History VideoGame / HardspaceShipbreaker

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Hal Rhodes, the Administrator that acts as your middle-manager representing LYNX's interests overseeing you and Weaver's team, has a ''massive one'' during the Industrial Action mission, where he basically goes mask off, dropping the passive-aggressively "friendly" corporate talk as he says all the [[IndenturedServitude quiet parts]] [[ExpendableClone out loud]] about LYNX and it's practices, outright says they ''OWN'' you and your fellows clones as ''property'', and threatens you and your family openly. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Naturally, this loud, angry rant is recorded in full]], [[NiceJobFixingItVillain and is what the Union needed to get forces bigger than LYNX to step in and force them to capitulate.]]]]

A six-degrees-of-freedom first-person PuzzleGame from Blackbird Interactive, known for ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak'', ''Hardspace: Shipbreaker'' follows the player character as they seek to escape Earth and WorkOffTheDebt they owe to the [=LYNX=] Corporation - by scrapping and salvaging decommissioned starships in orbit above Earth.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Mostly sweet, as the main characters get everything they wanted. The Union is finally recognized by the galactic government at large making them an authority LYNX can no longer just ignore, LYNX is forced to give into their demands, insane amounts of debt are wiped away, and Hal is demoted back to processing where he started. However, not everyone is taken out of debt by the new reforms, Calyssia Rai-Paulsen suffers no consequences having pinned the entire incident on (and dissolving) the administrative team, and Weaver retires to an opportunity on Earth leaving the team behind the day they go back to work after the fallout of Hal's meltdown being made public.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Hal, your middle-manager representing LYNX's interests overseeing you and a couple others, has a ''massive one'' during the Industrial Action mission, where he basically goes mask off, dropping the passive-aggressively "friendly" corporate talk as he says all the [[IndenturedServitude quiet parts]] [[ExpendableClone out loud]] about LYNX and it's practices, outright says they ''OWN'' you and your fellows clones as ''property'', and threatens you and your family openly. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Naturally, this loud, angry rant is recorded in full]], [[NiceJobFixingItVillain and is what the Union needed to get forces bigger than LYNX to step in and force them to capitulate.]]]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Hal:''' You know the ''difference'' between ''[[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman you people]]'' and ''[[PointyHairedBoss me?]]'' I ''know'' LYNX treats you like ''slaves.'' Hell, that's why they're the biggest in the solar system! ''I'' [[ClassTraitor made it to the winning team.]] People like ''you,'' trying to ''"lift each other up"?'' You're just letting others keep you down with 'em, for ''what?'' ''We '''OWN''' you.'' ''I'' got the ''right'' to do ''whatever I want'' to you! You were '''''NOTHING''''' until LYNX found you! ''"Obedience is Success"!'' You've ''chosen'' to cross the company that gave you a chance. We'll drive you into the ''ground'' with ''debt!'' We'll give you work ''so'' dangerous you'll revive [[SuddenlyShouting TWENTY TIMES A DAY]] UNTIL YOUR DNA COMES APART AT THE SEAMS!! AND WHEN YOU COME BACK AS A ''USELESS, GIBBERING '''BLOB''''', ''[[AndYourLittleDogToo WE'LL MAKE YOUR FAMILY PICK UP THE BILL!!!]]'']]

* WorkOffTheDebt: To the tune of $1,252,594,441.92. It's going to take a ''while''.

* CrapsackWorld: Earth is a mess after a total climate collapse, civil rioting is common, and the world is heavily overpopulated. Most of humanity is spread out amongst the stars, where life can actually be pretty great, but the main characters are stuck on and around Earth for the forseeable future.

* DisappointedInYou: [[spoiler:Weaver and Deedee are openly disgusted with Kaito when he reveals he gave Hal access to the union newsgroup to save himself during their one-on-one earlier.]]

** LYNX Corporation cuts every corner they can when it comes to employee safety. Your suit is a 50-year-old design, your tools are constantly breaking down and in need of repair, your suit only holds a few minutes of air (and cannot cover a full shift even fully upgraded), and that's not even mentioning all the hazards you'll encounter when disassembling the ships. Some of the documents state that LYNX has managed to circumvent or completely remove regulations that would disable or remove these hazards during initial inspections of recovered ships, thus leaving it to you to deal with all of these dangerous objects yourself.

* WideEyedIdealist: Weaver seems to think grit, skill, and some good ol' elbow grease are all it takes to set you right, which makes him a great help in the yard and useless or worse outside it. He cautions you that replacement clone costs for dying on the job are how the company gets you, when inventing BS fees for employees at risk of coming out of debt is how it gets you, as Weaver should know from experience. [[spoiler: Not to mention ''killing you'' and replacing you with a clone using proprietary tech so it'll legally be company property and they can do whatever the hell they want to it and all it owns. Despite his reassurances he also fails every time to get Hal to ease off, much less back down.]]

