
…Yeah okay so the Union actually loves cloning tech, so they go out of their way to ensure it’s kept around for them specifically. They essentially get a monopoly on the torment nexus.
Also everyone who caused this shit gets off scot-free.
…Sigh, god.
The real issue with this game is that a lot of the plot points can be defended with “but it’s realistic”, and that particular defense is mostly irrefutable.
I love unions. I am a devout proponent of worker solidarity, but I’m not naive enough to think everyone who gets involved with unions cares about every worker that’s like them. A lot of people only join up for self-preservation’s sake, giving nary a thought to others because they’ve secured their bag. This is sad, but it’s unfortunately human nature. So I guess on some level, the Shipbreaker’s Union being obsessed with self-preservation to the point of amorality isn’t unbelievable. Shit dude, farmers do it in real life all the time.
Likewise, yeah. In real life, companies get away scot-free all the time. They are the modern feudal monarchs, able to take losses but never truly lose. Really, a lot of what LYNX do in this game has already been done by either Activision, Amazon, Nestle or any Lithium mining company. Of course it’s believable that the Shipbreaker Union strike doesn’t actually hurt them in any meaningful way, and that they arguably benefit because none of the people involved were ever alive to mount a defense on account of clones.
It doesn’t help that both the gameplay and the narrative point out that nothing really changed. You ‘won’ some minor concessions, but you’re still stuck doing work where dying a horrific, undignified death aboard a silent lifeless spaceship results in little more than a new body being cooked up and sent out.
My ultimate problem, I suppose, is that the experience of Shipbreaker’s story simply compounds why “realistic writing” is such a pitfall. It is neither cathartic nor engaging to experience this story. Neither are the frustrations, inconsistent writing, and accidentally-awful protagonists intended. It may mirror reality, sure, but the end result is that the game comes across as waffling.
You ever see someone go to make a political statement at an award show but they freeze for a moment as their lost paychecks flash across their eyes? This game has the same cadence and hesitance. A game that wants to say “WOO! UNIONS!” but stumbles so much that it comes across as a hit piece. Let unions win and they’ll monopolize evil technology and happily shack up with the industrial hellmachine.
…The gameplay itself also runs counter to the story. Characters will repeatedly assert that they are not faceless cogs in the hellmachine and they are humans capable of autonomy and feeling.
You aren’t, though. You, the player, are a faceless personality-less cog in the hellmachine who does what they’re told. You are such an inconsequential cog in the machine that you can refuse to strike and the game still proceeds as if you did. It’s quite the dissonant experience to have the NPCs talk as if you’re actively sabotaging LYNX while you’re standing on the bridge of a ship, knocking out the frame of a window so you can do your job as you’ve been doing the entire game.
I wouldn’t recommend you buy Hardspace: Shipbreaker. If you read my reviews you probably have enough dignity to not want to subject yourself to what’s ostensibly a white midwesterner paraphrasing a union newsletter to you.
If you do have it, just mute the game. Put on a playlist or a good album - I recommend Wasted Mind, a legendary pop punk album - and enjoy the gameplay. It might be mid, but ‘Surgeon Simulator on ships’ is pretty cool, though Space Engineers might tickle your fance more.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a pro-union story that comes across as a propaganda piece meant to make unions look terrible, in much the same ways Starship Troopers is to fascism but accidentally as opposed to deliberately.
Shipbreaker begins on that precarious 'okay' platform that so many games end on and sadly doesn't get better. You, a faceless cog in a machine who follows orders, sign a contract with an inhumane megacorp that gives them the right to kill you and clone you indefinitely. You're then shunted into a gameplay loop which bottoms out at fine and doesn't really get better.
You play a game of Operation on some abandoned ships, ranging from simply dismantling it as one would dismantle a twink to carefully pruning out hazards so that you don't immediately die when you splitsaw is 1% off the mark and hits a ship-wide fuel line. It's... alright I guess. It never really goes anywhere interesting once you get the core upgrades and it unfortunately straddles the miniscule line between "indepth" and "braindead" that makes it fairly forgettable.
Unlike similar games it does tack on new challenges, but at their core they're just rehashes of things you've seen before: Something you need to exercise caution towards when removing from its location, something that you shouldn't touch with the saw or it'll explode, something
But I'm not here to talk about gameplay, I'm here to talk about writing, and Shipbreaker has a lot of issues.
Shipbreaker's stance towards manual labourers is strange and not because it's bad or unrealistic, but because it's one of the rare positive takes on them in the medium. Manual labourers are, speaking from experience, a proud and sardonic bunch who are fully aware that they're doing dangerous and [LITERALLY] back-breaking labour but also view it as a craft that they have become proficient in.
Shipbreaker agrees with this assessment, being one of the first games to acknowledge that people who do dangerous manual labour might genuinely love what they do and see it as a point of pride. There’s no irony or humour to it, it just is.
