Game Over: Ship, Inc.

Ah, it’s that time of year again: the Steam Summer Sale. It’s a wonderful two weeks of people impulsively buying games for a couple of bucks, only to never play them because they still have to play the games they bought in the last Summer Sale… and the Summer Sale before that… and the Winter Sale… and the Spring Sale.

Wow, no wonder Valve doesn’t need to make games.

Anyways, I have also fallen victim to Steam’s alluring prices, so I decided to pick upShip, Inc. after watching a streamer play it and decided it was right up my alley. Cut to two days later, and I am four achievements away from 100%. So, what is Ship, Inc.?

It’s a “cosy job simulator” where you play as a packaging employee in a parcel shipping company. Your job is to package up items, put on the right labels, and then ship them off to whoever is getting them, with the endgame being the hardest challenge of all: buying a house. What a novel yet completely unfeasible concept, especially since you can reach that goal in only an in-game month thanks to bank interest.

Your daily routine will consist of waking up, buying a drink from the vending machine for a buff, then heading to work at the titular company. From there, you’ll be receiving a number of orders to package up and send to the trucks. Some items need specific warning stickers to be placed on the box when getting it ready to deliver, or else you’ll get a pay cut. For example, you need red Fragile stickers for anything that might break (and include bubble wrap and packing peanuts), blue stickers for Keep Dry items, and… yellow stickers for Radioactive products. Sh-Should we be shipping Uranium? And why is the box so large for only two small items? Wow, just like Amazon!

There are various sizes of boxes to use, and I highly recommend choosing the smallest size possible, just so that I have a chance that I don’t need to call in a second truck to deliver the rest of the packages… Which sometimes meant glitching the game so that I could stuff more boxes into a truck than it should fit. Hey, as long as it doesn’t go flying out and something breaks, it’s good. 

After work, you’re free to do whatever you need to prepare for the next day. Try out the Bubble Wrap Lottery for a chance to get supplies and money, refill your stock of stickers, tape, peanuts, and bubble wrap (because apparently your company doesn’t provide that for free), buy upgrades to make your life easier (like getting divorce papers to lower your bills), and sell any leftover items you stole to the shady dealer. Once you feel like you’re ready, you can head home, pay your bills, and end the day to start the process all over again. If you don’t pay your bills for three days, it’s game over, but if you consistently pack your boxes well and keep some money in the bank, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

It’s a rather simple game with a gameplay loop that doesn’t really change even as you get more expensive items and start dealing with special orders, but I fell in love with it regardless. I found myself casually enjoying myself after a hard day of work. It’s not constantly testing you or making you think too hard, the hardest decision you’ll make will be “is a small box big enough for an end table”?

The answer is no, by the way. You need an Extra Large box.

As I said before, I only have four achievements left before I fully complete Ship, Inc.: Getting to Month 5, shipping 1000 orders correctly, maxing out all the company levels, then starting the game all over again and beating it on the hardest difficulty. I think this will be one of the few games I love enough to actually complete, among titles like Marvel's Spider-Man, Monster Hunter Wilds, and HELLDIVERS 2… which really puts into perspective my gaming tastes nowadays.