EVERSPACE™ 2

It's an okay game that looks & sounds amazing, but is gameplay wise pretty shallow. The beginning feels great, the combat is punchy, you find lots of loot and the story is cool with the buddy character. I imagined I could play this forever.. Until I left the first star system and I realized I have already seen everything the game has to offer. The problem of Everspace 2 is A) the simplistic gameplay: every mission is either "kill this enemy", "go to point A and fetch x item" or an annoying puzzle like "find energy sphere and drop it into an empty socket". B) The combat is very repetitive, because the enemy AI is plain stupid and will always just try to swarm you, making them easy predictable targets. Raising the difficulty doesn't help either, as it will only make the enemies into bullet-sponges, but not make them smarter & more challenging - aka it only takes "longer" to kill them. And C) the lacking content: for a looter-shooter, there just isn't enough "loot". You get 9 spaceships, which don't substantially change the combat nor gameplay, a bunch of unlockable blueprints and colors, and 10 weapons (plus a bunch of missiles). All of this you will unlock in the first star system, after that it's just slight stat increases. Once you completed the first star system, you've pretty much seen everything the game has to offer - besides the different environments. Sadly even the environments don't really offer much variety besides different visuals. Yes they look absolutely great, but it's just a different paint of the same: in every location you will find some resources to farm, loot-boxes placed there for your convenience and the same copy-pasted puzzle. Maybe worse of all, the story takes an unexpected turn at the end of the first star system, which left me feel really disconnected to it and thus removed a main motivation to "keep going". So my suggestion is, wait for a sale. It's a well-polished, but sadly also very shallow game.

I've been playing space games since X Beyond The Frontier on Windows 95/98, and tried plenty more from the obscure Tachyon The Fringe, to the forgettable Darkstar One to the fun-enough Rebel Galaxy. I even played Everspace 1, which sucked. It was a tedious, grindy roguelike. But Everspace 2 is the first to bring me back to the awe of Freelancer and X. I don't want to oversell it - it's not humongous like X, and Freelancer is a classic. But this was fun, addictive and had great, pretty systems with effort made in the environments. Maybe it was because I'm playing in 4K these days, but no other game had me gazing at the horizon while inbetween the vast cloud shelves of a gas giant, or getting utterly blasted by a neutron star, since Freelancer or the old X series. I never was much for being a trader either, so basically swapping the Elite trading shtick most space games shoehorn in for the addictive Destiny loot shtick was perfect. There are tedious moments - some puzzles are lame. But it's optional, and you're doing it because you're addicted to that glorious loot. I just skipped the stuff I didn't enjoy, and I enjoyed nearly all of my 40-50 hours of this. Sometimes it pays to have faith in a develop getting it right with the sequel.

I've been looking for a space combat game for a while. Its more Arcade than Sim. Everspace 2 reminds me of Wing Commander, Descent, and Star Control wrapped up in to one game. My one biggest disapointment is no Co-Op play, but choices for co op space games with a campaign story line are limited.

I'm really enjoying this, it's compatible with my Logitech 3D Extreme joystick, and it works excellently albeit a couple of things. First, the buttons don't display properly in tutorials, only showing up as a line of text, and second, there seems to be a need for the ship to auto-centre. A useful feature that I'd like to be toggleable. Beyond that, it feels great to fly.

Honestly, I'd give this 4 stars, as there is definitely room for improvement, but with how much fun I'm having, I bumped it to 5. I'm a veteran of Everspace 1, Freespace 2, and Independence War 2. Also watched my roommate play a lot of Freelancer back in the day. So the genre I'm looking for is fun arcade shooter that also has an RPG element with living word to it. Not Elite level of realism, nor the huge expanse, but something that's bite sized fun. This game delivers. First, the overall feel of the game -- it's fast and fun. There are plenty of side distractions / random encounters, and the missions themselves are focused and fun. I liked the main character from the previous game, and his voice acting and light hearted style translates over here too. There are some dark elements in the game, but more of a backdrop than a depressing mood. The ship handling and combat mechanics are responsive and satisfying. You've got a variety of weapons, from the charging sniper laser, to the various energy and kinetic projectile weapons hammering away at the enemy. Seeing and hearing stream of explosive slugs plow into an enemy ship's hull is pretty satisfying. Moreover, I love what the game has in terms of scope. Areas are divided into orbits around celestial objects, with a super luminal engine carrying you in between them. While in transit between the zones, you encounter random signals and distress calls that are mostly optional for you to investigate and can yield fun rewards. I first saw a similar mechanic in Independence War 2, nearly 2 decades ago, and always wanted something that lets me travel between planets and also see them in their glory. Jumps between systems are done via jump gates. The first part of the story takes place mostly in the same system, and I have barely made to another one so far. I'm 15 hrs in, and more to see. Recommended.