History YMMV / HardspaceShipbreaker

* EsotericHappyEnding: Ssethtzeentach put it best in his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX5RgxG-uFQ review]] of the game:

* CatharsisFactor: Managing to finish a complicated ship in a single shift or surviving a brush with disaster tends to evoke this. Additionally [[spoiler: the final main story "salvage" is pure catharsis. Taking everything you've learned to do properly to dismantle a ship and doing the exact opposite while Hal impotently rages at you is pure catharsis.]]

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: Some critics have mentioned that the process of dismantling ships becomes too repetitive after many shifts, while the amount of hazards and the costs of a mistake keep rising. They were disappointed the gameplay wasn't as relaxing as they've expected, but gave praise to the message about why do large corporations need unions and worker rights. This opinion is notably inverted with the playerbase, who find the story obstructive and annoying (even when they agree with the message) and see it as getting in the way of the gameplay.

** Demo charges are used to destroy reinforced cut points. This would be fine by itself, but it becomes a serious problem when fuel tanks are mixed in. Standard demo charges will destroy any nearby fuel tanks, and the mid-range Fuel Javelin and all models of Cargo Javelin come with large fuel tanks held right next to the cut points. If you don't want to lose the tanks, you have to bypass the cut points entirely by melting the aluminum frame, a waste of both time and material. This goes double for the Fuel Javelins, because the triple fuel tanks are nearly impossible to remove without unintuitive blasting of the external frame. It isn't until you've managed to purchase two reduced blast radius upgrades that the demo charges stop being a problem in those situations, and it takes several additional ranks to unlock those features.

** The various classes of Atlas ships come with a major difficulty jump with their enormous engines. The only way to access their interior is to extract the nozzle on the back and then use the laser on the cut points connecting the thrusters to the fuel lines, which ''will'' start a fire that you have to quickly fly through to reach the cutoff valve. If you're too slow, the entire engine will explode with you inside.

* FanonWelding: Due to very similiar themes, a lot of fans tend to assume this game and ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' happen in the same Universe, just in different star systems.

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: Many players expressed that the story is poorly written and unnecessary and wished the development instead focused on adding more ship types, or at least gave the option to skip the morning briefings. The common opinions about the plot call it being far too {{Anvilicious}}, with the player having no influence in it (even if you [[spoiler:continue doing your job during Industrial Action, aside a few verbal nods, it still plays out the same]]), nor finishing the campaign changes anything in gameplay.

** Demo charges are used to destroy reinforced cut points. This would be fine by itself, but it becomes a serious problem when fuel tanks are mixed in. Standard demo charges will destroy any nearby fuel tanks, and the mid-range Fuel Javelin and all models of Cargo Javelin come with large fuel tanks held right next to the cut points. If you don't want to lose the tanks, you have to bypass the cut points entirely by melting the aluminum frame, a waste of both time and material. This goes double for the Fuel Javelins, because the triple fuel tanks are nearly impossible to guide out of the frame. It isn't until you've managed to purchase two reduced blast radius upgrades that the demo charges stop being a problem in those situations, and it takes several additional ranks to unlock those features.

** There are stickers for sending 100 food packets and 100 drink bottles into the furnace. This is incredibly tedious because these items are very limited, around 10 at most depending on the ship.

* ThatOneLevel: The Salvage Runner Gecko is universally hated for a number of reasons, all of which relate to either poor design decisions or bugs. As the name implies, its cargo hold is full of random salvage. This can include fuel/coolant tanks, thrusters, and other explosive things. The cargo hold is designed in such a way that it shares an atmospheric connection with the crawlspace, is right next to the reactor (and its myriad pipes full of fuel/coolant), and is isolated by the ship's airlock. Any explosive decompression will cause a chain reaction of destruction, reducing the rear end of the ship to scrap. At higher hazard levels, air regulators can spawn broken, meaning you have to sequester volatile salvage in the airlock just to be able to safely decompress the ship, and that isn't an option if you're unlucky enough to have an entire ECU spawn in the cargo area. Once you reach Hazard Level 9, it's simply not worth playing the ship in favor of more stable alternatives. To add insult to injury, it has a lot more internal walls, which makes separating the hull into movable pieces that much harder. This is even acknowledged in-universe during the post-game, where Deedee is kicking herself for taking one in the first place, only able to guess that she wanted to punish herself that day. When Kaito says he thinks they're fun, she pops off complaining that they're an absolute death trap to take apart and that's ''before'' getting to all the salvage they're carrying which, if a cutter is lucky, is just twisted scrap. Unlucky cutters, on the other hand, might find rusty fuel barrels or leaking rad filters. Kaito rethinks his stance after Deedee's rant.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: Some critics and players have mentioned that the process of dismantling ships becomes too repetitive after many shifts, while the amount of hazards and the costs of a mistake keep rising. They were disappointed the gameplay wasn't as relaxing as they've expected, but gave praise to the message about why do large corporations need unions and worker rights.

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: A large portion of players expressed that the story is unnecessary and wished the development instead focused on adding more ship types, or at least gave the option to skip the morning briefings. The common opinions about the plot call it being too {{Anvilicious}}, with the player having no influence in it (even if you [[spoiler:continue doing your job during Industrial Action, aside a few verbal nods, it still plays out the same]]), nor finishing the campaign changes anything in gameplay.

* FanonWelding: Due to very similiar themes, a lot of fans tend to assume this game and ''VideoGame/OuterWorlds'' happen in the same Universe, just in different star systems.

* ThatOneLevel: The Salvage Runner Gecko is universally hated for a number of reasons, all of which relate to either poor design decisions or bugs. As the name implies, its cargo hold is full of random salvage. This can include fuel/coolant tanks, thrusters, and other explosive things. The cargo hold is designed in such a way that it shares an atmospheric connection with the crawlspace, is right next to the reactor, and is isolated by the ship's airlock. Any explosive decompression will cause a chain reaction of destruction, reducing the rear end of the ship to scrap. At higher hazard levels, air regulators can spawn broken, meaning you have to sequester volatile salvage in the airlock just to be able to safely decompress the ship, and that isn't an option if you're unlucky enough to have an entire ECU spawn in the cargo area. Once you reach Hazard Level 9, it's simply not worth playing the ship in favor of more stable alternatives. To add insult to injury, it has a lot more internal walls, which makes separating the hull into movable pieces that much harder. This is even acknowledged in-universe during the post-game, where Deedee is kicking herself for taking one in the first place, only able to guess that she wanted to punish herself that day. When Kaito says he thinks they're fun, she pops off complaining that they're an absolute death trap to take apart and that's ''before'' getting to all the salvage they're carrying which, if a cutter is lucky, is just twisted scrap. Unlucky cutters, on the other hand, might find rusty fuel barrels or leaking rad filters. Kaito rethinks his stance after Deedee's rant.