Hardspace: Shipbreaker

[SirCowdog]

This is a game that is technically still in early access, but feels 99% complete.

Part puzzle game, part ship deconstruction sim with physics. Hardspace Shipbreaker puts you in the role of a lone engineer tasked with working off a 999 million credit debt by breaking down and salvaging various ships.

The game at first seems very simple, but as you progress you're faced with more complex and larger ships, as well as more difficult tasks to complete.

The game is played in first person, and you're armed with only a handful of tools: A cutting laser with two settings, a grapple "laser" that can be used to push, pull, or drag objects, and a tether that will temporarily pull two objects together.

You also have a space suit which allows you to move about in all axis, and switch between normal vision and a kind of xray vision that sees through walls and gives you additional information.

You're in space, and that means keeping track of how much air and fuel you have for your thrusters. You're also up against a time limit. Each "shift" of shipbreaking lasts 15 minutes or so, and debt piles up as you have to pay for the rent on your equipment, as well as repairs and a miscellaneous array of other charges.

All of these tools can be upgraded as you progress..... Oh, and cloning yourself if you die horribly in space is pretty expensive too!

All of it combines into a surprisingly addictive experience. Figuring out different ways to approach each type of ship, and prioritizing risk vs profit really gets your brain working.

I've put in around 10 hours or so, and have only gotten to the third or fourthh type of ship. Which appears to be not even half way through the game. Larger ships are going to take much longer to figure out and break down. I'm enjoying the hell out of it so far. And well worth the $20 I got it for during the steam summer sale.

What do you guys think? Or have you already been playing and maybe have some questions or advice.

[Rennadrel]

I know someone who was playing this on the weekend since he got a review key. It looks pretty fun and chill so I'll likely pick it up.

[SirCowdog]

I know someone who was playing this on the weekend since he got a review key. It looks pretty fun and chill so I'll likely pick it up.

It's pretty relaxing....until you screw up tje extraction of a reactor and things start melting. XD