Ship, Inc. Review
Ship, Inc. is a cozy Amazon warehouse simulator that misses too many opportunities to make things more interesting.
Ship, Inc. from Rogue Duck Interactive tasks you with working in a shipment company as a packager. Fit items in boxes based on orders, label them correctly, and then load them on the truck; clock out and do it again the next day. All you know about your character is that they’re trying to save $100,000 to buy their apartment, though the bills they have to pay daily drop tiny hints about their mundane life.
Most of the game takes place in the shop, on a screen with a top-down 2D view of your workstation. You print out an order, and the goods start to arrive in boxes on a conveyor belt. Unpack the items, then put packing peanuts in a box you think will be the right size. Fill it up with the items from the list, close the box, seal it up with tape, then put a sticker on it, where you fill in the address by tapping in the order number. Sometimes, you add a sticker for things that are fragile, heavy, etc. Put the box back on the conveyor belt and print your next order. Maybe the next one will be a rush order with bonuses for packing it within the time limit, or a gift order requiring a gift receipt. Rinse and repeat. At the end of the day, you load all the boxes you packed into a truck, arranging them so they all fit.
All the action is mouse-driven. It’s satisfying to slice open a box or tape one shut. It’s a problem for players that prefer controllers, but it’d require some design changes to add support. I played the game on Steam Deck with mouse and keyboard mode; it’s not the best experience.
I had frustrating issues with packing boxes, as fitting items in doesn’t always make sense. The game encourages you to use the smallest box possible, since larger boxes are more expensive. Sometimes you can stack items, sometimes you can’t; I spent a lot of time moving the mouse by tiny increments because sometimes the game would let me barely fit in an item. The game missed an opportunity to include more interesting mechanics here, such as *Resident Evil-*style inventory puzzles to pack the boxes. Still, at least the designers could have included some UI to more clearly define the limits of how items could fit.
After ending the day, you leave work and can visit several places. You need to spend your money buying supplies such as boxes, stickers, and tape at the two shops. You can deposit money in the bank to earn a small amount of interest, or go to the local law firm, where you can buy contracts that give you permanent bonuses. There’s a boba shop that gives you a random bonus for the next day, and a booth that lets you play a bubble wrap popping minigame to earn some free goodies. Otherwise, it’s time to go home, where you’ll see a list of your bills and can end your day.
The only pressure in the game is those bills. You get a new one daily, and if you let three stack up unpaid, it’s game over. Managing this, however, is trivial in the game’s normal mode. This is a low-pressure game.
Over the 30 days of game time I played, Ship, Inc. adds two minigames, which quickly become more irritating than fun. Some items arrive dirty and you have to swipe a sponge over them to clean them. Sometimes items are broken, and you must complete a minigame where you drag puzzle pieces together to fix them. This one in particular was annoying because the piece alignment was way too sensitive, refusing to snap parts together unless you line them up nearly perfectly.
Aside from the finicky packing system and minigames, my biggest problem with the game is its progression. Sure, you get to see new items appear in your orders, but the few upgrades you can get don’t enhance the experience in a significant way. The only one that significantly changes gameplay is a barcode scanner you can use to no longer have to input sticker codes, and other than that, there are no other changes, and what starts as a pleasing shipping experience quickly slips into tedium. One single day in my experience, I shipped what were obviously shady goods—uranium—but nothing like that happened again, and there were no consequences. There are way too many missed opportunities here.
I wasn’t motivated to stick around beyond 30 days of game time to see if more changes. If not more satisfying upgrades to game mechanics, a narrative would have gone a long way toward making this a compelling experience. Right now, the game feels bare, like an unfinished game in Early Access, where I might have seen what’s here as an aperitif for a better game that’s yet to come. I hope the developers have plans to add more.
Ship, Inc. is available now on Steam.
Overall Score: 5/10
Played on: Steam Deck
