Ship Graveyard Simulator Review (PC): Time To Salvage This Ship

After doing the equivalent of a Netflix binge, I’ve milked as much content out of Games Incubator’s Ship Graveyard Simulator as feasibly possible in a few sittings. Yet another one of ‘those’ type of games, you’ll be letting off some steam smashing the ship out of some vessels, then selling what you’ve scavenged for some dosh.

This was probably the only simulator I’ve played where my grandfather hasn’t left me something after kicking the bucket. Said bucket would likely be stripped and sold for parts here anyway. Whether that’s Gramps’ boat, ranch or circus, it was a breath of fresh air being left to fend for myself on this ship wasteland, frothing with potential.

It’s your job to strip down retired vessels and sell them on the market for a profit. Sell ‘as is’, or smelt materials to form sought after goods for more money. Additionally, the smelting element upgrades your empire as you can improve the shop, work area and ‘barracks’ for employees.

You’ll find potential workers around the island wearing a hard hat. There aren’t any maps or radars, so you manually look for a yellow hat, approach them, then hire if you can afford them and have the capacity. There are three tiers to an employee, which you unlock in the skill tree. The higher they are, the more they’ll cost, but they will hunt down better quality materials and stash them away for you. 

A few materials are scattered on the island, but you’ll need to order a ship from your shack where you have to pay a fee every 24 hours you have access to it. There is a day cycle, but the only purpose it serves is visibility and waiting for the next ship to come in. You can always sleep until the delivery arrives.

When the ship arrives, you’ll mount the ladder and go ape shit on everything. Tools are purchased through a shop on the island, and they can be upgraded through levelling up. Higher tier tools such as explosives(!) can only be awarded once you upgrade the shop (and have enough money to purchase them). Predominantly though, the hammer is your friend, and depending on the material you’re hunting down, you should be able to smash through a lot.

Material is colour-coded based on quality, so as mentioned, you’ll need the appropriate tiered tool. The hammer can’t do everything, so you’ll need a blowtorch to rip off shelving or a saw to cut through pipes. As with a lot of simulators, Ship Graveyard Simulator isn’t a challenging game in the slightest, but it is addictive and relaxing. There are no game overs, but you can go unconscious if you cut through explosive materials. Admittedly, it was fun to do.

There’s the conventional mop to clean, but the cleaning here is to salvage oil that can be sold or smelted into kerosene for an upgrade. Engaging with everything will level you up quickly, so keep swinging and cutting to level up even when your pockets are full. The skill tree will improve tools, increase your capacity (and your car, which is a little pointless in terms of distance), plus specials and skills to increase profits on the market.

The later ships in Ship Graveyard Simulator (level 40+) are a little overwhelming, and it can take plenty of game days to rinse all its material. In short, that’s what you’ll be doing throughout – scrapping, selling, upgrading a couple of times, and that’s it. There are bonus objectives of hunting down materials for NPCs that award money and a guaranteed level up, but that’s about it. 

It’s an enjoyable, relaxing game, but it can be pretty monotonous – which can work if you enjoy the repetition as I did, but you will essentially see all the game has to offer in a few hours. It depends whether you’re seeking out all the achievements like completing gutting a ship, as well as scrapping every vessel in the game. That’s a pretty massive task in itself.