Hardspace: Shipbreaker on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Equipped with cutting-edge salvaging tech, carve & slice spaceships to recover valuable materials. Upgrade your gear to take on more lucrative contracts and pay your billion credits debt to LYNX Corp!
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a space, sci-fi and simulation game
developed by Blackbird Interactive
and published by Focus Entertainment.
Released on May 24th 2022 is available only on Windows
in 9 languages: English, French, German, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Italian, Spanish - Spain, Portuguese - Brazil and Traditional Chinese.
It has received 20,422 reviews of which 18,276 were positive and 2,146 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.8 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 34.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 1.08€ on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified Hardspace: Shipbreaker into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Hardspace: Shipbreaker through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel i5-6600K / AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: 4 GB VRAM, GeForce GTX 770 / Radeon R9 380
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 4 GB available space
- Additional Notes: 30 FPS in 1920x1080.
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
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.
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Hardspace: Shipbreaker's biggest problem is that there is not enough of it. It is one of the most interesting and fun games I have ever played. It is more than worth the price of admission, and if you see it on sale buy it up quick. The moment to moment game-play is *Thrilling*. Planning your route through the ship you are tasked to dismantle as you begin a level tickles your brain in just the right way, offering an interesting experience attempting to navigate the physical space of the ship quickly while also accomplishing the relatively diverse set of things you must do to break the ship apart, like destroying attachment points, disabling power generators, and carefully managing pressurization of ship compartments. This game is *perfect* in this respect. All I could want is more. More ships, more ship components, more interesting upgrades for your suit and equipment, more areas to explore. This game *desperately* needs DLC, or another game in the same setting with a wider scope. That said, wanting more of something doesn't make what is there any less satisfying. The only downside to this game was the narrative. It started off very good, and I was invested in the characters. Without spoiling too much, everything ends in a bit too feel-good of a way that robs real meaning from the story. Consequences are not doled out properly to either the protagonists nor the antagonists, and the resolution is unrealistic for a narrative that is otherwise quite down to earth, no pun intended. Play the game. It is amazing, and deserves your attention.
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Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a genuinely phenomenal game, but it is NOT perfect. I just want to go over some of the common complaints from the perspective of someone who still recommends the game in spite of them. The most common complaint from Early Access was the enforced 15-minute shift timer; this is still present in the game's "career" mode (which functions as the campaign), but there's now an option to play a free-mode without the timer. The forced shift time is a requirement for the campaign to function, but playing with it is now optional from the moment you load up the game - so if it was putting you off, don't worry. Secondly, a lot of complaints leaving early access were the number of ships. I somewhat agree; the game revolves around the internal systems of the ships becoming increasingly complex, but if you progress quickly through the levels (ie: if you're good) then you'll reach a point where you've seen everything a little quicker than you might expect. This means that the only real "challenge" the game has is how cleanly you can salvage a ship - the focus is no longer on learning, but on perfecting; however I'd say that only now, 70 hours in, have I reached a point where I can perfectly salvage any ship. Some more variation would be nice, but I wouldn't say it makes the game not worth playing, there's still plenty to learn before you hit that plateau. And thirdly, the story. BBI explain in their FAQ that they believe a game to be "a conversation between the developer and the community", and while it's a sentiment I agree with, in H:S's case it is VERY literal. The story takes the form of a series of dialogues that the player listens in on; you cannot interact in any meaningful way, and the only "choice" you have is at the very end of the story. Because there is no interactivity, and there is ONLY dialogue, the characters come across as very 1-dimensional. There's no way for the player to know these characters outside of what they say, so they kind of have to put their whole personality out from day 1; this leads to a heavy use of cliche and trope that makes the story itself predictable and bland. The actual quality of the voice acting is pretty decent, which makes it not intolerable, but again if you progress through your salvage goals quickly (ie: you're good) you will be getting unskippable dialogue between AND during EVERY shift, and there's probably only one character you actually care about (Weaver my beloved). In my opinion, BBI needed to pace their story WAY better. They've used the line following the prior quote, "the other side of that is that sometimes we value different things", to seemingly shield themselves from any form of criticism; but when you make a game about having a relaxing time breaking ships, and then have your story sort of... get in the way of that? You literally just needed to have the frequency of dialogue be lower and it would've been fine, avoid trapping the player in the HAB between shifts and just let people interact with your game. Maybe if there was any way AT ALL to be involved in these conversations it would've worked in its current form; but having no choice but to sit and wait, with literally nothing to do, while your characters monologue at me for 5+ minutes at a time is NOT a compelling way to tell a story. HOWEVER. You CAN just turn down the volume for voices; while the dialogue can get in the way sometimes, it's not actually too often - mostly just towards the campaign's conclusion. And the worldbuilding, oh my; it's genuinely really compelling. I just wish the main storyline explored it a little. So, why do I recommend it? Because H:S isn't really ABOUT the story. That's not why you play the game. You play the game to deconstruct ships in Zero-G, to get better and better at it, to overcome a seemingly insurmountable debt; you play the game to see number go up, and feel like your skills and dedication have a tangible impact on how quickly that number changes. The physics are fantastic, the visuals impeccable, the soundtrack enchanting - everything that isn't the story is done with a level of polish that would make AAA studios blush. All the complaints above amount to minor annoyances that don't really stop you from enjoying the game for what it is; that's why I kept playing it, that's why I recommend it.
