91av

Blackbird Interactive

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X

ARE you worried about machines coming for your job? Personally, I hope I have a few decades yet before science journalism is fully automated, though I admit the rapid progress of text-generating artificial intelligence has me a little concerned. Now, thanks to Hardspace: Shipbreaker, I already have an alternative career lined up: spacecraft disposal technician.

The game, which was released on PC in May and received a wider console release in September, is set in the 24th century, when Earth has become a hellhole and much of humanity lives elsewhere in the solar system. In an effort to get off-world, you sign up with Lynx, a corporation in the grand tradition of evil sci-fi conglomerates, where you start work as a “shipbreaker” – a salvager who strips spacecraft for parts in low Earth orbit.

There is a strong anti-capitalist message from the get-go, when you are forced to sign up for the Lynx Everwork Asset Replacement programme. This sees your body scanned and cloned, with the original destroyed. Shipbreaking is a dangerous business, but, thanks to Lynx, when you inevitably have a fatal accident the company will simply spin up a new version of you in a vat.

For this, and other privileges of working for Lynx, you take on $1.2 billion of debt. That isn’t quite as bad as it sounds: assuming inflation averages the same for the next few centuries as it has for the past few, you are looking at about $40 million in today’s money. That is roughly what it costs for a short joyride to orbit with Blue Origin, let alone being cloned and becoming functionally immortal.

My first shift involved getting used to moving around in zero gravity. Your suit has the ability to thrust and rotate in every direction, so it is easy to get upside down and disoriented. The game cheats slightly here when it comes to the physics of zero-g: Newton’s laws say you should continue at the same velocity forever after getting in motion, but you will eventually come to a halt in the game if you ease off the thruster. However, this is a reasonable choice to save you from flying off into deep space.

Once I had navigation sorted, it was time to learn the tools of the trade: the cutter and the grabber. Spacecraft are welded together at cutting points that you burn through, then you use your grabber to pick up the pieces and deposit them in one of three locations on your space dock: a furnace, for general rubbish; a processor, for material that can be recycled; and a barge, to hold high-value objects such as engines. Put something in the wrong place, and you will diminish your pay at the end of the shift.

Essentially, the game is like building a Lego set in reverse as you carefully peel off and sort parts, and, like Lego, it is a very satisfying experience. Unlike Lego, there are a lot of hazards to deal with. If a ship is pressurised with an atmosphere, you can’t simply cut into it – or rather you can, but then you run the risk of explosive decompression. If you cut a fuel line, you also risk an explosion. Oh, and then there are the nuclear reactors that power each craft.

There are other exciting ways to die, from forgetting to top up your oxygen to crashing into a chunk of spacecraft and busting your helmet open, but as I grew more experienced I was dying less and less often. It actually feels like learning a craft because after some practice I found it easier to eye up the best – and safest – way into a ship to get the most valuable goodies. My next career awaits.

Jacob Aron is 91av’s news editor. Follow him on Twitter @jjaron

PC

Imagine fighting aliens on a space station. Now imagine being the person who has to clean up the mess. That is the idea behind this funny and slightly surreal game.

Futurlab

PC, Xbox One and Series S/X

For a more mundane job, pick up a power washer and blast away at grime on cars, gardens and more, ideally while neglecting to do any cleaning in the real world.