Some of my favourite games feel like a second job. Ferrying cargo between systems in Elite Dangerous, doing shifts on the forklift in Shenmue, driving a truck around Europe in Euro Truck Simulator 2. So I always knew Shipbreaker would appeal to me. It’s a game about a regular working stiff on a mission to clear a mountain of debt by scrapping disused spaceships. It might all be taking place in a rich, vividly realised sci-fi setting, but you’re still clocking in for the nine to five and breaking your back for The Man.
I love this about it. Science fiction games rarely focus on what it’s like just existing in these settings, and it’s refreshing to spend time in a universe like this without being a hotshot fighter pilot, a space knight, or the chosen one. You’re just some person. One of thousands of shipbreakers bobbing around in orbit, quietly turning abandoned old starships into the precious raw materials required to make new ones.
If you’ve never played Shipbreaker, it’s pretty simple. You’re an astronaut floating around a huge orbital platform above the Earth. Below you there’s a barge for storing expensive, reusable items like airlocks, chairs, and control panels. To your left and right, a recycler and a furnace. The furnace is for melting down cheap, soft metal; the recycler is for more advanced materials. In the middle, a ship. It could be a large cargo vessel or a small one-person station hopper. And it’s your job to tear it apart using a variety of tools, and toss the carved off parts into these three receptacles.
THEM’S THE BREAKS
Denne historien er fra August 2021-utgaven av PC Gamer.
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Denne historien er fra August 2021-utgaven av PC Gamer.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
BITING BACK
The tooth is out there in adventure TEETH OF GLASS
SMOKE ALARM
THE INVISIBLE SMOKE FACTORY is back in a Flash
MECH ME OVER
Move over Mario, here's mech-based platforming in ARMORED SHELL NIGHTJAR
"I like Pillars of Eternity better than Baldur's Gate III"
PILLARS OF ETERNITY deserves a bigger space in the CRPG pantheon
"A harrowing dark fantasy about hapless, bright-eyed children"
Spelunking into hell with MADE IN ABYSS: BINARY STAR FALLING INTO DARKNESS
THE IMMORTAL LOCK
A massive, meaty game in a single horrific Quake map.
NEW MANOEUVRES
Building a dedicated sim racing space in an average family house
OVERWATCH 2
Save me space girl.
REET GOOD TIME
THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE HERE is a riotous recreation of Yorkshire
THE PLUCKY SQUIRE
How many games let you make friends with a MtG card?