The problems stem from how this interacts with Shipbreaker's stance on unions, which is a messy and incoherent jumble of garbage written by what I can only assume is someone who's mostly worked office jobs and knows instinctively that unions are good but hasn’t bothered to understand WHY.
For starters, Shipbreaker's setting is every single stereotype about bad cyberpunk/sci-fi settings thrown into one. It throws the word 'overpopulation' around a lot which is a pretty bad indicator of the writer's politics. A company named LYNX helps people get off shithole-Earth but ropes them into ludicrous contracts that saddle someone with obscene debt and also kill them, because the contract includes a line about consenting to DNA harvesting for cloning purposes.
It's very hamfisted, and the rare moments the parody lands at all are the ones where they just pull something from the headlines, like CEOs getting off scot-free no matter what.
LYNX are absurdly evil, irrevocably evil, an entire capitalistic meat grinder unto themselves.
And your allies, the union, are okay with them.
Shipbreaker is a grand example of what ‘bad writing’ actually is, because in the writer’s negligence the game comes off as being both anti-union and pro-capitalist meatgrinder. I don’t think the writer intended this, it’s the only read I can take away from the game.
LYNX, to repeat myself, are super evil. Amazon’s real life evil multiplied exponentially forever and ever.
The in-game union don’t have any real issues with it. The union and its members know full well that the suffering they endure is deeply systemic, so fundamental to the machine that the entire thing is entirely unfixable. It views human lives as resources to the extent where they just kill new staff and clone them endlessly, claiming them as property
Shipbreaker’s story unfortunately betrays its characters, and they’re only really concerned with how it affects them. The climax of the story is less about the gang being upset about the world they live in and more about how annoyed they are at their middle management. They go on strike once and it works… kind of? Overtime is ended, middle management is gutted, the corporation nukes slavery clauses/statements from the contracts and…
Okay, the cloning thing is something I really need to focus on, because it explains a lot of what I dislike about this game.
This game opens with you signing the LYNX contract and immediately dying, with your clone being thrown out into space to start working. The end of the game has the Space UN intervene in the situation to outlaw cloning. Why wouldn’t they? It’s deeply immoral and exploitative tech that’s worse than the Artificial Intelligence technology the setting has already banned - tech which is (I assume, I may be giving the writer too much credit) deliberately used to highlight how awful cloning is. It’s a no brainer that it’d get nuked, right?
…Yeah okay so the Union actually loves cloning tech, so they go out of their way to ensure it’s kept around for them specifically. They essentially get a monopoly on the torment nexus.
Also everyone who caused this shit gets off scot-free.
…Sigh, god.
The real issue with this game is that a lot of the plot points can be defended with “but it’s realistic”, and that particular defense is mostly irrefutable.
I love unions. I am a devout proponent of worker solidarity, but I’m not naive enough to think everyone who gets involved with unions cares about every worker that’s like them. A lot of people only join up for self-preservation’s sake, giving nary a thought to others because they’ve secured their bag. This is sad, but it’s unfortunately human nature. So I guess on some level, the Shipbreaker’s Union being obsessed with self-preservation to the point of amorality isn’t unbelievable. Shit dude, farmers do it in real life all the time.
Likewise, yeah. In real life, companies get away scot-free all the time. They are the modern feudal monarchs, able to take losses but never truly lose. Really, a lot of what LYNX do in this game has already been done by either Activision, Amazon, Nestle or any Lithium mining company. Of course it’s believable that the Shipbreaker Union strike doesn’t actually hurt them in any meaningful way, and that they arguably benefit because none of the people involved were ever alive to mount a defense on account of clones.
It doesn’t help that both the gameplay and the narrative point out that nothing really changed. You ‘won’ some minor concessions, but you’re still stuck doing work where dying a horrific, undignified death aboard a silent lifeless spaceship results in little more than a new body being cooked up and sent out.
My ultimate problem, I suppose, is that the experience of Shipbreaker’s story simply compounds why “realistic writing” is such a pitfall. It is neither cathartic nor engaging to experience this story. Neither are the frustrations, inconsistent writing, and accidentally-awful protagonists intended. It may mirror reality, sure, but the end result is that the game comes across as waffling.
You ever see someone go to make a political statement at an award show but they freeze for a moment as their lost paychecks flash across their eyes? This game has the same cadence and hesitance. A game that wants to say “WOO! UNIONS!” but stumbles so much that it comes across as a hit piece. Let unions win and they’ll monopolize evil technology and happily shack up with the industrial hellmachine.
…The gameplay itself also runs counter to the story. Characters will repeatedly assert that they are not faceless cogs in the hellmachine and they are humans capable of autonomy and feeling.
