Hardspace: Shipbreaker Review – Honest Work Now On Consoles

Ever dream of going into space and performing manual labor for an oppressive mega-corporation but you didn’t have a PC and couldn’t live out that dream? Thanks to Blackbird Interactive and Focus Home Entertainment, you can now. Sign up for LYNX today to start working off a ludicrous amount of debt by cutting up spaceships in Hardspace: Shipbreaker for the PS5 and Xbox consoles.

Info:
Developer: Blackbird Interactive
Publisher: Focus Home Entertainment
Platforms: PC
Release Date: September 20th, 2022

The Way of the Cutter:

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a game set in the distant future. Earth has been ruined, and man has taken to the stars. Those that are left on Earth live under what remains of their governing bodies, and LYNX, a mega-corporation, controls it all. With big dreams of making it off planet, you sign up with LYNX, take on massive debt in the process, and work one of the most dangerous jobs they offer, cutting apart spaceships. While the job might be perilous, it can also prove to be quite lucrative if you can succeed.

As a cutter, you’ll be working day in and day out, ripping apart spaceships and trying not to get hurt in the process. It starts out relatively easy as you learn your way around dead ships with your laser cutter and grappler. The ships lack power, have already been depressurized, and just need to be stripped down to their frames with their parts sorted into the appropriate areas. Some pieces of the ship, like the outer hull, often go into processing. Aluminum, glass, and wires will go straight into the furnace. Miscellaneous items like chairs, light fixtures, computer terminals, etc, will all be tossed into the barge.

As your certification level rises, you get introduced to other aspects and dangers of the job, like fire, electricity, and radiation. Decompressing a room in a ship without ensuring you have everything squared away can lead to damaged items (which LYNX will ping you for) or one of those products can smash your helmet, leaving you to die in space. At one point, you unlock mysterious ships with rogue AI in them, and they’ll mess with the ship as you cut them down. LYNX doesn’t want anything to do with them, and you’ll need to find them and destroy them. It’s a creepy atmosphere and one of the highlights later in the game.

You want to try to avoid those things because making money is the fastest way to gain LYNX tokens and upgrade your gear. Upgrading your gear can unlock demolition charges, strengthen your laser and increase your oxygen supply. Eventually, you can even use the token to buy your gear from LYNX, totally avoiding suit rental fees. In doing these things, you’ll find yourself relying less on LYNX, saving money and coming closer to paying off your debt.

My biggest complaint is that cutting larger ships is a time-consuming process. If you’re like me, you’re probably going to try and see the whole thing through but at times, it feels like real work. It can take hours to complete a larger ship. Thankfully, the game does allow you to save by going back to your room and picking it back up the next day. There’s no fear of losing process on a ship. I’ve just personally experienced ships being… misplaced in the dock.

One area where the PS5 version of Hardspace dropped the ball on, is utilizing the Dualsense’s features. It would have been cool to feel the adaptive triggers at work when using the grappling gun or some feedback when you’re overheating the laser cutter. Instead, it does just as much as the other versions, which is simply vibrating whenever you do anything. It’s always disappointing when those features aren’t taken advantage of because it would help elevate the PS5 version of the game to be better than the others.

How Hardspace: Shipbreaker Performs on PS5

Performance-wise, I did notice framerate hiccups on the PS5. Thankfully, they only occurred at the beginning of each shift as things boot up, like the furnace and my suit heads-up display. Otherwise, the game performs flawlessly on current-gen consoles. On my PC version’s end of things, I typically didn’t experience any framerate issues unless I was streaming or doing something else at the same time. Even then, those instances occurred few and far from one another as well.

Graphically, Hardpace: Shipbreaker is a pretty game despite its setting in space. The surrounding area above Earth’s atmosphere is interesting to look at as it’s filled with other docking bays. Ships will pass by blocking out the sun’s light and on occasion, the jump gate nearby will fire off. It’s just those small details that help create a living, breathing world. The console versions do feel like they feature flatter textures, though. It’s something you can definitely see in specific objects like your tools. Thankfully, those stickers you unlock by completing specific milestones can cover up those blemishes.

To this day, my feelings are still hurt that they changed the voice actors. During the early access, the dev team performed for the characters as placeholders and were swapped for professional actors when 1.0 was released in May. However, the professional VAs do a good job, and the Americana soundtrack is superb. It really helps elevate the blue-collar labor the gameplay is based around.

You Should Play Hardspace!

Hardspace: Shipbringer is easily in my top five games of 2022, and I’m incredibly happy that it’s made its way to consoles. On the PS5, I didn’t experience any issues aside from those framerate hiccups I mentioned earlier. If you’re a Game Pass subscriber, you can also download and play the game for free.

The game is incredibly relaxing to play, and its soundtrack alone will keep you vibing (or panicking) until LYNX calls you home. If you own a PC, PS5, or Xbox, I cannot recommend this game enough. Take a break from Call of Duty, Destiny, WoW, or whatever else you’re addicted to, and join us in space. I promise you won’t regret it.