Hardspace: Shipbreaker

I realize that many players appreciate exactly what I hate about the game but others with similar expectations to mine do deserve a word of warning. First off, if your point of reference are job simulators like Car Mechanic Simulator then yeah: Shipbreaker is a pretty impressive title as it has all of that relaxing menial work with the bonus of pretty high production value and a surprisingly developed narrative. Floating around in weightlessness, physics-based destruction and a few systems that can kill you if you aren't careful do make this game a lot more engaging than most job simulators I have played. If that's all you need: good for you. That said: after all the praise the game has gotten I was counting on a bit more. I realize this game has "breaker" rather than "engineer" in its title for a reason but still, I was counting on more open-endedness and more fulfilling progression - well, and certainly more fun "breaking". In spite of the free first-person movement and seemingly systemic gameplay, the game is really content-driven and there just isn't much content. The toolset you receive is tiny (and one of the three available tools heavily duplicates another) and so is the number of ship systems you have to learn how to deal with. Soon enough all ships you're disassembling start feeling exactly the same and require (with perhaps one odd exception) exactly the same strategies. There's a ton of upgrades you need to farm skill points for but they don't generally change how you play the game and mostly only soften stuff that actively hassles you (like small tool ranges and having to replenish oxygen constantly). I actually liked the narrative but I hated the amount of mindless grinding I had to do to reach the end of it. If you want a game that challenges you intellectually in any way: this is not it. If you just want to relax but not shut off your brain entirely (because then you're gonna die): then this game is an awesome choice.

Are you a casual? Did you like the passport stamping gameplay loop in Papers Please? Perhaps you enjoyed mopping around Sci-fi areas in Viscera? Or you found Truck Simulator a perfect distraction for your hands while listening to podcasts? Or you enjoyed the bliss of changing out processors in PC Building Simulator? Or some other example I cannot think of? Or perhaps, like me, you saw the intro cutscene to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order where Cal Kestis dismantles Imperial Star Destroyers for parts and thought to yourself "Wow. I'd like a game about JUST THAT". If so - THIS GAME IS FOR YOU. It is what it says on the tin - do a rather menial task of breaking up spaceships into components and sorting those into three nifty "boxes". The game is as challenging as you want it to be and has a nice upgrade-progress mechanic. The core loop here is perfection. The mechanics of how the ship should be disassembled give you a learning curve and each ship model soon becomes both familiar in broad strokes and distinct enough in minute details to not be full-on boring. You get added bonuses of collecting lore audio-logs and they're a light sci-fi treat if you're into that sort of thing. The main story is clunky and dull, but also endearingly comedic in its depiction of "How To Unionize in a Dystopian Nightmare - For Dummies". The one gripe is that the main plot consists of unskippable cutscenes, but once you've gone through them once, feel free to install a mod that removes them and allows you to enjoy the game all over again on a different difficulty setting. So, yeah, the plot is the only downside, but the lore, gameplay loop (both immediate and long-term) and mechanics make up for its shortcomings. TL;DR: Get it, get it, get it. Even Yahtzee (a famous grump that hates nearly everything he reviews) recommended it as a great "Dad Game". It's a latecomer to GOG, but I bought it AGAIN just to commend the devs for creating this gem.

Played on Steam, thought it's overall pretty great. I'd prefer to have the story be optional rather than required, I don't like listening to the characters blabber at me when I could just be engaging with the ship disassembly. (Not that I disagree or anything, I HARD agree, it's just not my thing to be talked at for a full 2 minutes before I get to do the fun part of the game). I'd suggest playing it, it's pretty relaxing. 8/10

if, like me, you're retired & an old school NASA geek, I guarantee you'll find this industrial space work sim addictive & deeply satisfying. one recommendation, tho- skip the soundtrack (it's a little lightweight & gets repetitive) & put on some blues in the background.