Inspired by a National Film Board of Canada documentary, "Shipbreakers" (link to the "Shipbreakers" documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jdEG_ACXLw), this game is a sleeper hit that can easily call itself the best salvage simulator out there, as well as one of the best games in the "job" simulator genre. It also happens to be a very poorly conceived union drive story, which thankfully does not really impact the otherwise immaculate gameplay.

The Good:

1. Hardspace: Shipbreaker is smooth, well optimized, and looks great for what it's trying to do, which is be a salvage simulator. The (optionally) short gameplay loop prevents this game from turning into a slog and motivates you to do a good job, fast.

2. The salvage mechanics are so kinetic and satisfying and reward planning, knowledge of your hardware's strengths and limitations, and speedy, precise maneuvers that get you paid.

3. The music is inspired and instills a genuine blue-collar atmosphere that lets you feel down in the dirt - in space.

The Bad

The narrative premise is that the player character is all but an indentured servant that works for Space Amazon, trapped in a "company town" (in space), receiving monologues from shipbreaker NPCs and management during shifts then getting swept up in a union drive to improve conditions in your extremely hazardous workplace. The mentioned monologues are a mixed bag, ranging from interesting and sympathetic exposition to simplistic, obvious stereotypes that hit the brain like rapidly decompressing debris.

The kicker is that all this exposition makes the game seem like an RPG that never was. You hear about the memories, dreams and regrets of your coworkers, and issues that affect them similarly to workers in real life such as company debt, intellectual property laws, union busting, remittances, workplace injury and death, and the loss of personal freedom, among others.

Does the player character experience any of this? Is there any way of working together to fight back against the evil company? Unfortunately that practically only happens in the theatre of the imagination, since there is zero player dialogue in this game and literally only one instance in which, upon striking or obeying the company, the player can affect the union drive's success. Instead of giving the player agency to form the union, organizing is instead placed in the hands of an NPC who does a nightmarishly incompetent job of getting her coworkers to join their union.

On top of this, NPC's (mostly Lou and Weaver) often spam the player with preachy dialogue. "The company shouldn't do bad things!" or, "Things just can't keep up this way!" type of stuff. Absolutely no one ever organized a union by telling their coworkers they should, and it's weird and unrealistic that it works (after some sterotypical objections) in this game. It's bad practice. I mean, Lou is even making calls and sending union newsletters on company hardware. You wouldn't get away with that today, so it feels jarring that it would work under Space Amazon.

How It Could Have Been Better:

Since this superficial narrative was made by the SURELY un-unionized developers at Blackbird Entertainment, I would like to put forward some roleplaying suggestions that would make a major improvement to this game at the cost of minor design challenges.

1. Give the player agency - morale and trust are the name of the game when forming a union, so let the player build that up by, for example, giving them the option of "finishing" their coworkers' (mostly Kaito's) discarded hulks to help the team meet quota or something. This gives the player the ability to earn their coworkers' trust by showing that they're willing to go the extra mile for them even if they earn less on a shift. To spice things up there could even be a narrative where at first a coworker, likely DeeDee, feels the player is flexing on them or something, but then gradually warm up to what they see are good intentions. There could even be a reward where once DeeDee (or whoever) is on board with the player, she also volunteers to help with the unfinished hulks to free up some of the player's time and resources. If this route isn't taken, then it could be an obstacle to unity during the strike.

2. Make the story less obvious and shallow by letting the player make morally complex decisions. An example: Let's say there's another shipbreaker that hacked the physical mail system on the stations or whatever. This NPC can be of questionable repute and uses the mail system to sell sedatives to other shipbreakers, preying on their need to cope with workplace trauma. The player can get access to this mail system by getting on this NPC's good side, maybe by sending them components or even buying the sedatives. Instead of being a one-dimensional boy scout, maybe Lou would ask for help to sneak her newsletter through it instead of the dumb green "this call is private" light that's in the game now.

There is so much narrative potential in a game about forming a union. I can't think of one that pulls it off, so It's a shame these writers almost definitely did not consult an actual union organizer.

The core gameplay is fun and I got my playtime through itm but the 40hrs on record are across atleast 3 attempts at replaying the game. I just can't do it there's soooo many stupid and tedious decisions and mechanics in this game that make it painful to play.

Every time you start and end a day you go through several loading screens, mixed in with potentially minutes of people just talking at you over the radio. You have to constantly repair your tools every day, which is nothing more than a chore with how cheap it is to do so. If you die during gameplay your sent back to the beginning of the day. Which can mean potentially 3 minutes of waiting before trying again. Also after a while the content dries up.

Id recommend playing the game I just wish there was more QoL in this game. I don't understand why most of the story isn't done in the dockyard allowing you to play the game at the same time

Amazing