You aren’t, though. You, the player, are a faceless personality-less cog in the hellmachine who does what they’re told. You are such an inconsequential cog in the machine that you can refuse to strike and the game still proceeds as if you did. It’s quite the dissonant experience to have the NPCs talk as if you’re actively sabotaging LYNX while you’re standing on the bridge of a ship, knocking out the frame of a window so you can do your job as you’ve been doing the entire game.
I wouldn’t recommend you buy Hardspace: Shipbreaker. If you read my reviews you probably have enough dignity to not want to subject yourself to what’s ostensibly a white midwesterner paraphrasing a union newsletter to you.
If you do have it, just mute the game. Put on a playlist or a good album - I recommend Wasted Mind, a legendary pop punk album - and enjoy the gameplay. It might be mid, but ‘Surgeon Simulator on ships’ is pretty cool, though Space Engineers might tickle your fance more.
at this point working a hyper lethal blue collar job for terrible wages at the behest of a gigantic monopoly but in space suffices as optimistic science fiction
More games need an INDUSTRIAL ACTION menu option tbh.
I haven't played much, if anything, like this. In this game you work as a Shipbreaker. You float around in space in a port and disassemble starships. It's an oddly cathartic experience as you are essentially just working a job not many would opt to do.
You start in massive debt and the game is very tongue in cheek about the abysmal capitalist hellscape that becomes the near future as you, as an employee, are treated more like equipment than a person. That actually becomes the focal point of the frankly obvious story of the game in which members of your crew decide enough is enough and try to fight the system which results in varying consequences. Despite the predictability though, I did find the characters quite engaging. The sympathetic ones really got to me and made me care about the struggle and the antagonist in this is written to be real despicable. All that works well and plays out passively as you continue your work. Hell the only time you do anything of consequence to the story ultimately doesn't matter much but the character moments and flavor text make it enjoyable enough to go through anyway.
The actual gameplay is superb. I was on the "normal" difficulty which places you in work shifts that last 15 real world minutes each. You start out simple enough learning to separate pieces and to place them in appropriate places like a furnace, processor, or a barge. You gain familiarity with your cutting tool and a grapple gun and then gradually you are introduced to various hazards and dangers. While you work you have to keep in mind your oxygen levels and thruster fuel, which can be restored at a vendor near your work space. You also have access to medkits and repairs for your tools and suit. Everything wears down and must be repaired over time. You also have to be aware of hazards such as fires or explosions that can happen through mishandling certain parts, freezing that can occur from broken coolant pipes, electrocution that can spark from removing electronics, and radiation damage from handling certain filters. It sounds like a lot but as I mentioned it is all introduced gradually.
All the hazards and upkeep and the story that occurs with chatter from coworkers combined with the general day to day feel of working and paying your debt ultimately leads to a really immersive future job sim that I absolutely loved chipping away at over the last few weeks. I imagine it's not a thing for everyone but if you enjoyed games like PowerWash Simulator or more of a Papers, Please type game with some tension in the mix then I definitely recommend Hardspace: Shipbreaker.
You start in massive debt and the game is very tongue in cheek about the abysmal capitalist hellscape that becomes the near future as you, as an employee, are treated more like equipment than a person. That actually becomes the focal point of the frankly obvious story of the game in which members of your crew decide enough is enough and try to fight the system which results in varying consequences. Despite the predictability though, I did find the characters quite engaging. The sympathetic ones really got to me and made me care about the struggle and the antagonist in this is written to be real despicable. All that works well and plays out passively as you continue your work. Hell the only time you do anything of consequence to the story ultimately doesn't matter much but the character moments and flavor text make it enjoyable enough to go through anyway.
The actual gameplay is superb. I was on the "normal" difficulty which places you in work shifts that last 15 real world minutes each. You start out simple enough learning to separate pieces and to place them in appropriate places like a furnace, processor, or a barge. You gain familiarity with your cutting tool and a grapple gun and then gradually you are introduced to various hazards and dangers. While you work you have to keep in mind your oxygen levels and thruster fuel, which can be restored at a vendor near your work space. You also have access to medkits and repairs for your tools and suit. Everything wears down and must be repaired over time. You also have to be aware of hazards such as fires or explosions that can happen through mishandling certain parts, freezing that can occur from broken coolant pipes, electrocution that can spark from removing electronics, and radiation damage from handling certain filters. It sounds like a lot but as I mentioned it is all introduced gradually.
All the hazards and upkeep and the story that occurs with chatter from coworkers combined with the general day to day feel of working and paying your debt ultimately leads to a really immersive future job sim that I absolutely loved chipping away at over the last few weeks. I imagine it's not a thing for everyone but if you enjoyed games like PowerWash Simulator or more of a Papers, Please type game with some tension in the mix then I definitely recommend Hardspace: Shipbreaker.
incredible concept that is brought down by a very unnecessary story, and lack of ship variety.
This is very much a game for a mood where you just want to zone out and perform similar tasks over and over. It is a game of chores. The very premise is that you're stuck in debt slavery doing dangerous labor under awful conditions, and the labor you're doing is the heart of what it is to actually play the game.
