Back in 2016 I was on a huge kick of space games. I spent the first two weeks of my oldest son’s life playing Rebel Galaxy on the nights he needed to be held to get him to fall asleep. I played others as well and then the next year along came the original Everspace game. He still wasn’t sleeping through the night so I still had game sessions from 1-4 AM sometimes. It stood out to me with its procedurally generated maps, the idea of an army of clones just waiting there to be called in to replace the most recent to fall and pick up where they left off. Everspace 2 is the sequel what I consider one of the most fun space adventure/combat games I’ve played in the last few years. Developed and published by ROCKFISH Games
The previous Everspace game was a roguelike that centered around the basis of you being a clone who, no matter how many times you died, your ship and you would be respawned in the level to continue as if nothing had happened. It was a central part of the story, if you could call it that, which ultimately ended in you ending the cycle and being the final clone of our protagonist, Adam. Everspace 2 picks up sometime later where you start your journey as part of a security force helping a company find their cargo after it was attacked by space outlaws. Being a clone Adam has to keep a low profile as technically clones like him are illegal and he also did take out a major character in Everspace 1.
The story of Everspace 2 is revealed to us in the form of spoken dialogue during missions and further expanded on with “Comic Style Cutscenes” in that there is no motion in them just great art, music and dialogue to relay the important plot points. Personally, I think the environments, enemy types and ship designs more than make up for the lack of what most would consider “real” cutscenes.
Everspace 2 is a mixed bag of things to do. What I mean by that is that it’s nothing like No Mans Sky in that you can’t land on planets and create bases and so forth; it all takes place in your ship and in menus at shops and headquarters. All combat and exploration take place from the safety, or sometimes not so safe, cockpit of your fighter. Completing story quests rewards exp, side missions with credits, parts and further experience to level up Adam. This isn’t a negative thing because it does the parts that make the game fun very well. In today’s world if you find something your games are good at, keep at it and don’t try to do things you can’t.
As you level up you will gain points to put into different attributes of your ship so you can focus more on defensive stats if you want a real tank build versus a mobile glass cannon while pumping stats into offensive stats. You will also be able to buy a new ship under a Light, Medium or Heavy class which then have additional subclasses which are further specialized for armor, speed, weapons etc. Weapons and armor are all found either in shops or by completing puzzles in the open spaces you visit. You have a ton of options on how you want your ship to be equipped.
Aside from all the weapons, ships, armor and gadgets you can find and utilize in your space faring adventure Everspace 2 goes another level with every companion also having a set of perks that you can unlock and upgrade. The first companion you find will offer you a 30% discount on repairs, increased tractor beam range and so on. Further on you will even be able to send your excess cargo to your homebase without having to get rid of anything. Companions don’t give these out freely though as you have to pony up credits, the currency of Everspace 2, as well as materials that range in rarity depending on the perk and how advanced it is. Finding all these components and materials can be done by purchasing them at the shop or taking the time to mine asteroids for resources as well as breaking down old equipment for parts.
One part that I was disappointed to experience was that planets you visit are not open world and when you load into a planet you are put in a sandbox with perimeters you can’t cross. Story missions are pretty much the same repeat of “go there, kill these guys, find an item” so aside from the random quests that can pop up and the puzzles you won’t be doing too many different tasks. Everspace 2 shines in its ship customization and Combat.
Combat can be quite hectic, and with enemy ships flying past you at crazy speeds, control over your own momentum is going to be what keeps you on target. If you are like me and have issues with moving quick enough, then you’ll be glad to hear Everspace 2 does offer an auto-aim intensity slider, so your weapons have better targeting capabilities. Your combat effectiveness is all going to be dependent on your equipment. As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of different combinations of weapons to choose from, and it doesn’t always just come down to the level of the equipment you have and sometimes more about the type of damage you are doing. I prefer to have an energy weapon equipped at all times to take out shields and corrosive missiles to fire and forget after.
Initially released for PC in April 2023, Everspace 2 made its way to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and X on August 15, 2023. If you are a fan of space shooter looters and don’t mind a small bit of confusing storylines this is one title you don’t want to miss out on.
