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Comment by xyx0826 | Hacker News Reader

If anyone is interested in a game themed shipbreaking/dismantling things, check out Hardspace: Shipbreaker. Instead of oceanic ships one gets to take apart spaceships and sort the salvages like garbage-recycle-compost.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1161580/Hardspace_Shipbre...

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Which, BTW, is a parable about labor rights and how debt is used to control workers.

I wanted to love that game. I gave it a good go, but just could not bring myself to want to play it.

I think the story and narrative just put me right off of it from the very outset for some reason. I don't know why but it was a total turn-off.

Also the zero-G thing made sense from a setting-perspective, but the slowly-slowly-drifting-around with limited control was just frustrating and infuriating in equal measure. I am sure it is "realistic" but then this is a game about being in space tearing space ships apart so who cares about realism? If I was able to do things faster and with more "arcade" style movement then I am sure it would have been a blast, but slowly drifting about in treacle was not fun.

I'm a big fan. For me a lot of the fun was mastering that movement system. The way the game is set up it incentives you to be fast and take risks. To get around faster you have to treat yourself the same as the chunks of the ship, using the tether to pull yourself in. You can also magnetize yourself to the hull and spider around like that. With upgrades and practice I was able to get most of the smallest level of ships done in one in game day.

What in particular turned you off, the capitalistic nature of the story?

From the Steam page, this is how the game publisher describes the game:

> We offer you the privilege of helping turn humanity’s past into its future by salvaging ships in zero-g. Each one is a puzzle, and how you solve it is up to you! Carve your way in, salvage everything, and maximize your profit.

Seems relatively vanilla, besides the capitalism part but most people are relatively accepting of that edge nowadays I feel like.

Sounds interesting. I really liked (and like) Homeworld, not only because of the really captivating setting and gameplay, but also because of the stories. They really add meaning to a game: it wasn't just a few ships skirmishing, it was (if I remember correctly?) a civilization searching for their home and fighting for survival, while facing various challenges and contact with other civilizations (or were they other species?).

Story and setting makes a ton of difference to how much I enjoy a game...

I am not sure really - I think there was a lot of strongly-accented "yee haw cowboy" type stuff from the NPC voices? Kinda wildwest in space? That is where my mind goes when I think of it, and I remember a distinct feeling of dislike.

Do you really have such a strong aversion towards regional American accents?

I think you're thinking of Breathedge, not Hardspace: Shipbreaker.

No, the foreman like character in Hardspace has a heavy Southern accent and the soundtrack has a western tone

Unashamed capitalism is a bit of a trope in sci-fi, reminiscent of Starship Troopers (the film) and Helldivers (spreading Democracy in space!); it being over the top is its own kind of criticism.

It wastes a fair amount of your time blabbing on about this cartoonishly evil company, but that evil company has no real effect on the gameplay, so it's just distracting and irritating. And it's not some sly or evocative social commentary; it's ham-fisted and over-the-top. It almost feels like listening to the caricatured horribleness of this company is an extra price you have to pay to play the underlying game.

The gameplay itself is just great though.

I really like the gameplay of it, but the story actively makes it a worse product, somehow.

What is it about the story that puts you off? I might agree it’s not a masterpiece of interactive storytelling, but given the subject matter I’m hard press to find a different kind of story you could tell with it.

How forced and in your face it is, only to then remove the "working yourself out of debt" part at the end and just destroying most of the reason to keep playing, at least for me. And everything being unskippable while you are stuck inside the small room unable to do anything but listen to it.

I've played through this game twice I loved it so much. It's a great podcast game, too.

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