There's writing too, and the writing is good—a classic spacepunk satire of capitalism and the bonds it forces us into as it tries to sap everything human from our lives. But it also places the game in an odd position: the steady repetition invites the player to put on an audio book and vibe, but the infrequent moments of dialog and text push in the opposite direction. It asks for a lot of patience, either with not much happening or with abrupt context switches.
After interrupting my playthrough for Armored Core VI, I found myself reluctant to pick this up again. I'm happy to assume that as the levels progress the player gets more and more interesting abilities and complex ships to disassemble, but the repetition of the basic actions of crawling through the ship looking for cut points and popping back for oxygen was just exhausting to think about. Maybe another time, when I need exactly this level of semi-engagement.
There's writing too, and the writing is good—a classic spacepunk satire of capitalism and the bonds it forces us into as it tries to sap everything human from our lives. But it also places the game in an odd position: the steady repetition invites the player to put on an audio book and vibe, but the infrequent moments of dialog and text push in the opposite direction. It asks for a lot of patience, either with not much happening or with abrupt context switches.
After interrupting my playthrough for Armored Core VI, I found myself reluctant to pick this up again. I'm happy to assume that as the levels progress the player gets more and more interesting abilities and complex ships to disassemble, but the repetition of the basic actions of crawling through the ship looking for cut points and popping back for oxygen was just exhausting to think about. Maybe another time, when I need exactly this level of semi-engagement.
the progression gets kinda glacial in the final third of the game and you really start to want variety -- not neccessarily more ship types either, but perhaps something like a "hot job" which requires fast damage control or maybe a forced one-shifter? the bones are good, the meat is good, just wish they found a way to stretch it a bit further
it's fun floating about and doing the rather facile painting-by-numbers though, and the last mission is a funny premise that ends the game pretty well
it's fun floating about and doing the rather facile painting-by-numbers though, and the last mission is a funny premise that ends the game pretty well
This game is currently in the Humble Choice for November 2023, and this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before December 5th, 2023, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.
A casual game about ripping apart giant hulking spacecrafts.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker could easily have the word simulator added to the end of it. This is a game in the same vein as House Flipper or Powerwash Simulator. Each ship almost feels like a puzzle box with players needing to split the ship apart and then sort it to be broken down. It's a strange but rewarding experience for the right type of people. There is also an upgrade system for your tools and a rank system that will provide harder and harder ships to break apart.
The one thing that never really worked for me in this title after 30 hours, is the story. I can rip the story apart, but it’s more how it’s told. Rather than having chatter while you’re working on a ship for 15 minutes, instead, it’s a very passive experience where you’re forced to stand or sit still while the game lectures in a blunt way. There’s also not a ton to do after you finish the game, and this is only going to appeal to some people who like that incremental type of game where they grind down a large debt. Kind of like real life.
Pick this up if you like the simulator genre. This is a very slow game, like I said, I spent about 30 hours here, but it’s also extremely chill and relaxed and honestly, I enjoyed the entire time I played it. My biggest issue is I want more, more challenges, more ships, and maybe some unique challenges. That’s a pretty good complaint after spending 30 hours with a title.
If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/NSoVlkgy0D0
A casual game about ripping apart giant hulking spacecrafts.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker could easily have the word simulator added to the end of it. This is a game in the same vein as House Flipper or Powerwash Simulator. Each ship almost feels like a puzzle box with players needing to split the ship apart and then sort it to be broken down. It's a strange but rewarding experience for the right type of people. There is also an upgrade system for your tools and a rank system that will provide harder and harder ships to break apart.
The one thing that never really worked for me in this title after 30 hours, is the story. I can rip the story apart, but it’s more how it’s told. Rather than having chatter while you’re working on a ship for 15 minutes, instead, it’s a very passive experience where you’re forced to stand or sit still while the game lectures in a blunt way. There’s also not a ton to do after you finish the game, and this is only going to appeal to some people who like that incremental type of game where they grind down a large debt. Kind of like real life.
Pick this up if you like the simulator genre. This is a very slow game, like I said, I spent about 30 hours here, but it’s also extremely chill and relaxed and honestly, I enjoyed the entire time I played it. My biggest issue is I want more, more challenges, more ships, and maybe some unique challenges. That’s a pretty good complaint after spending 30 hours with a title.
If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/NSoVlkgy0D0
This review contains spoilers
actually i hadn't completed it on the last entry, now i did. it's really good on the gameplay department but it really loses me on the story, it comes off as very rushed, and even with the positive, pro-union message, it's done so poorly it's unbelievable.
I mean, first off, since your character has no interaction options, characters sometimes do stuff on your behalf, which is most evident when your co-worker, Lou, signs you up for the Union newsletter on your second day, which is really stupid to do from the standpoint of being risky for the Union, since they do not know what alliegances or values the protag might have off the bat (or if they're likely to be very easily pressured into giving them up, like how it happened with Kai), and also to involve somebody with the union who is not informed about the potential risk of even being caught with union messaging and not immediately reporting it is insanely dumb.
