In This Sci-Fi Game You’re Not A Hero, Just A Regular Working Stiff, And That’s Why It’s Great
You don’t have to save the galaxy or fight off alien hordes in Hardspace: Shipbreaker—just turn up on time and do an honest day’s work.
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I love it when a game makes me work. There’s something strangely compelling about being a forklift operator in Shenmue, driving taxis in Grand Theft Auto, mining asteroids in Elite Dangerous, or ferrying cargo between cities in Euro Truck Simulator. I think it’s because so many games force you to engage with their worlds violently, as a character who is in some way superior to everyone else around them. So the idea of doing something mundane, as someone unremarkable, is refreshing. I also think it draws you into the setting more, because you’re seeing these places—even if it’s a fantastical world—from the relatable perspective of normal people who live and work there, not some legendary cop or space marine.
In Hardspace: Shipbreaker you’re not an ace pilot, bounty hunter, or elite soldier—you’re a regular working stiff. The game takes place in a vividly realised science fiction setting, but all the exciting stuff is happening somewhere else, to more interesting people. You’re a shipbreaker, which means you dismantle old spaceships for scrap. You aren’t even the best shipbreaker in the galaxy—just one of thousands grinding away in orbit above the Earth, working to pay off a comically huge debt you owe to a ruthless megacorporation. This is a future where capitalism has spiralled wildly out of control, and you’re an insignificant cog in a vast, cruel corporate machine. It’s a grim existence for them, but as a player it’s more interesting than being just another hero saving the universe.
Below you is a barge for storing expensive, reusable items such as airlocks, chairs, computer consoles, and control panels. To your left and right, a recycler and a furnace. The recycler is for dumping advanced materials that can be reconstituted into something else; the furnace is used to destroy disposable scrap and cheap metal. In the middle of all this is a rusty, derelict spaceship, which you must carefully pull apart using a variety of industrial tools. These include cargo vessels, science ships, and shuttles, each of which varies in size and presents a unique set of challenges. The bigger and more complex the ship is, the harder your job will be—and the more money you’ll get to put towards paying off your debt. It’s legitimately hard work, so don’t expect to have much fun playing Hardspace.
Well, it is fun—but an unconventional kind of fun that won’t appeal to everyone. You use a cutter to carve the ships up, then switch to a gravity tether, grabbing the pieces and hurling them into the barge, recycler, or furnace. Tethering a heavy chunk of metal, launching at the flaming mouth of the furnace, and watching it spin slowly towards it in zero G, before being consumed, is incredibly satisfying. Breaking even the smallest ships down into their many constituent parts is a long, gruelling process—but it’s also extremely relaxing. There’s something hypnotic about Shipbreaker, in the same way a lot of simulator games are. It’s like using a pressure washer: fundamentally a job, but methodically blasting the grime away, then standing back and seeing the result of your hard work, is just so rewarding.
More advanced ships are where the danger in Shipbreaker lurks. Some of them, like science research vessels, are loaded with volatile materials, often hidden away. If you’re slicing a metal panel with your cutter and you don’t notice a fuel tank behind it, it can be a costly mistake. You can trigger massive explosions that will blow ships into hundreds of spinning pieces, making your job even harder. This could also destroy valuable items that should have been tossed into the barge, losing you money in the process. When you have a debt in the billions, every credit counts. Being a shipbreaker is a difficult, challenging job, and the game is uncompromising when it comes to its physics simulation. If you make a mistake you have to live with it and tidy up the mess you’ve made as best you can.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is available now on PC via Steam Early Access. There’s a story mode where you can meet other shipbreakers, who will teach you the ropes and banter with you as you go about your job. It’s fine, but for me, the scrapping process itself is the real reason to play the game. Despite a lack of ship variety, the current Early Access version is well worth diving into now. The game is in a very polished, playable state, and it looks great too. The sight of the Earth looming below you as you work gives it a fantastic sense of scale, and the colourful, Chriss Foss-inspired ship and station designs are superb. If you like simulators and science fiction, this is a magnificent collision of the two. I’ve saved more galaxies than I can count, so it’s nice to play a game that just lets me exist in one.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/hardspace-shipbreaker-early-access-impressions/