Explosive, colorful and hard-hitting, Everspace 2 blends the looter-and-shooter RPG grind with arcade space dogfighting to create an interesting combo that has surprising diversity in the way you can play it. While it looks like a space sim on the outside, and has nods to the things you do in that genre, like fighting pirates, mining asteroids, and building a reputation, Everspace 2 is not to be confused with one. To its benefit and detriment, this is a looter-shooting beast that’s much more interested in entertaining you with flashy fights and reshaping your fighter in a mind-boggling number of ways rather than simulating or stimming you. with – anything else.
That right there should probably tell you a lot if you want to play it. The other part is that this is technically a sequel, but… not really. The first Everspace is a roguelite where each mission is procedurally generated, whereas this is a more traditional action RPG that involves undertaking a main story quest and side missions, solving open-world puzzles, and overcoming contracts randomly generated by the 50 or more. hours it takes to finish the main story. Or 100 hours to play it all. Then a few dozen more by optimizing their builds to remove the trailing randomly generated bits, if you like them.
That’s all to say that Everspace 2 is quite different from the original, although it’s a direct sequel in terms of story: you’re one of those clone pilots who played in the roguelite framework of the first, but there’s no going back. dead. You might be happy about that if you loved the story in the first one, and you might feel a bit confused at times if you skip it, but there’s a really comprehensive, if largely forgettable, cache of log entries to get you up to speed. day. in the story and the world you are thrown into. The writing and characters are somewhere between stiff and disposable, though there are some winners and good jokes, my favorite being a broken garbage disposal robot.
It’s a bit embarrassing, really, because you spend a lot of time in this world. Characters have conversations as you jump at high speed from one encounter to another within the systems, choosing missions from the same people over and over again. There’s even a huge “story so far” log for those who take long breaks between play sessions, so it feels like a waste for characters to spend so much time on empty dialogue or redundant explanations. But honestly, you’re not playing Everspace 2 for the dialogue, you’re playing it for the exploding spaceships, which it does pretty well.
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Flying is smooth, with not a glitch or slowdown in sight, offering a classic adaptation of the usually short-range aerial fights where you use rock-paper-scissors to optimize damage types against enemy shields and armor. Enemies are numerous and on most difficulties can overwhelm you if you’re not careful – it all depends on positioning and approach. It’s important to pick priority targets early, take down enemies like snipers or catch web drones before they can strike and leave you vulnerable, all while choosing to fight somewhere you can dodge asteroids to protect yourself between your lone fighter and heavier enemy ships. . It’s combat that didn’t get old for me, and even when I’d leveled out a mission, I found it quite relaxing to jump in and take down squads of bad guys.
It’s a good thing that it hasn’t aged, because the combat – and preparing for more combat – is really all Everspace 2 has going for it. The vast majority of missions are “go somewhere and fight” or “get something back from people after fighting them.” The rest of the time is spent hopping between ports, docking, searching, and listening to all that gibberish dialog. The other thing to do is solve environmental puzzles. Most locations have a few hidden hatches to discover and open, a timed challenge to get something from one location to another, or one of many, many searches through random debris to find the generator core or battery you need to power up. open a door to some loot. Those are nice in the early hours when you’re still finding debris you haven’t seen before, but by the end it’s just repetitive hunts among familiar bits and pieces of broken space stations and asteroids.
Those maneuvering challenges might have been more interesting if Everspace 2 had more simulation chops than it does, where piloting your ship is challenging and the first-person perspective is encouraged. As it is, the controls are good for arcade spaceflight, feeling reactive and crisp on both mouse and keyboard and controller, and just fine for a flightstick. However, those who prefer a more “traditional” Newtonian spaceflight experience will be disappointed with Everspace 2’s version: the ship’s controls just aren’t good enough to let you execute precise maneuvers without frustration when the ship doesn’t correct. automatically its move for you. .
Which is a missed opportunity, because experiencing the different ships and how they fly is one of Everspace 2’s strengths. Sure, the 30-odd enemy types can get stale eventually, but that’s where the looting part of this game comes in. this looter and shooter. There are three classes of ships: Light, Medium and Heavy, all fighters. They each have three more classes, all of which play quite differently. Ships can equip any of a variety of modules such as boosters, armor, and shields, of which there are variants that significantly change your combat style. Do you want a shield that’s tougher or one that recharges faster after it’s broken? Do you want a big speed boost for a short time, or a small boost that can be sustained for longer than you’ll ever use? Then there are 10 primary weapons, from lasers to autocannons, and a bevy of missiles, mines, and rockets to use as secondary weaponry.
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And did I mention devices? It’s things like a localized EMP generator, viral attack programs, an invincible front shield, a teleporter, and more, all of which you can level up.
And you change all that stuff with range or damage boosts or energy or speed capacitors, and you can put it on each of those nine types of ships. There are more ways to build a cool space fighter in this game than I could begin to test in a 50 hour game. It’s exactly the kind of customization I want from a loot-based, class-based game like this.
Take the Interceptor, for example: it’s a mid-fighter class that focuses on never having to stop shooting. It makes fun of fully automatic power-hungry weapons that other fighters can only fire in bursts, and once equipped with a fast-charging capacitor, it will never disappoint. Alternatively, you can try light ships, like the Vanguard, which boosts your shields when the afterburner is on and deals extra damage when hitting enemies from behind. Equipped with low-range, high-damage weapons, he’s a nightmare for enemies who can’t keep you away.
That’s not all: one of the Heavy-class ships is basically a necromancer that makes drones out of the enemy’s remains, and another is a bomber that has unlimited missile ammo. However, my favorite Heavy is the Gunship. True to her name, she literally has twice as many weapons as any other ship available. Does that mean it drains her batteries twice as fast? Yes. Did I care? Not one iota.
That variety of options comes at a cost, of course: you’re constantly shuffling new loot and consumables through your inventory. It’s a lot of work that comes with the genre, but the barrage of new gear in Everspace 2 is constant because you level up so much, which means gear quickly becomes outdated. That’s especially true if you’re diving into new stories rather than taking your time on random jobs or side quests. You need to break down loot to craft materials, which you use to upgrade loot you really want to keep or create new loot, but you also set aside some materials to pay for perks from people you know. You need a high tolerance for picking new numbers or you’ll go cross-eyed quickly.
The result, however, is that I always felt like I could try new things. That was a blessing when there were so many new cannons and ships to play with. I didn’t feel penalized for never choosing a “main” ship and sticking with it, or for repeatedly changing the selection of weapons and gadgets to experiment with.
