Available in Early Access since summer 2020, Hardspace: Shipbreaker had been able to capture my attention and a few hours of my time when it arrived on the Steam platform thanks to its original principle, namely, to practice the cutting of more or less large and complex spaceships, then to send the different cut parts into the furnace or in the recovery area... which automatically triggers the sale of the material collected and materializes in a gain of credit, all directly from space, therefore in 0G. Just for the principle, it could have been balanced in direct output without Early Access box that it would not have shocked me. Blackbird, however, took the time to refine its baby to add content, a layer of scenario and improve the overall ergonomics of its title. The release of Early Access therefore marks the arrival of the last screenplay part of the game, an overhaul of the progression and other bug fixes, the opportunity to return to it for a few hours!
Between each mission, you find yourself in the HAB, a HUB to choose your next mission and improve your equipment
At the time of writing these lines, I have about 8 hours of play on the clock, which allowed me to touch a lot of gameplay elements and to dismantle 4 ships, as well as to see the improvements made here and there between the beginning of the EA and the release in 1.0 of the title. First of all, we note that the Xbox controller is fully supported, which was not the case when the title was first released 2 years ago. After selecting a difficulty mode among the 4 available (a relaxation mode where you don't have to worry about oxygen and consort, a standard mode with energy management and unlimited lives with increased debt, a mode with 30 lives in total, and a "Hardcore" mode with a single life to take care of... otherwise we start from 0).
After selecting the difficulty, you have the choice between a Career mode, a Free mode (where you cut the ships without the story interfering with the game) and a Race mode of the Cutter, which includes a test with ranking world that we must achieve as quickly / cleanly as possible to place at the top of the charts! For my part, I focused on the career mode which begins with an introduction explaining to us that we work for the megacorporation LYNX, a company which seems to abuse our most basic rights by dangling advantages here and there.. .as well as a colossal debt to be repaid before being able to return his apron. To repay the latter, nothing could be simpler on paper, you just have to dismantle spacecraft, then sell the material obtained, which brings in more or less credits depending on the part obtained or the rarity of certain materials.
The scanner reveals all the potential cut points that can be made to disassemble the ship
However, the working conditions are not optimal... Since we will have to cut the different vessels directly from space, in total weightlessness, managing our oxygen and moving with the help of a grappling hook and small thrusters placed here and there on his suit (a short tutorial helps you get started and is effective in understanding the physics of the game and what is expected of us). If we run out of oxygen, it's death... if we're a little overzealous with the grapple, we eat an obstacle at full speed and it's death, or worse, we drift in the space over too great a distance that prevents returning to the playing area... In short, we are a fragile little human who must do his job differently. Fortunately, the company we work for can save us and make a clone available if we die... for a few credits that we will have to repay.
The story is made through a few radio exchanges and e-mails received via the service computer. The addition is appreciable and will allow players who need a story to remain captivated, however, we can quite enjoy the game by ignoring the latter and take as much pleasure in carving up the different pieces of metal that float around. from U.S. To achieve a perfect cut and optimize the performance of a vessel, several tools are available. A grappling hook, which allows you to move around by attaching yourself to the surrounding elements, or to move objects of relatively low mass, to send them into the furnace or into the recovery module... note that if you sends salvageable material to the furnace for destruction, for example, a penalty is applied by the company. It will be necessary to take care to respect the "selective sorting" of the game to win a maximum of credits. In addition to the grappling hook, we have a slicer, a bit like Isaac's from Dead Space except that we don't shoot necromorphs but Metal, with which we can modulate the level of our equipment and cut increasingly resistant metals. Using the scanner, we can identify the cutting points of a space shuttle to disassemble the parts between them and perform effective cleaning. Then come the straps that can be attached to different places to avoid rushing into the vacuum of space, or even bombs that will explode the carcasses... and/or you, if you are too close!
The bar at the top indicates our progress... I rather assured with this machine!
The game knows how to renew itself perfectly and captivates... the space simulation of spacecraft deboning, it is not very common in the video game world, and it is quite simply fascinating. I've almost come to dream of a VR mode, to be even more immersed in this lawless space vacuum just waiting to be tamed.
Technically, it blows hot and cold. On the good news side, I was able to run the game at 4K/60FPS with all the options at maximum (armed with an RTX2080, an i9-9900KF and 16GB of Ram) without it flinching, but we can not say that the game is superb. A lot of unsightly textures taint a spatial painting that nevertheless leaves you dreaming. It's prettier than two years ago, certainly, thanks to graphic retouching done here and there, but we're still quite far from current standards. The soundtrack rocked me throughout, and never bored me!
Hop, it goes to the furnace!
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a UFO in the world of video games, the kind of game you can restart at any time to escape for a session, and think about the survival of your avatar and the profit you will achieve achieve by perfectly cutting out the space wreckage of the moment.
What's more, it has been available on the Xbox Game Pass since May 24 (PC only), you would be wrong to deprive yourself of it. Console players, be patient, a port is normally in progress.