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It's fun and relaxing in a way, has great art, music, worldbuilding and unique gameplay, but slightly pricy for the content and can get repetitive. The premise is that you're stripping spaceships apart, separating the salvaged material into 3 different categories/bays. The gameplay is excellent, it's fun and satisfying to find your own routes on how to accomplish this safely and swiftly, cutting slices and ripping out components as you float through space. The thrill of being near extremely volatile systems with your fancy 1000 degree laser knife is also strongly felt. However, it's not perfect. You really only get 4 unique ship classes. While each ship class has many variations which do keep them pretty fresh throughout the campaign, it's a shame there aren't more. Even the biggest variations have the same core ship design, but are longer or fatter. I wish we could get absolutely massive ones that'd take >4 shifts (15 minute periods) to salvage, but so far I've managed to keep them under 1 hour per ship. Also, since you're doing the same thing over and over, it can also get rather repetitive. Especially when nearing the endgame, you've basically seen all the hazards and you'll have most of the unique upgrades unlocked. If you enjoy the gameplay however, it won't be as much of an issue, but don't expect any drastic stages, upgrades or surprises. You'll never leave your limited size shipbreaking bay. Other than that, the game's really well done for what it is. The graphics and art direction are gorgeous, from the design and engineering of the ships themselves to the massive imposing structures floating around you in endless space, which make the whole futuristic setting believable and stand out. The dynamic soundtrack was also nice to listen to during your shifts, changing depending on your location and situation. The story is fine as well, I enjoyed the characters, their interactions and the bonds they all form with you included, even though you never see them in person and you play as a silent protagonist. It's not a huge plotline, but I still enjoyed the writing and how it all tied with the worldbuilding. Overall, it's definitely a quality>quantity type of game. I beat it in around 25 hours on my most recent playthrough, compared to the 35€ price tag, I enjoyed all of it though. You can play these weekly races, try the other difficulties or collect all the lore scraps, but it doesn't look like any new content will be added. 🥚🐔 Check out my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35998380-Eggs-Chickens/] Eggs & Chickens curator page for bite-sized game recommendations 🤙🎷
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Fun game, very zen. Like clipping a bonzai tree. Except sometimes it explodes.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is currently priced at 34.99€ on Steam.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 34.99€ on Steam.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker received 18,276 positive votes out of a total of 20,422 achieving a rating of 8.75.
😎
Hardspace: Shipbreaker was developed by Blackbird Interactive and published by Focus Entertainment.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is not playable on MacOS.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is not playable on Linux.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a single-player game.
There are 2 DLCs available for Hardspace: Shipbreaker. Explore additional content available for Hardspace: Shipbreaker on Steam.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker does not support Steam Remote Play.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Hardspace: Shipbreaker.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 09 June 2025 08:17 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 09 June 2025 16:21 |
| Steam price | 15 June 2025 04:26 |
| Steam reviews | 14 June 2025 16:07 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Hardspace: Shipbreaker, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Hardspace: Shipbreaker
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Hardspace: Shipbreaker concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Hardspace: Shipbreaker compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
312
Developer
Blackbird Interactive
Publisher
Focus Entertainment
Release
24 May 2022
Platforms
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