Then, at a time where the Union is being ACTIVELY TARGETED, to the point of sending in managers to investigate work crews, they publish a newsletter entry with Lou's full name and position in the company.
Then, at the end, when the Union gets a foothold into negotiations with the Company, they both trigger a policy change to ban the clones the company used in lieu of providing any sort of safeguards for the workers, and also make it so they are exempt from the cloning ban, INSTEAD of, again, providing the workers with any safeguards whatsoever.
I get that they wanted to give the game a post-end stage, but in an (ideally) story-driven mode, it would be kind of wanted to have it changing the gameplay. So, for example, you'd have less hazards in the ships, shorter shifts and less stringent quotas, at the cost of maybe for example nerfing your tools so that it would be harder to say, have a seat fly into your helmet at terminal velocity. Fuck it, you have a Freeplay mode already.
i know, it's a small indie studio and they probably would have to put dozens, if not hundreds of hours into implementing even one of my suggestions, but it would've been a much better game without the half baked plot put into it.
I mean, first off, since your character has no interaction options, characters sometimes do stuff on your behalf, which is most evident when your co-worker, Lou, signs you up for the Union newsletter on your second day, which is really stupid to do from the standpoint of being risky for the Union, since they do not know what alliegances or values the protag might have off the bat (or if they're likely to be very easily pressured into giving them up, like how it happened with Kai), and also to involve somebody with the union who is not informed about the potential risk of even being caught with union messaging and not immediately reporting it is insanely dumb.
Then, at a time where the Union is being ACTIVELY TARGETED, to the point of sending in managers to investigate work crews, they publish a newsletter entry with Lou's full name and position in the company.
Then, at the end, when the Union gets a foothold into negotiations with the Company, they both trigger a policy change to ban the clones the company used in lieu of providing any sort of safeguards for the workers, and also make it so they are exempt from the cloning ban, INSTEAD of, again, providing the workers with any safeguards whatsoever.
I get that they wanted to give the game a post-end stage, but in an (ideally) story-driven mode, it would be kind of wanted to have it changing the gameplay. So, for example, you'd have less hazards in the ships, shorter shifts and less stringent quotas, at the cost of maybe for example nerfing your tools so that it would be harder to say, have a seat fly into your helmet at terminal velocity. Fuck it, you have a Freeplay mode already.
i know, it's a small indie studio and they probably would have to put dozens, if not hundreds of hours into implementing even one of my suggestions, but it would've been a much better game without the half baked plot put into it.
One of the most engaging boring games i've played. Surprisingly sharp writing with subject matter that is easily fumbled.
Esa desesperación al inicio mientras le agarras el pedo a esta madre es de las cosas más inmersivas que he sentido.
I started going through the Xbox Game Pass, and continued on Steam.
I recommend it to those who like meditative gameplay, simple puzzles with an understanding of the case, an interesting plot (surprisingly). The atmosphere in places resembles Deep Rock Galactic, a prison from Star Citizen and hard workers from the factory.
A game for those who like:
Titan A.E.
https://youtu.be/uv7QROVpyhw
ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ/PLANETES
https://youtu.be/igmZSI3kILY
The Orbital Children
https://youtu.be/a3J4KbvIslA
Techies and space engineers should definitely pass. You immediately understand the rules of occupational health and safety at work, because you want to keep within 1 shift, even with large vessels, and you start immediately with a burner by area (instead of step-by-step disassembly of the cladding and removal of dangerous combustible /electrical / nuclear, etc. elements). And an accident at work will not keep you waiting.
It may seem that HARDSPACE is monotonous, but this can be said about any game in which you will understand the mechanics. There is also a high variety of situations and a new gaming experience.
After passing, I advise you to watch a documentary about the company and the unions of AMERICAN FACTORY 2019.
I recommend it to those who like meditative gameplay, simple puzzles with an understanding of the case, an interesting plot (surprisingly). The atmosphere in places resembles Deep Rock Galactic, a prison from Star Citizen and hard workers from the factory.
A game for those who like:
Titan A.E.
https://youtu.be/uv7QROVpyhw
ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ/PLANETES
https://youtu.be/igmZSI3kILY
The Orbital Children
https://youtu.be/a3J4KbvIslA
Techies and space engineers should definitely pass. You immediately understand the rules of occupational health and safety at work, because you want to keep within 1 shift, even with large vessels, and you start immediately with a burner by area (instead of step-by-step disassembly of the cladding and removal of dangerous combustible /electrical / nuclear, etc. elements). And an accident at work will not keep you waiting.
It may seem that HARDSPACE is monotonous, but this can be said about any game in which you will understand the mechanics. There is also a high variety of situations and a new gaming experience.
