#blackbird interactive

The story is really good. A story that really nicely shows the problems with capitalism without doing any of the glorification that games like Fallout or Cyberpunk tend to do. It shows really succinctly that large corps will always look for the profits and won't value employees unless the employees force it.

The game does a great job of showing how being an indenture slave works - the first thing the game does is award you with a new job that everyone is lining up for, then puts you in a trillion dollars of debt for the privilege. At the end of every shift, you have to pay rental on your tools, your hab (space house) and literally everything else, including the air you breathe. If you have a bad shift, it's possible to get into more debt.

The game play is great, like I said. As the game advances, there are more components and systems to worry about, each with their own rules and consequences (often explosions). You really have to come up with a plan on how you can cut up the ship to get the most material out of it. The mentor character Weaver teaches you the right, safe way to salvage the parts... But you don't HAVE to follow them. If you hate dealing with reactors, you could ignore them, or detonate them or whatever you want.

One of the characters is up on the concept of unions and is trying to get the crew you work in engaged. The dynamic between the unioniser (Kai), the foreman/mentor (Weaver), the other kinda uncaring workers and the blow-in executive are just spot on.

The foreman thinks everything is fine and toes the corporate line while promising everything will get better - he sees the problems and tries his best to deal with them, but corporate put him in that position because of who he is - affable but kinda ineffectual.

The unioniser cares so much about her colleagues, and she can't stand seeing them exploited.