* WideEyedIdealist: Weaver seems to think grit, skill, and some good ol' elbow grease are all it takes to set you right, which makes him a great help in the yard and useless or worse outside it. He cautions you that replacement clone costs for dying on the job are how the company gets you, when inventing BS fees for employees at risk of coming out of debt is how its get you, as Weaver should know from experience. [[spoiler: Not to mention ''killing you'' and replacing you with a clone using proprietary tech so it'll legally be company property and they can do whatever the hell they want to it and all it owns. Despite his reassurances he also fails every time to get Hal to ease off, much less back down.]]

* WideEyedIdealist: Weaver seems to think grit, skill, and some good ol' elbow grease are all it takes to set you right, which makes him a great help in the yard and useless or worse outside it. He cautions you that replacement clone costs for dying on the job are how the company gets you, when inventing BS fees for employees at risk of coming out of debt is how it get you, as Weaver should know from experience. [[spoiler: Not to mention ''killing you'' and replacing you with a clone using proprietary tech so it'll legally be company property and they can do whatever the hell they want to it and all it owns. Despite his reassurances he also fails every time to get Hal to ease off, much less back down.]]

** The October update added Ghost Ships, vessels that have been overtaken by a rogue AI which serve as the first genuinely hostile threat in the game. Existing as small cores attached to various surfaces, they're harmless if left alone but will retaliate if you start destroying them, which you need to do as part of your job. They can mess with the ship's systems to cause you harm, such as closing doors, arbitrarily changing pressure states ([[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard even in rooms with no regulator, somehow]]), or venting flame through the life support systems. It's in your best interests to neutralize as much of the critical systems on the ship as you can before trying to clear them out, and to take out as many nodes as possible as quickly as possible. Curiously, all screens and displays on Ghost Ships also show a stylized dandelion seed.

** The October update added Ghost Ships, vessels that have been overtaken by a rogue AI which serve as the first genuinely hostile threat in the game. Existing as small cores attached to various surfaces, they're harmless if left alone but will retaliate if you start destroying them, which you need to do as part of your job. They can mess with the ship's systems to cause you harm, such as closing doors, arbitrarily changing pressure states, or venting flame through the life support systems. It's in your best interests to neutralize as much of the critical systems on the ship as you can before trying to clear them out.

** The onboard AI for salvaging is noted to have refused to take a Turing Test 400,000 times.

* MissionControl: You have two or three: "Weaver", an ex-Cutter who guides you through the tutorial and provides time-based reminders, and Control, who calls out (un)successful material deposits. Your spacesuit will also call out some hazards like decompression or low oxygen. [[spoiler:Weaver gets replaced as Mission Control by Dedee. While it is nice to see the old man get his retirement, Deedee is nowhere near as friendly and has basically no advice for you about anything once she takes over.]]

* FinalDeathMode: Once you reach a high enough certification level, you can start a new run with no cloning policy; that means no revives. Don't fuck up.

* MissionControl: You have two or three: "Weaver", an ex-Cutter who guides you through the tutorial and provides time-based reminders, and Control, who calls out (un)successful material deposits. Your spacesuit will also call out some hazards like decompression or low oxygen.

** Combined with placing your hands on the ship, the Sound Resynth upgrade lets you hear things like the rush of fuel or coolant in a pipe, which is otherwise only indicated by lights on the pipes themselves. Or a sound cue for unplugging fuses before removing a power generator on a Gecko.

** Those two lines on the reticle of your splitsaw are what you're supposed to use if you need to make a precision cut. Any pieces touching those two lines will be cut if you pull the trigger. Knowing this is vital to making sure you don't accidentally cut vital components both explosive and not in nature.
** Interior and exterior hull panels are connected not only by the obvious structural connection points, but by any removable objects that happen to be touching one or more of them. While you can see this problem as early as the Mackerel and its occasional table stuck over a filter, it's a big problem on the Gecko, as the placement of certain objects will prevent the removal of large hull sections that are otherwise completely disconnected. For example, the cockpit of a Gecko usually has computer terminals and storage bins that intersect with the outer hull section encapsulating the cockpit, preventing removal of the outer hull until you fly into the cockpit and detach them. In a particularly weird example of HitboxDissonance, heat sinks mounted on the exterior of the inner hull will prevent the outer hull above it (relative to the heat sink) from being removed, even though the two aren't actually touching one another.