After passing, I advise you to watch a documentary about the company and the unions of AMERICAN FACTORY 2019.
I fucking love debt.
É um jogo que simula uma situação de trabalho horrível, com uma história interessante. O trabalho que você faz é muito legal, e me fez ficar viciado. Perto do fim do jogo era bem dificil.
O maior problema é que ele simula o trabalho te dando muito trabalho. Chegou um ponto que eu já não aguentava fazer sempre a mesma coisa, então acabei parando antes de ver o fim da história. Mesmo assim minha nota é alta porque me prendeu bem.
O maior problema é que ele simula o trabalho te dando muito trabalho. Chegou um ponto que eu já não aguentava fazer sempre a mesma coisa, então acabei parando antes de ver o fim da história. Mesmo assim minha nota é alta porque me prendeu bem.
Fantastic game, but unfortunately one I continue to fail to finish. Its pro-union, anti-capitalist stance is a wonderful balance to a game like this, one fueled toward making profit off the carcasses of something left behind by human waste.
The antagonist of the game feels like someone you could TRULY see in real life. The kind of horrible asshole boss that is genuinely out there, terrorizing businesses across the world.
Chilling.
The antagonist of the game feels like someone you could TRULY see in real life. The kind of horrible asshole boss that is genuinely out there, terrorizing businesses across the world.
Chilling.
There's a ton of work simulator games but not many about workers, which is a shame, cause it adds a lot to this one.
The core game play rules. It just really clicked with me. Learning the ships felt good. Trying to work too fast and getting sucked into the furnace really made me re-experience the feeling of fucking up at various jobs. I like how mistakes aren't really punished mechanically, but the context makes you feel bad anyway.
In general, I was a big fan of the writing. Lot of the specifics about the work and the characters felt real. A subtle thing I think they nailed is how there actually are people who like doing dangerous, physically demanding jobs, and people who take pride in their work, and how the company uses that earnestness to exploit them further. Also, upgrade trees suck, so it was a good joke how all the upgrades are about having to pay for proper software updates and safety measures.
The dialog gets a little hokey, and I didn't like all the performances, but whatever. The endings (both of em) were just awful. But overall a game that was extremely my shit.
The core game play rules. It just really clicked with me. Learning the ships felt good. Trying to work too fast and getting sucked into the furnace really made me re-experience the feeling of fucking up at various jobs. I like how mistakes aren't really punished mechanically, but the context makes you feel bad anyway.
In general, I was a big fan of the writing. Lot of the specifics about the work and the characters felt real. A subtle thing I think they nailed is how there actually are people who like doing dangerous, physically demanding jobs, and people who take pride in their work, and how the company uses that earnestness to exploit them further. Also, upgrade trees suck, so it was a good joke how all the upgrades are about having to pay for proper software updates and safety measures.
The dialog gets a little hokey, and I didn't like all the performances, but whatever. The endings (both of em) were just awful. But overall a game that was extremely my shit.
A really solid game with a gameplay loop that's sorta in that Power Wash Simulator way, just nowhere near as satisfying with controls that are just a little frustrating since you're in space and dealing with gravity woes. Not enough for me to stick with it long term but there's enough here to say it's worth giving a shot to.
Fucking amazing. It is powerwashing simulator but better. it is powerwashing simulator with a story and a world and a fuck ton more effort. It is the perfect simulator game: by far the best depiction of manual labor in a video game I've seen
there is something undeniably satisfying about the slow, methodical unweaving of giant spaceships into their constituent parts, and the zero-g controls that are both intuitive yet complicated enough to sometimes cause catastrophic screw ups lead to a lot of fun situations where you fucking vaporize yourself. narrative-wise, disco elysium this ain't, and everything sticks around just a bit too long to where it starts to feel like an actual job, but ultimately i think the good here edges out the bad.
Truly a novel concept. Gets half a star knocked off because of the fact that YOU CAN'T SKIP THE FUCKING RADIO CHATTER WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY DID THEY DO THAT?
Class conscious-less scabs in the backloggd reviews 🤢
I liked the story! It was peppered in just enough to string the gameplay along but wasn't as obtrusive as others are saying. Pretty good voice acting all around. In addition, it's the best job simulator around, as it's for one that doesn't exist. Making it less psychologically off that you're doing chores while playing a game. It does get a bit repetitive after a while, had some occasionally inconsistencies(blew up a tank while aiming at a cut point 45 degrees from the tank) and you only encounter so many new mechanics, but it still has a decently long shelf life with plenty of ways to revisit when you want.
I liked the story! It was peppered in just enough to string the gameplay along but wasn't as obtrusive as others are saying. Pretty good voice acting all around. In addition, it's the best job simulator around, as it's for one that doesn't exist. Making it less psychologically off that you're doing chores while playing a game. It does get a bit repetitive after a while, had some occasionally inconsistencies(blew up a tank while aiming at a cut point 45 degrees from the tank) and you only encounter so many new mechanics, but it still has a decently long shelf life with plenty of ways to revisit when you want.
