Hardspace: Shipbreaker's Act 2 update finally gives you a home in the stars

A cluttered kitchen counter on a space station — (Image credit: Blackbird Interactive)

Act 2 of Hardspace: Shipbreaker's campaign arrived this week, and finally gives your space salvagers a place to put their feet up after a long shift at the orbital junkyard.

The Admin Oversight update heralds the next arc of the game's surprisingly heartfelt campaign added back in May. Running through ranks 8 to 18, the arc introduces the Administrator, who's come to investigate all this chatter about unionisation among the workers. You've also picked up a side project repairing an unsanctioned old ship (an Armadillo Utility Rig) to escape your dead-end job, and it'd be a shame if any management types caught wind of it.

To counter the stress of having the boss root around your business, Act 2 introduces a fully 3D HAB to unwind in between jobs. Previously a basic list of upgrade trees, the HAB is now a personable little home in high orbit—a grubby sci-fi studio apartment that wouldn't look out of place in Ridley Scott's Alien. There's even a little bit of basic customisation, letting you hang up posters unlocked through jobs.

Act 2 also overhauls the game's scanner visuals for "clarity and readability", making it easier to read ships in the pseudo-wireframe mode. The update also comes with a list of balance tweaks and bug fixes compiled over on the official patch notes. Sadly, your progression will also be reset with this update, though Blackbird notes its tuned the XP rates to make ranking back up a little quicker.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.