** In a particularly weird example, the huge pieces of exterior hull housing the thrusters on a Gecko can be adamantly held together by a puny light bulb sitting upon their dividing line.

* LaserCutter: One of your primary tools is the laser cutter. In Stinger mode, it fires a beam that melts the targeted object, assuming it can be melted. This will also set off anything flammable. In Splitsaw mode, it fires two beams which spread out from a single point, cutting a line along a targeted object. This allows you to quickly slice apart weaker materials or separate furnace scrap from processor scrap. Just be careful about what might be on the other side, as the beam will cut that, too.

** The engine housing of Atlas thrusters is uniquely immune to demolition charges to prevent you from easily bypassing the proper disassembly method. However, they will still hit the cut points inside the engine if you position them correctly, which lets you pull the fuel tanks before cutting the fuel lines.

* OutrunTheFireball: Quasar thrusters, found in Atlas-type vessels, are designed in such a way that the only way to access the fuel shut-off valve is to cut the four very flammable cut points holding the thruster on, quickly pull it out, then race the ensuing fire to the valve before it reaches the main tanks and everything explodes. Fortunately, the same update changed the way fuel mechanics work, so there's a fairly generous window between the first ignition and the final explosion. Unfortunately, fuel lines now rupture and spew jets of flame when ignited, so you have to risk getting burned on the way. Alternatively, if you can manage to freeze the pipes at the source, you can prevent the ignition. The thrusters even come with handy coolant bottles under the access points to facilitate this, though only after you've unlocked coolant as a potential hazard.

* PayingForAir: Oxygen refills mid-shift aren't free, unless the ship you're salvaging has spare tanks lying around. That said, it's also cheap enough that paying for it isn't a concern, and eventually your tank size will exceed the shift duration unless you somehow breach your helmet.

* MoneyForNothing: The cash you earn from any given shift is peanuts compared to your debt, as is the cost of patches, medkits, and tank refills. The currency that matters is LYNX Tokens, which are company-issued scrip awarded for meeting salvage goals.

* 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.]]

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Assuming you're playing in standard mode, it's $150,000 per clone and that's it. This might ''sound'' like a lot, but the daily fees for your rentals alone total about $500,000 ''per day,'' and you can expect to make that much back just by salvaging a single low-class Reactor part. There's also Limited mode (where you only have 30 revives before game over) and No Coverage (where even a single death ends your effort), but both modes require reaching a certain Certification Level in a standard/unlimited run first.

* TheAllegedCar: Or spaceship, as the case may be, but some of the vessels you salvage are clearly past their prime, and some of the design decisions seem just flat-out ''bad''. In particular, the Javelin-class vessels are obsessed with external/exposed fuel tanks in a setting where not only are there no apparent DeflectorShields, but [[FlechetteStorm Kessler Syndrome]] is active and a ''very real risk'', and thus a stray chunk of aluminum like the ones you scatter around during disassembly could blow up the whole damn ship if it so much as glances the fuel lines. Amusingly, some of the heavier Javelins do have armor, but it's anywhere ''but'' over the fuel tanks.

* GameBreakingBug:
** Ordinarily, your Stinger will only hit objects you're directly targeting, even if the beam clips through another object. The exception to this is fuel/coolant tanks. If the Stinger beam intersects the tank at any point, it will explode almost instantly. Flammable objects are also prone to ignite under similar conditions, though this isn't as likely unless you're in a really cramped space.
** When using the grapple beam to detach objects, the object will rotate slightly to simulate the force being applied to it. This can cause problems when used on long, destructible objects like computer terminals on a table, as the rotation will cause them to rotate into the table and be be destroyed immediately after being freed.
** Decompression can cause objects to rocket in the wrong direction with impossible speed, under certain conditions. This is most obvious with the cockpit of a Mackerel. If the cockpit has been detached from the main hull but remains pressurized, it will accelerate in the same direction as the escaping air if breached, rather than opposite as would be expected. The same applies to the forward and rear sections of a Javelin, assuming the central frame has been removed.
** With the 1.0 update, Roustabout Tugs are a deathtrap if not done a certain way. When the quasar engines are flushed, they will separate with far greater force than any other version of the Atlas, and are fairly likely to kill you instantly if both halves are free-floating. Doing them first while still anchored to the hull reduces the danger, but you're not likely to know that going in.

* UsedFuture: The game ''runs'' on this. You're issued an almost fifty-year-old suit design, and the Mackerel, the first 'real' ship class you get to work on (after the basic drone) was decommissioned entirely when the railgate network took off.