This is very much a game for a mood where you just want to zone out and perform similar tasks over and over. It is a game of chores. The very premise is that you're stuck in debt slavery doing dangerous labor under awful conditions, and the labor you're doing is the heart of what it is to actually play the game.

There's writing too, and the writing is good—a classic spacepunk satire of capitalism and the bonds it forces us into as it tries to sap everything human from our lives. But it also places the game in an odd position: the steady repetition invites the player to put on an audio book and vibe, but the infrequent moments of dialog and text push in the opposite direction. It asks for a lot of patience, either with not much happening or with abrupt context switches.

After interrupting my playthrough for Armored Core VI, I found myself reluctant to pick this up again. I'm happy to assume that as the levels progress the player gets more and more interesting abilities and complex ships to disassemble, but the repetition of the basic actions of crawling through the ship looking for cut points and popping back for oxygen was just exhausting to think about. Maybe another time, when I need exactly this level of semi-engagement.