Gets boring really fast. Progression is slow with unnecessary unskippable dialogue.
Hypercapitalism simulator. 10 hour shifts are not uncommon.
Updated now that I've finished it. YEAH! INDUSTRIAL ACTION! FUCK CORPORATIONS AND SCI FI TROPES!
Updated now that I've finished it. YEAH! INDUSTRIAL ACTION! FUCK CORPORATIONS AND SCI FI TROPES!
One of the most mechanically satisfying games that leaves you feeling prideful about your developed skills and knowledge about shipbreaking. Voice acting provides a pleasant but minimal human connection to buffer the cold corporate setting. It's unfortunate that the game was dropping a lot of frames when you get to the bigger and more complicated ships, but its a compromise I'm happy with the level of detail of the physics and systems.
simulador de peao
What a fantastic game! This has everything you could ever hope for, but above all, this is a game-mechanics smorgasbord.
I can't express enough how much this game is a neuron activation experience. If you have the right brain as someone who really just likes to see a job be completed, from start to finish, this is right up your alley. And if you're also the sort of person who loves to discover tons of little efficiencies, this game is for you. This game revels in the playground it gives you. It doesn't tell you how to do anyhting. Similar to other "work" games, the fun here is maximizing your efforts in small but meaningful ways to watch your task become complete. It's all about problem solving, and the cherry on top is that you're cutting up epic spaceships in zero-Gs.
There are right ways to do some things, but the game never punishes you for playing or experimenting. Want to rip up the spaceship up by all the cutpoints, and then remove everything piecemeal? Do it! Want to Take the guts out first, and then pull off the siding? Do it! Want to slice the ship into tiny pieces and then send those pieces on their way? Do it! There are no real "correct" ways to cut up ships, and that makes things fun. Each ship is a new puzzle, each with increasing complexity. The trick is, there are dozens of right answers to the puzzle, and the right answer for you is whatever you do in the moment.
Special note also needs to be made for the sheer ship variety. There are tons of ship types, from little cruisers to massive freighters. The scale of the ships is very impressive, and when you scrap a giant freighter over the course of 4-5 sessions, you really feel accomplished for all the hard work you had to put in. Each ship also feels lovingly crafted. Even though there is some procedural generation going on behind the scenes, this is easily blanketed over by how detailed each ship is. There are so many various ways the ship is able to be torn apart, it's amazing to think about the engineering knowledge required to design these ships, even as a game. Everything feels purposeful, and comparing them to other ships makes them all feel unique.
The game also has a narrative, which is unexpected. But this is where the game falters a bit. The actual narrative design - the setting you're in, the lore of the place, is all extremely good. However, the plot is a little scuffed. The general idea is neat: you're in a dystopian capitalist hellhole on the edge of space, and stuck in endless debt. A very millennial vibe. However, the characters - with the exception of Weaver - were all exceptionally annoying. Deedee is the rough lady, Kai is the dummy, and they never really show any dimension throughout the story.
Weaver is fantastic, and even though he is a bit repetitive, he is an anchor for your emotional investment, so it works. What doesn't work is Lou. It's very clear this is the dev team's waifu, as she is effectively painted as morally righteous at all times, even when she's being a huge jerk and deliberately getting herself in trouble. She can't do wrong, because she's the good guy, right guys?! I appreciate what they were trying to go for with her and the arc she takes, involved with your silent protagonist. But man, I was so annoyed and angry every time she got air time when I wasn't busy with the gameplay; I just wanted her to shut up and stop preaching.
The only actual gripe, beyond subjective opinions on the narrative, are that there are unskippable audio-log cutscenes in the barracks. This is a very minor gripe, all things considered. But given how much of the game is just you working, these would be the ideal times for these audio-log scenes, giving you something to focus on while you perform rote tasks. Instead, you're forced to literally stare out of a window while the characters rant to you about plot or their personal woes.
But the fact that the only real gripe for this entire game - a chunky 30 hour experience if you're leisurely - is a testament to how much goodness is stuffed in here. The progression system lends well to a feeling of advancement. And hey, want more after the campaign is done? You can cut up ships to your heart's content in the free play mode. I can't express how many hours I've happily wasted cutting of ships outside of the campaign just because the gameplay loop is so fun and addicting. And let's not forget that absolutely stellar soundtrack. If you told me I would love an album of Appalachian bluegrass, I would have called you crazy. Yet here I am.
All in all, beyond the slightly contrived and sometimes disruptive plot, this game is an absolute must play for the mechanical addiction that it provides. It's theme and setting mixed with its concept and execution are praise worthy alone, and the gameplay loop is beyond fun.
I can't express enough how much this game is a neuron activation experience. If you have the right brain as someone who really just likes to see a job be completed, from start to finish, this is right up your alley. And if you're also the sort of person who loves to discover tons of little efficiencies, this game is for you. This game revels in the playground it gives you. It doesn't tell you how to do anyhting. Similar to other "work" games, the fun here is maximizing your efforts in small but meaningful ways to watch your task become complete. It's all about problem solving, and the cherry on top is that you're cutting up epic spaceships in zero-Gs.
There are right ways to do some things, but the game never punishes you for playing or experimenting. Want to rip up the spaceship up by all the cutpoints, and then remove everything piecemeal? Do it! Want to Take the guts out first, and then pull off the siding? Do it! Want to slice the ship into tiny pieces and then send those pieces on their way? Do it! There are no real "correct" ways to cut up ships, and that makes things fun. Each ship is a new puzzle, each with increasing complexity. The trick is, there are dozens of right answers to the puzzle, and the right answer for you is whatever you do in the moment.
Special note also needs to be made for the sheer ship variety. There are tons of ship types, from little cruisers to massive freighters. The scale of the ships is very impressive, and when you scrap a giant freighter over the course of 4-5 sessions, you really feel accomplished for all the hard work you had to put in. Each ship also feels lovingly crafted. Even though there is some procedural generation going on behind the scenes, this is easily blanketed over by how detailed each ship is. There are so many various ways the ship is able to be torn apart, it's amazing to think about the engineering knowledge required to design these ships, even as a game. Everything feels purposeful, and comparing them to other ships makes them all feel unique.
The game also has a narrative, which is unexpected. But this is where the game falters a bit. The actual narrative design - the setting you're in, the lore of the place, is all extremely good. However, the plot is a little scuffed. The general idea is neat: you're in a dystopian capitalist hellhole on the edge of space, and stuck in endless debt. A very millennial vibe. However, the characters - with the exception of Weaver - were all exceptionally annoying. Deedee is the rough lady, Kai is the dummy, and they never really show any dimension throughout the story.
Weaver is fantastic, and even though he is a bit repetitive, he is an anchor for your emotional investment, so it works. What doesn't work is Lou. It's very clear this is the dev team's waifu, as she is effectively painted as morally righteous at all times, even when she's being a huge jerk and deliberately getting herself in trouble. She can't do wrong, because she's the good guy, right guys?! I appreciate what they were trying to go for with her and the arc she takes, involved with your silent protagonist. But man, I was so annoyed and angry every time she got air time when I wasn't busy with the gameplay; I just wanted her to shut up and stop preaching.
The only actual gripe, beyond subjective opinions on the narrative, are that there are unskippable audio-log cutscenes in the barracks. This is a very minor gripe, all things considered. But given how much of the game is just you working, these would be the ideal times for these audio-log scenes, giving you something to focus on while you perform rote tasks. Instead, you're forced to literally stare out of a window while the characters rant to you about plot or their personal woes.
But the fact that the only real gripe for this entire game - a chunky 30 hour experience if you're leisurely - is a testament to how much goodness is stuffed in here. The progression system lends well to a feeling of advancement. And hey, want more after the campaign is done? You can cut up ships to your heart's content in the free play mode. I can't express how many hours I've happily wasted cutting of ships outside of the campaign just because the gameplay loop is so fun and addicting. And let's not forget that absolutely stellar soundtrack. If you told me I would love an album of Appalachian bluegrass, I would have called you crazy. Yet here I am.
All in all, beyond the slightly contrived and sometimes disruptive plot, this game is an absolute must play for the mechanical addiction that it provides. It's theme and setting mixed with its concept and execution are praise worthy alone, and the gameplay loop is beyond fun.
Super chill game; the fact that this started life like a decade ago as a Homeworld spinoff or pseduo-sequel or whatever is absolutely wild.
Very good and original idea, extremely well executed. Just thought the progression gets really slow, so the game gets very repetitive halfway through, and I ended up abandoning even though I was very interested in where the story was going.
I think the progression is stalled by two major reasons. First, is the 15 minutes time limiter that completely breaks the pacing for no reason at all (I think it even goes against the story that the game is trying to tell. I would be very happy with my employer if I had 15 minutes working days). Secondly, is just the overall progression of equipments and ranks. I understand that dumping too much information to the player may be overwhelming, but in this case it's just too slow, and you end up repeating the same ships without much progress.
I think the progression is stalled by two major reasons. First, is the 15 minutes time limiter that completely breaks the pacing for no reason at all (I think it even goes against the story that the game is trying to tell. I would be very happy with my employer if I had 15 minutes working days). Secondly, is just the overall progression of equipments and ranks. I understand that dumping too much information to the player may be overwhelming, but in this case it's just too slow, and you end up repeating the same ships without much progress.
The gameplay is relaxing and nice but i couldnt go through the whole story
kinda fun, kinda meh but looks pretty